Berlin, April 3 (CTK correspondent) – The EU nations must have more opportunities in dealing with the migrant crisis, not only the reception of migrants, but also providing aid in the countries of their origin or protection of the Union’s border, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said yesterday.
He was speaking after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.
“There is a number of ways of expressing solidarity. One of them is that we will cooperate in the countries of (migrants’) origin,” Sobotka said.
He mentioned the Czech-German project in aid of refugees from Syria in camps in Jordan.
Another possibility is greater cooperation in the protection of the outer European border, Sobotka said.
“I believe that we should be looking for opportunities to express solidarity within the EU according to the possibilities, capabilities of individual member countries,” Sobotka said.
Merkel said the migrant issue is delicate in the EU and that it is necessary to speak about how countries can express their solidarity.
The emigrant crisis has a number of aspects. Besides the reception of migrants, these are the protection of the outer EU border and fighting the causes of migration right in the countries of the people’s origin.
“We all have one joint goal: not to have illegal migration and to fight against people smugglers. This is also in the interest of the refugees because many of them lose their lives [on their way to Europe],” Merkel said.
Fico said the migrant issue has deeply split the EU and that it is necessary to prevent the differences from further growing.
He said resolving the problem of migrants moving across the European Union is a priority task.
