The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – the so-called Visegrad Four – have formed a solid front against the European Commission’s plan to redistribute asylum seekers.
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The country’s Right-wing prime minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Janos Lazar said the “assertive, uncompromising defence of the border has visibly held back human trafficking and forces them to change direction”.
“We are watching Salafists appear as benefactors and helpers to contact refugees directly with the aim of inviting them into mosques”, Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Federal Office of Protection of the Constitution, said in an interview published in the Rheinische Post. Almost half of that million will likely qualify for asylum, it said.
Britain has not signed up to the plans, instead opting for a relocation scheme to take 20,000 Syrian refugees from countries in the Middle East over the next five years.
The proposal was put forward by the Green Party, which has 22 of the 49 seats in the assembly.
European Union leaders are due to meet today to try to agree on a strategy to end the migrant crisis.
In a letter to presidents and prime ministers of member states, Tusk writes: “There is a long list of issues where we could blame one another, but it will not help us in finding a common solution”.
“The system will not work and Slovakia will not be forced to adopt quotas“, Kaliňák said in a political talk show which was broadcast by the TA3 news channel.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, who is chairing the meeting, said: “We have a text on the table which should deliver an agreement”. This means that Slovakia should accept 1,502 people.
The EU’s executive Commission plans to allocate more than 300 million euros to top up its “trust fund” for Syrian refugees.
More than 430,000 migrants have come to Europe by sea so far this year, double the number that arrived during all of 2014, according to the worldwide Organization for Migration.
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Austrian police say about 1,000 new arrivals are expected soon at the main border crossing point with Hungary, after almost 10,000 migrants trekked into the country.
