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Czech, Slovakia leaders urge EU to devise new measures to stop refugees

Tuesday, 26 January 2016 4:19 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 4:22 PM ]

Slovakian Prime minister Robert Fico (L) and Czech Republic's Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (AFP Photo)

The prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia said Tuesday the European Union needs to devise new measures to stop refugees crossing the EU borders.

Bohuslav Sobotka of the Czech Republic and Robert Fico of Slovakia urged the EU to find ways to stem the flow of refugees until Greece and Turkey take measures to reduce the number of refugees flocking into the EU zone.

The European Union needs a “Plan B” to manage the influx of refugees, the two premiers stated. They met in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava.

To protect the European visa-free Schengen travel zone, they said, the 28-nation bloc should take necessary measures on Greece’s borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria.

The Slovak prime minister said after their meeting, “Macedonia and Bulgaria could play a key role in protecting the Schengen border.”

The Czech Republic and Slovakia have already agreed to deploy police forces in Macedonia.

Sobotka has called a meeting of the Visegrad Group of central European countries for February 15, three days before an EU summit that will discuss ways to tackle the refugee crisis. Visegrad Group, also called the Visegrad Four, or V4 is an alliance of four Central European countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, working to further European integration as well as advancing military, economic and energy cooperation with one another.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland have together taken a tough stance on refugees and been at odds with western EU neighbors in dealing with the influx that saw one million people seeking shelter last year.

The EU on Monday inched closer to accepting that its Schengen zone of passport-free travel may be suspended if it cannot curb the number of asylum seekers mainly from the Middle East and Africa.

This image shows refugees waiting in the cold at a security checkpoint after crossing the Macedonian border into Serbia, January 26, 2016. (AFP Photo)

More than 850,000 people, most of them fleeing the conflict in Syria and Afghanistan, entered Greece by sea in 2015.

Some European countries, including Slovakia, have blasted the Greek government for being unable to secure its borders against refugees entering its territories from water routes starting in Turkey.

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