Bratislava, Sept 7 (CTK) – The Czech Republic and Slovakia insist on the need to strengthen the protection of the outer border of the Schengen area, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said after their meeting with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann Monday.
Sobotka and Fico also said they insisted on the creation of zones for refugees.
On the other hand, Austria insists on the redistribution of refugees by virtue of quotas, Faymann said.
Sobotka said the Czech Republic rejected this.
“I have rejected the quotas as I do not consider them any real solution to the migration crisis,” Sobotka said.
“We have agreed on the need to reinforce the protection of the outer Schengen border,” he added.
“In addition, detention centres for the refugees on the outer Schengen border must be established as soon as possible. The United Nations should contribute to their operation,” Sobotka said.
Slovakia shares the Czech Republic’s views of the compulsory quotas.
“Help should be provided for all who really need it,” Fico said.
“From these people, we must distinguish those coming to Europe for purely economic reasons,” he added.
Fico said the mandatory quotas for the redistribution of refugees in EU countries were irrational.
He said Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary were the countries in which refugees did not want to stay stay.
Sobotka said a solution to the migration crisis required a joint EU strategy.
“An emphasis on the protection of the outer Schengen border and on the regulation of the migration flows heading for Europe, this may be a basis of a future consensus on the EU level,” Sobotka said.
“We in the Czech Republic believe that the quotas are no good idea. They need not be a part of the European solution so that it worked,” he added.
“In the discussion we will try to convince our EU partners that compulsory, permanent mechanisms of the relocation of refugees should not be introduced. We want to help on the voluntary basis,” Sobotka said.
“There is a difference between an economic refugee and a war refugee,” Feymann said.
“The people who are fleeing the war must rely on the chance of being protected,” Faymann said.
“The acceptance of war refugees demands a compulsory and binding system that I call compulsory quotas,” Faymann said.
Without the setting of clear rules with which to handle the refugees fleeing a war, the protection of the outer border of the Schengen area will not work either, he added.
