MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Czech authorities have resisted the European Commission’s plan to share out refugees across the bloc according to a binding quota system.
It has proposed to take in only 1,500 asylum seekers, with Germany accommodating the majority of the 160,000 refugees in question.
"We emphasize that there should be peaceful settlement of the crisis there [Syria] so that the refugees have no reason to flee," Jiri Mastalka said. "Secondly, we provide aid in two directions – regulating the flow of refugees – policemen, army, equipment, to support the Schengen border states, and we have provided money for humanitarian aid."
"If Germany can accept more, that is their business," Mastalka stressed. "We believe there should be no quotas… It is not the Czech Republic that is guilty for the crisis in Libya, bombing and the destruction of Syria."
Mastalka stressed the Czech Republic knew its capabilities and could not stretch its budget to accommodate a larger number of asylum seekers. He warned of a possible rise in neo-Nazi sentiment, saying that, "if the migrants accommodation policies are not thought-through, the country could suffer a lot."
The lawmaker added that his country, a member of the EU borderless Schengen area, was strictly following the Dublin Regulation which requires asylum requests to be processed by the first EU country that a refugee enters.
"We strictly follow the rules of who can be granted asylum in the Czech Republic and we refute the quotas, what is dictated from Brussels," the lawmaker argued.
On Sunday, Czech President Milos Zeman said he would challenge the obligatory quotas in court.
