Prague, Nov 10 (CTK) – An information campaign on the real situation in Europe needs to be organised in the countries from which most refugees are coming to reduce their influx, Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said yesterday after meeting 22 Czech ambassadors from countries hit by the current migrant wave.
The rumour that Europe is capable and ready to accept three million migrants is spreading in the countries of origin, Zaoralek said.
This only encourages the refugee wave, he added.
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said people who traded in migration “provided distorted information about the situation in Europe to the people in refugee camps” and promised the refugees a generous welfare system, good accommodation and jobs.
“Illusions are created and then replaced by disillusions,” Sobotka said.
The campaign should be all-European, he said.
Sobotka said these people also need to be provided with prospects in their home countries so that they do not seek their future elsewhere.
He said the meeting with the ambassadors from the countries that the refugees leave, move through or wish to live was unique.
On November 11-12, Sobotka will take part in the EU-Africa summit meeting on migration that will take place in Malta.
Zaoralek said the meeting with the ambassadors showed the importance of talks with the neighbours and partners from the Western Balkans.
On November 13, foreign ministers from the Visegrad Group countries and the Balkans will meet in Prague.
On November 16, Zaoralek will participate in a meeting of European foreign ministers. He said he would try to attract attention to the protection of the EU external borders and to the political solution to the situation in Syria.
