Slovakia will never accept mandatory migrant quotas, says Prime Minister

Slovakia will never support the resettlement of migrants in EU-member states as a solution to the migrant crisis, said Prime Minister Robert Fico at a press conference on Tuesday. "We'll never lend support to mandatory quotas, never, not even if we were to stay in this game alone because we consider them to be absolutely irrational", stated the premier. Fico reiterated that Slovakia will insist that an extraordinary EU summit of prime ministers and heads of state is convened on the issue. "I announce in advance that I'll go to the [October] summit with a clear mandate of refusing to give consent to mandatory quotas in any case", said Fico. Slovakia supports all measures proposed by the European Commission to tackle the crisis, save mandatory quotas, which Fico called complete nonsense. The Slovak Government maintains that 90 percent of migrants in reality pursue economic motivations. "They're not standard refugees, people fleeing from war, hunger or some other catastrophe", underlined Fico, citing information from the intelligence services. He warned that Slovakia will arrest every migrant who crosses the Slovak border illegally. Slovakia has also stepped up its border patrols. Fico claimed that the current situation represents the worst humanitarian migration crisis since WWII. "We're facing an enormous influx of migrants", he said, adding that the solution lies in protecting the borders and establishing so-called hotspots, where economic migrants would be separated from refugees. There's also a need to stabilise the countries from which migrants originate, said Fico, claiming that some EU members have contributed toward the crisis by supporting the civil war in Syria or by participating in the bombardment of Libya. The prime minister also pointed to security risks surrounding the crisis. "We know that Islamic State is organising human smuggling and making giant profits in this way, which are used for financing terrorist activities", he said. Fico added that recruitment processes for Islamic State are underway among migrants in Europe.