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Czech minister warns EU to prepare for failure of deal with Turkey

Xinhua, November 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

The ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria agreed that the EU must prepare itself for a situation where its deal with Turkey on returning migrants would fail, Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said on Friday.

The words came after the interior ministers of the three countries met here on Friday. The officials agreed that the EU must prepare itself for the situation where the crucial task would be to keep the migrant route across the Western Balkans closed.

Chovanec said that the Czech Republic wants to continue on the voluntary principle to assist countries affected by the migrant crisis, but the quotas for redistribution of migrants did not work.

He said they would like to believe that (the deal) will not fail, on the other hand, one can not only rely on the fact that the deal will be fulfilled.

It is necessary to prepare measures in the event of the failure. If the agreement failed to be maintained, problems would likely arise next year, said Chovanec.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka stressed that it is needed to eliminate the factors that attract immigrants to the EU, and sign agreements with countries of origin in order to return the refugees.

Sobotka also said that in addition to the closure of the Balkan route, it is needed to keep checks on internal European borders.

Chovanec and Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak also agreed that quotas for the redistribution of migrants in the EU did not work. The countries only redistributed a few thousands out of the 160,000 refugees.

Kalinak said it made sense to protect the borders on the Balkan route and it is needed to improve border controls in the Mediterranean. Endit