Prague, Sept 3 (CTK) – The Czech Republic should introduce stricter punishment for refugee smugglers and provide more developmental aid to the countries, from which the refugees have been coming to Europe, right-wing opposition Civic Democratic Party (ODS) leader Petr Fiala said yesterday.
According to Czech law, people smugglers face up to five to years in prison or up to eight years in prison if they were part of a people-smuggling gang, he said.
Fiala called for an increase in the Czech developmental aid to the countries, from which refugees are streaming to the European Union.
He said the Czech Republic pledged to give 0.33 percent of its GDP to the developmental aid in 2015, which means 13 billion crowns, but it is giving only about four billion crowns.
Each EU member country must help deal with the migration crisis, otherwise the problems cannot be avoided, Fiala said.
Politicians should propose particular steps for coping with the refugee influx rather than make populist statements and resort to threats, he said.
Fiala said information campaigns against illegal migration should be launched in the home countries of the refugees as well as the local diasporas. He said the EU external border should be more guarded and illegal migrants should be returned to the European country that they entered the first.
Detention zones should be built not only in the Mediterranean region but also on the Balkan route in Macedonia and Serbia.
The prime ministers of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will meet in Prague on Friday to harmonise their positions on migration issues before EU negotiations.
The Czech state secretary for European affairs, Tomas Prouza, told CTK on Wednesday that Prague would propose that a list of safe countries be created, the joint border protection be reinforced and developmental aid be coordinated in reaction to the migration crisis.
