Press Advisories
8. 7. 201523:13
Comments by the Prime Minister on the migration process
As part of a one-off act of solidarity taking place across the EU, the Czech Republic will voluntarily take in 1,500 refugees in 2015-2017. The whole process will be controlled by the Government, with a particular focus on safety. I view this one-off partial redistribution of refugees as an act of essential assistance on our part – in response to the current crisis – which is in line with the capabilities of the Czech Republic, but not as a solution to the problem Europe now has with migration. As a country, we maintain that the EU must now primarily seek to ensure the proper functioning of the Schengen border and the implementation of the policy on the return of illegal economic migrants. It is also necessary to intervene aggressively against trafficking networks and to stabilise the countries which are the source of migratory flows, including the construction of facilities for asylum seekers outside EU borders.
Bohuslav Sobotka, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic