Prague, Sept 15 (CTK) – The Czech government is ready to send the military to guard the border with Austria due to the migration wave if the police officers patrolling the border need reinforcements, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) told the Chamber of Deputies yesterday.
The National Security Council will deal with the situation, including reports from the secret services, on September 30.
The Chamber ended its discussion on migration after two hours and it decided to continue with it only after the next meeting of European prime ministers and presidents or the next meeting of the interior ministers.
Sobotka repeatedly rejected the idea of mandatory quotas for the redistribution of refugees in individual countries of the European Union. Europe must deal with the causes of the refugee influx, he said.
The right-wing opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) and TOP 09 supported the position of the government, although they had some reservations.
Sobotka dismissed the view that the Visegrad Group (V4) countries do not show solidarity when they are against the refugee quotas.
He said Europe must focus on the protection of the outer Schengen border and the building of hotspots for refugees that would differentiate between political and economic migrants. Apart from this, Europe must increase the developmental aid, sign readmission agreements, stop the war in Syria, stabilise the situation in Libya and fight the Islamic State (IS) organisation, he added.
The redistribution of political immigrants can make sense only if other measures are adopted, otherwise it will only attract further economic immigrants to Europe, Sobotka said.
ODS leader Petr Fiala criticised the actions of Germany and called for a heavy protection of the southern border.
TOP 09 deputy chairwoman Helena Langsadlova said the Czech Republic must not repeat the mistakes made by the Western countries that underestimated the migration and the integration of the immigrants.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (CSSD) said the detained immigrants do not want to stay in the Czech Republic. When they are released from a Czech detention centre, they go and board a train to Munich, Chovanec said.
Nearly 1000 asylum applicants were registered from January 1 to August 31 in the Czech Republic, which is only a moderate increase compared with the same period last year, Sobotka said. Moreover, nearly half of the asylum seekers are from Ukraine, he said.
The full capacities of the centres for immigrants are not being used, Sobotka said.
Chovanec said the developments in Ukraine have been sidelined due to the migration wave from North Africa and the Middle East.
Chovanec said if Ukrainians start leaving the country, up to 50,000 of them may be moving to the Czech Republic.
Senate chairman Milan Stech (CSSD) said in a statement yesterday that the pressure for the introduction of refugee quotas deals with the consequences rather than the causes of the problem and that the quotas would postpone a real solution, namely the struggle against IS, which has been causing the refugee influx.
“Islamic State is principally threatening the economic interests of the European Union, but also those of China, Russia and others,” Stech said.
