Belgrade, Sept 1 (CTK) – Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec expects the culmination of the migration wave yet to come, he said yesterday during an official visit to Serbia, where he accompanies Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.
“We want to help, solidarity is needed, but responsibility as well. We want measures that will lead to the stopping of the migration waves. We are currently at the beginning of a migration wave that is yet to culminate. We will see when and how,” Chovanec said.
The Czech police detained over 200 refugees on trains from Vienna and Hungary in Breclav, south Moravia, last night.
If the numbers of the coming refugees reached thousands, Chovanec said the police would ask the military and prison service for help.
He said now it is primarily Hungary, Slovakia and Austria that must deal with the refugee crisis.
Chovanec said the Czechs were ready to help in dealing with the refugees heading to Central and Western Europe via the Balkans.
Chovanec said his Slovak counterpart Robert Kalinak told him that the Slovak police detained several hundred of migrants who travelled by trains heading to the Czech Republic this morning.
“The wave has stopped in Slovakia, but Slovakia cannot keep it stopped for a long time,” Chovanec said.
He said the refugees violated law and must be interned on Czech territory now.
Chovanec said the statements by German politicians that they would not return Syrians look like an invitation.
No agreement on direct trains heading to Germany has been made, he said, referring to the German ambassador in Prague.
Chovanec said the situation around the train station in Budapest is becoming untenable. Hungary will have to either adopt stronger repressive measures against the migrants and try to return them to refugee centres, or let the migrants freely leave the country, he added.
If the latter occurs, it may mean a tremendous increase in migrants going mostly to Austria and then to Germany, but partly also to the Czech Republic, Chovanec said.
He said he will ask Serbian representatives if the Czech Republic can help Serbia with refugees in any way.
The Czech Republic is prepared to provide financial, technological, human or material aid, Chovanec said.
He said the police wants to first of all fight criminals who profit from human tragedies and not with the unfortunate migrants.
Chovanec said European interior ministers are likely to discuss the migration crisis in mid-September.
