Czech president Milos Zeman has caused controversy, demanding that all economic migrants arriving in Europe be deported.
Mr Zeman said that while EU nations should be supportive of those fleeing war and persecution in Syria, that those who fail to meet the asylum seeker criteria – which currently stands at hundreds of thousands – should be sent to North Africa, and even suggested that Greece shoulder part of the burden as a repayment for its large debt.
“I am for deportation of all economic migrants.
“Of course I respect the cruelty of civil war in Syria, Iraq, and so on. But we do not speak about those people, we speak about economic migrants,” said Mr Zeman.
“We are in Greece, and Greece has plenty of uninhabited islands, and big foreign debt.
“So if you have ‘hotspots’ in Greek islands, this would be a sort of payment of foreign debt.”
The leader’s frustrated plea was made at the Rhodes Forum, an annual conference organised by former Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin, and comes as EU representatives continue to deliberate over how to bring the ongoing migrant crisis under control.
But the controversy didn’t stop there, with Mr Zeman going one step further to link the influx of migrants from the Middle East with a rise in the terror threat to Europe.
“I am sure there is a strong connection between the wave of migrants and the wave of jihadis … and those people who deny this connection are wrong,” he told The Financial Times, arguing that extremists could radicalise moderate Muslims, as the Nazis did with the Germans in the 1930s.
The sentiment is one shared with Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who has been outspoken in his defence of Christian European values.
While the remarks are opposed to that of Czech government premier Bohuslav Sobotka, they came as Hungary headed to the polls on Sunday to vote on whether to accept the migrant quotas being imposed by Brussels to distribute asylum seekers around the block, for which analysts are expecting a ‘no’ vote.
Sources: Express, FT