IOM praises Slovakia as open to migration

Slovakia is a country that is open to migration and deals with immigration and asylum policies correctly in order to manage migratory flows, announced International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Director General William Lacy Swing after a meeting with representatives of the Slovak government on Tuesday.

Swing praised the fact that Slovakia has chosen the migration issue as one of the priorities of its upcoming presidency of the Council of the EU.

"From a negative discourse on migration, which is often even toxic, we should return to the historical perception that used to view migration as beneficial and enriching for a country that had opened itself to it," stressed Swing.

The IOM director general added that migration should be seen as a human reality and as an inevitable consequence of what produces it. This concerns, for example, constant changes in the environment and the digital revolution, which makes the world smaller and enables travel, plus access to information, for more and more people.

Observing the situation in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq and the Ebola virus in West African countries, Swing pointed out that migration pressures won't decrease even in the future.

"I believe that the EU will put emphasis on saving lives and protecting various migrant groups," concluded Swing. Endit