The European Union “must protect its borders at sea and on land as expected by its voters,” Kinga Gal, MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, said on Tuesday.

The EU should “prevent thousands of migrants from risking their lives at the Mediterranean Sea; it should make it clear that they cannot enter the continent illegally and it must eliminate the human smuggling rings,” Gal insisted.

Gal responded to remarks by EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who said that the number of illegal immigrants had plummeted in Europe and there was no migration crisis on the continent. He insisted that the EU was a community based on solidarity and humanitarian values, and called for sustainable and predictable mechanisms towards refugees so that those values are preserved.

Peter Niedermuller, an MEP of the leftist Democratic Coalition, called for temporary measures to distribute migrants rescued at sea among volunteering member states, before the new European Parliament is formed in July. He said that “there is no chance to change the Dublin Regulation because some EU members would not consent out of political selfishness, fear or hate mongering.”

Meanwhile, Lorinc Nacsa, the parliamentary spokesman of Hungary’s junior governing Christian Democrats (KDNP) accused George Soros and leading EU politicians “paid” by the US billionaire of being behind Brussels’ migration policy and related proposals.

In a statement on Tuesday, Christian democrat MEP Gyorgy Holvenyi stressed that religious persecution is one of the main reasons of migration, and the European Union should take responsibility for the persecuted Christians.

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