EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CZECH Czech, Slovaks hold firm against refugee quotas after EU proposal

Record ID: 141707

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CZECH Czech, Slovaks hold firm against refugee quotas after EU proposal
  • Date: 7th September 2015
  • Summary: BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA (SEPTEMBER 7, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** SLOVAK GOVERNMENT BUILDING JOURNALISTS SLOVAK PRIME MINISTER ROBERT FICO WELCOMING CZECH PRIME MINISTER BOHUSLAV SOBOTKA PHOTOGRAPHER FICO WELCOMING AUSTRIAN CHANCELLOR WERNER FAYMANN VARIOUS OF LEADERS TALKING AROUND TABLE JOURNALISTS FICO AND FAYMANN WALKING TOWARDS REPORTERS AND SHAKING HANDS JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (German) AUSTRIAN CHANCELLOR, WERNER FAYMANN, SAYING: "I am firmly convinced that you can secure outer borders only when you know what to do with the refugees from war. There is a difference between economic refugees and refugees from war. People fleeing war, who have the right to asylum, must be able to rely on the fact that they will be defended, and that they have a chance. We cannot shut them out." SOBOTKA TALKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) CZECH PRIME MINISTER, BOHUSLAV SOBOTKA, SAYING: "We didn't agree on quotas. I refused the quotas because I don't consider quotas to be the real solution to the migration crisis. Here we had different opinions and the stance we agreed on during the V4 session is valid." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Czech) CZECH PRIME MINISTER, BOHUSLAV SOBOTKA, SAYING: "We agreed that it is necessary to strengthen the protection of outer Schengen borders and that receiving centers for refugees, so-called hotspots, must be set up." FICO ARRIVING FOR STATEMENT JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Slovak) SLOVAK PRIME MINISTER, ROBERT FICO, SAYING: "What migrants crisis are we talking about when some countries and some of the the EU member parties are supporting the war in Syria? What are we talking about when the French people and also French President Hollande says that terrorists are grouping in Syria? When terrorists are grouping in Syria, how can we distinguish these people from the other migrants who are crossing the borders of the European Union without any controls? Let's differentiate things - when it is voluntary and natural, than the government can support it, but I refuse it when someone tells us to receive a number of people we don't know anything about." JOURNALISTS
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Slovakia
  • Country: Slovakia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACNTX564ORE876HF1UTY24E8EZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Czech Republic and Slovakia stuck to their rejection of quotas for redistributing asylum-seekers flooding Europe on Monday (September 7) after the EU executive proposed moving thousands of migrants to the central European countries.
    Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said after meeting their Austrian counterpart that any help and cooperation must be on a voluntary basis.
    The issue of quotas has overshadowed other planned actions to deal with the immigration wave and put central Europeans on a collision course with richer west European countries bearing the brunt of the migration crisis that has brought hundreds of thousands running away from wars or poverty to the EU this year.
    The EU executive has drawn up a new set of national quotas under which 160,000 asylum-seekers should be relocated from Italy, Greece and Hungary, an EU source said earlier on Monday.
    The plan would send 4,306 migrants from Italy, Greece and Hungary to the Czech Republic and 2,287 to Slovakia.
    That is far more than the 1,500 offered previously by the Czechs and 200, preferably Christians, by Slovaks. Those offers referred to asylum-seekers from other EU states as well as refugee camps in Turkey.
    "We didn't agree on quotas. I refused the quotas because I don't consider quotas to be the real solution to the migration crisis. Here we had different opinions and the stance we agreed on during the V4 session is valid," Sobotka said.
    Fico refused to comment on the EU plan but said quotas were not acceptable.
    "Let's differentiate things - when it is voluntary and natural, than the government can support it, but I refuse it when someone tells us to receive a number of people we don't know anything about," he said.
    The Czechs and Slovaks said the EU must agree on other actions to stem the flow of migrants, such as beefing up external border protection, creating "hotspot" reception centres, and releasing a list of safe countries whose nationals would be turned away.
    "We agreed that it is necessary to strengthen the protection of outer Schengen borders and that receiving centers for refugees, so-called hotspots, must be set up," Sobotka said.
    Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said the quota system was needed to have a formula for letting genuine refugees, rather than economic migrants in.
    "I am firmly convinced that you can secure the outer border only when you know what to do with the refugees from war," he said.
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