Italy, Hungary agree to work together on hardline approach to migrants

MILAN — Italy and Hungary, two fierce critics of European immigration policy, vowed on Tuesday to work together to pursue a new hardline approach to migrants searching for a new life inside the European Union.

Italian Deputy Prime Matteo Salvini, who has ordered ports closed to most migrant arrivals by sea, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose government built a border wall, cemented their political ties in talks in Milan.

“We agreed that the most important issue is migration,” Mr. Orban said, adding that they had agreed to jointly pursue their anti-immigration agenda as the European Union (EU) enters campaign mode for EU parliamentary elections in May 2019.

He said Hungary had shown immigration could be halted across land borders and that Mr. Salvini’s new Italian government had shown that it could also be stopped in the Mediterranean Sea.

“Europe’s security hinges on his success,” Mr. Orban said.

Italy and Hungary are members of the EU which has drawn asylum seekers and poor migrants since 2015, most fleeing the Middle East and Africa.

Hungary was in the path of those fleeing the Syrian war, while those leaving Africa continue to head for Italy. Rome says it will not reopen its ports until its big EU neighbors agree to share the burden of taking in migrants rescued at sea.

Messrs. Salvini and Orban said they agreed to work together ahead of European elections, though they belong to different factions. Mr. Salvini’s right-wing League is allied to France’s National Front while Mr. Orban is part of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP).

Mr. Salvini accused French President Emmanuel Macron of not doing enough to help Italy on migration while Mr. Orban said the Mr. Macron wanted to “blow up” the EPP. —