Slovakia backs UN Pact on refugees

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Boris Gandel confirmed on Tuesday that the Slovak Republic had backed the Global Pact on refugees at the UN General Assembly in New York. He repeated that this is a non-binding document which does not contain any commitments or pledges by UN member states. The UN Global Pact on refugees is different from the UN Global Pact on migrants. According to the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry, this UN document aims to ease the pressure on refugee host countries. It was to be put to a vote on Wednesday. The UN compact on migration led to Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak tendering his resignation but later withdrawing from this decision. As many as 85 percent of the 193 UN-member states approved the migration compact at a UN conference in Marrakech. The United States strongly opposed the document, along with central European countries including Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Poland, plus other countries.