The leaders of Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia proposed setting up hotspots outside the European Union to host asylum seekers, with an initiative to curb illegal migration.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić met on Tuesday, October 22nd in the Slovakian town of Komárno, on the Slovakian-Hungarian border.
The three countries are part of the Western Balkans migration route, which has seen a steep drop in the number of illegal crossings: according to EU border agency Frontex, the recorded total fell by 79% to just under 17,000 in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period in 2023.
This has significantly contributed to the overall decline of illegal border crossings into the EU: the number fell by 42% to 166,000 in the first nine months of this year.
The three leaders said that protecting the EU’s external borders was the best defence against illegal migration. According to Robert Fico,
We were right when we said that the EU’s external borders must be protected, and that migrants who have entered the EU should not be distributed.
He added that they discussed how a substantial part of the EU budget after 2027 should be devoted to fighting illegal migration, as it was a serious threat.
Both Fico and Orbán have been harsh critics of the EU’s pro-migration policies, as well as the Migration and Asylum Pact which—when it comes to force in 2026—will force EU member states to accept migrants or pay €20,000 per migrant if they refuse.
They believe the pact only serves as yet another pull-factor for migrants, when in fact the EU should be focusing on protecting its external borders. This could involve establishing ‘hotspots’ in Northern African countries, where asylum seekers would have their claims assessed before being allowed to enter Europe. As the Hungarian PM said:
Those who want to come to Europe can gather there and submit their applications from there, which we will evaluate. Whoever we allow may come, and those who we do not will remain. You have to wait outside. All other solutions are ineffective.
Viktor Orbán, whose country was punished by the EU for protecting its own borders and for outsourcing asylum claims, warned that the lack of external border protection will result in the collapse of the border-free Schengen Area.
EU member states are now panicking and reintroducing checks at their own internal borders, Orbán said, citing Germany as an example. He also pointed to Poland, where PM Donald Tusk, a Brussels favorite, decided that the country would suspend the acceptance of asylum claims if “immigrants threaten to destabilise the state.”
Orbán also pointed to the EU’s failure to deport illegal migrants explaining that, while 430,000 deportation decisions were made last year, only 84,000 such were implemented.
The meeting of the three leaders comes only a few days after an EU summit in Brussels where the heads of member states agreed to several measures against illegal migration that had been taboo to even talk about just a few months ago—such as the introduction of deportation centres outside of EU borders.
