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V4 opts for supporting refugees outside EU: Polish minister

Xinhua, November 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Visegrad Group (V4) countries opt for supporting refugees outside the European Union, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said after a meeting of V4 internal affairs ministers here on Monday.

The meeting was aimed at discussing European Union policy regarding the migrants and refugee crisis. The Visegrad Group is composed of four central European states that include Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

Blaszczak said all participants accepted "using the good practices of supporting refugees outside the European Union, in the camps in Lebanon, Jordan."

He said V4 countries would jointly set up a migration crisis coordination center, to support refugees outside the European Union. The center's work will be managed by Poland.

Blaszczak also said that the V4 Group was against the relocation system.

"We strive for our common attitude to be accepted by our partners from the European Union, and this attitude is against the relocation system. We believe it is not effective," he said.

"This is proved by the facts. Out of 160,000 people who were to be distributed to the EU countries, only 6,000 people so far were distributed," the minister added. He also said V4 countries agreed it was important to seal the EU borders.

The Visegrad Group countries said they were against a system of refugee resettlement and fines for countries unwilling to accept them. According to the EU's proposal, such countries could evade the relocation for a year but would have to pay 250,000 euros (265,300 U.S. dollars) as a fine for each refugee they do not accept.

Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs said: "The EU's policy should be modified so that full control over current migration movements concerning Europe is reclaimed, so that it is possible to prevent the negative effects of a sudden increase of migration pressure in following years."

Poland has taken over the rotating presidency over V4 since July 1, 2016. This latest meeting was held in a broadened formula and included delegations from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Enditem