Budapest, Feb 22 (CTK correspondent) – The Australian migration policy model may serve as an inspiration for Europe, Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) said after a joint meeting of the Visegrad Four (V4) countries’ and Australia’s diplomacy heads on Thursday.
The V4 is comprised of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Migration was one of the issues of the meeting hosted by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. Poland and Slovakia were represented by deputy foreign ministers.
Migration must have clear conditions, Stropnicky said.
This is an issue for the V4 countries in view of the EU effort to regulate the rules of the common migration and asylum policy.
Stropnicky said he can see an advantage in the Australian model as it enabled the country to keep its own territory under control.
“This can definitely be inspiring… They are deciding on this (immigration) on their own, doing it in a fair and serious manner,” Stropnicky said.
The migration system enables Australia to detect a vessel with migrants and send it back or transport the migrants to a third country and place them in local detention facilities. People who attempted to enter Australia illegally are not allowed to settle there.
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop told her counterparts that any loosening of the immigration rules would open space to the business of people smugglers, Stropnicky said.
To halt the smugglers’ gangs profiting from illegal transport of migrants should be the EU’s goal as well, he added.
“This enormous business that allegedly exceeds drug trafficking remains out of focus a bit. It should not be so,” he said.
The V4 and Australian representatives also dealt with relations between Australia and the EU during an informal lunch on Thursday.
From the economic viewpoint, primarily Brexit is an interesting issue for Australia as it has joint history with Britain.
Since the talks on business relations between London and Brussels are still underway, Australia has an opportunity to interconnect its market with the British one more firmly.
Moreover, the EU and Australia are also negotiating on signing a free trade agreement.
After the joint meeting of all foreign ministers, Stropnicky talked to Bishop bilaterally.
They touched upon a pilot project of working holiday to be launched in early March. The programme enables young people from both countries to travel and at the same time work in the other country, but maximally for a year.
