Czech Prime Minister suggested a temporary “emergency border system” between Bulgaria and Macedonia
Bohuslav Sobotka
On Sunday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on state TV that Turkey was capable of taking the flood of refugees into Europe under control.
Bohuslav argued that it would certainly be more efficient to stop vessels carrying refugees from departing from Turkey instead of sending them back from Greece.
“Turkey has the means to take migrant crisis under control,” the Prime Minister said. “It is much easier to prevent ships from departing from Turkey than to send them back from Greece,” he further added.
According to Bohuslav Sobotka Turkey had the means to fulfill the obligations it made at an EU-Turkey summit in December 2015 and tackle smuggling and the refugee influx to Europe when EU member states vowed to give Ankara 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) and revive negotiations on Turkey’s EU membership. At the summit, Turkey also promised to counter illegal migration on its territory and prevent refugees from reaching Europe.
The Czech PM proposed Last week to establish a temporary “emergency border system” between Bulgaria and Macedonia, which is not an EU member, arguing that immigration control in Greece has failed to succeed.
“If there are no results seen from Turkey and Greece by the next European Council meeting, which is due on February, Visegrad countries (V4 — Czech, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) will propose this alternative to EU. This will put more pressure on Turkey and Greece to do a better job on regulating the influx of migrants,” the Czeck Prime Minister Sobotka said to state TV.
