ZBIROH CASTLE /Czech Republic/, February 15. /TASS/. Most optimistic forecasts say that the refugee influx to the European Union will double in 2016 as compare with the previous year, President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman said in an exclusive interview with TASS.
"Pessimists say the refugee flow will be three, four or even five times as big," he said. "As you know, one million refugees are already staying in Germany. This is a huge amount. If two more millions of such people join them I cannot even imagine what may happen."
He said "a European army is needed" to avert such risks. "It will protect the outer borders of the Schengen zone or the entire European Union," he said. "As you know, Romania and Bulgaria are not member of the Schengen zone. This is step one needed to settle the migration crisis."
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"Step two," in his words, is deportation. "When a girl was killed in Sweden a week ago, the prime minister of that country said 80,000 illegal migrants were to be expelled from the kingdom," Zeman said. "I think it is necessary to deport not only economic migrants but also all those who are involved in plotting terror attacks. Of course, deportation is a painful but necessary measure."
"I would like to repeat, we need to make two steps: first, to protect the outer borders, and, second, to deport people I have just told about," he stressed.
"Refugees are arriving not only from the countries torn by wars," he noted. "They are arriving from Pakistan, even from Kosovo and Albania in Europe, from Senegal, Eritrea and many other countries which have no wars." That’s why, according to the Czech president, it would be wrong to say that the migration crisis is rooted in the problem of the war in the Middle East. "It means that the problem of refugees is a problem of development of backward nations which are politely called ‘developing.’ It is a polite formula for what I call backward countries," he said, adding that assistance to refugees should be rendered "on their territory."
The Czech leader drew attention to the risks stemming from the closure of borders between Austria and Germany. "In such event, our country will be the only transit road to Germany for refugees," Zeman added.