Prague, Oct 10 (CTK) – The Czech Senate should again reject EU mandatory refugee redistribution quotas, its European committee has said, adding that the upper house of parliament should also ask the government to maximally influence the selection of asylum applicants to be placed in the Czech Republic.
The Senate should make a decision on the proposal within two weeks.
According to the committee, the government should also thoroughly check whether the migrants to be selected in Italy and Greece for relocation to the Czech Republic may pose a threat to national security and the public peace.
It should also check whether these persons are entitled to international protection and whether they may have emigrated to escape punishment for possible participation in serious crimes.
The senators said the government should verify the identity of the asylum applicants in view of the growing numbers of forged documents proving Syrian citizenship and prefer vulnerable persons who require health care.
The Senate has dealt with the refugee quotas twice already and it always said it would reject them if they were mandatory.
The Czech Republic agreed with the voluntary accepting of a part of refugees, but it was opposed to temporary mandatory quotas. Together with Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, it was however outvoted. Now, the EU wants to introduce an obligatory relocation mechanism.
The lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, also rejected the introduction of a permanent mechanism of refugees redistribution across the EU. The resolution was drafted by the government coalition in cooperation with the opposition TOP 09.
On the contrary, the Chamber of Deputies supported measures that will lead to a better protection of the EU’s outer border, readmission of people with title to asylum and interventions against people smugglers.
The other opposition parties objected to the government refusing to join the Slovak complaint about the quotas with the European Court of Justice.
