The police have detained some 700 illegal migrants at Slovakia's borders since the spring of 2015, said Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák on RTVS's discussion show on Sunday. "They were economic migrants," said Kaliňák, adding that Slovakia is gradually repatriating them. According to Kaliňák, police officers are protecting Slovak borders effectively. "We managed to repel the greatest migrant influx pressure that was here in August and September," he said. Every illegal migrant has been given a choice - either cross the border and be detained or head back. Kaliňák pointed out that the police have found maps on migrants that characterise individual EU countries by a single word. "They wrote 'fence' for Hungary and 'prison' for Slovakia," he claimed. Kaliňák conceded that Slovakia hasn't accepted a single asylum seeker on a voluntary basis yet. He said that the procedure in question is rather challenging, but Slovakia intends to shelter 100 Syrian Christians on a voluntary basis.
Most-Hid vice-chair Lucia Žitňanská, Kaliňák's opposite number on the show, claimed that Slovakia hasn't done its utmost on a voluntary basis. "The leeway for help is undoubtedly larger than what we're offering," she said, adding that a greater degree of helpfulness on the part of Slovakia is necessary for that, however. The migration issue naturally inspires a certain level of concern, and politicians can either take advantage of it by engaging in fear mongering or providing relevant information to the public, said Žitňanská. "For example, [in the latter case] by saying that there aren't only economic migrants out there," she stressed, adding that fear mongering only plays into the hands of extremist groups.
