Although the resettlement quota has no legal basis, this has never prevented its advocates from exerting serious political pressure on countries that refuse the mandatory resettlement scheme, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said, V4 news agency reports.

Europe will witness yet another period when they want to increase pressure on anti-migration governments in an effort to force European countries into accepting the mandatory quota scheme, Peter Szijjarto told Hungary’s public radio on Sunday.

The foreign minister described it as alarming that the new Italian government has opened its ports to ships with illegal immigrants on board, a move that can be seen as an invitation to those who plan to go to Europe. “There are already enough illegal migrants in Europe, we should not allow more to enter,” he said.

The minister underlined that Greece was re-experiencing the conditions of  2015. During the past two months, the country witnessed the arrival of around seven thousand illegal immigrants and the Greek islands are already “astoundingly overcrowded.” Turkey has stopped more than 270 thousand illegal immigrants so far this year, while several thousand illegal immigrants have been blocked access in the Western Balkans, he added.

On the subject of immigration, Hungary’s foreign minister reiterated that the Hungarian government would continue to resist any outside pressure and do everything to protect Hungary from illegal migration. On this issue, the Visegrad countries support each other unanimously, he added.