BUDAPEST, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Hungarian government rejected the UN's recent critical comments on Hungary's describing migrant situation as a "crisis", arguing that Hungary was just calling by name what the reality was, an official said Thursday.
"Migration is a security risk. The border fence stays right where it is. It ensures the security of Hungarian people," State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Tamas Menczer said, quoted by the Hungarian government's website.
"The special rapporteur of the UN also criticizes us for not letting the migrants come and go freely in the country, for having the fence and for the transit zones," Menczer said.
"The UN special rapporteur at migration criticizes Hungary for calling this a migration crisis -- calling it by name, saying what it really is," Menczer said.
"There are 30 to 35 million people on Europe's southern and eastern borders who could embark on a journey to Europe at anytime. Hungary says illegal migration must be stopped," Menczer added.
On Wednesday, Felipe Gonzalez Morales, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants of the UN said in a statement that the Hungarian government's declared migrant "crisis" did not correspond to reality.
"Politicization of the issue of migration in Hungary has scapegoated migrants," Gonzales Morales said, calling on the government to re-evaluate its stance and immediately stop proclaiming it was confronting a "crisis situation".
Morales urged the government to "reassess its security-oriented narrative in migration governance and move towards a human rights based approach".
At the end his official visit to Hungary, Gonzalez Morales thanked the Hungarian authorities for the invitation and acknowledged he had been allowed access to all immigration facilities he had asked to visit.
The independent expert said that following the mass arrival of migrants in Hungary in 2015, an anti-migration discourse has become pervasive in both official and public spheres.
Hungary, along with Italy and Austria, and other central European countries, are representing a strict anti-immigration policy. That often puts them in conflict with other European Union countries, such as Germany and France.
