TASS, July 1. The latest events in France have highlighted the consequences of EU’s policies allowing uncontrolled migration, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Saturday.
"We all see what is happening in France, in Sweden, which illegal migration has brought to the abyss. Just overnight several hundred houses were set on fire, several thousand cars burned out, windows were smashed, hospitals and schools were looted. These are the consequences of the policies of uncontrolled migration, which we are being forced to adopt," he said at a news conference.
Morawiecki said, "the European Union, the European Commission tried to force Poland to accept norms of mandatory reception of migrants or pay out huge amounts of money for migrants that were turned away."
"During the negotiations, I strongly disagreed with such diktat, to lowering the level of security in Poland," he continued.
The draft of a new migration pact was overwhelmingly approved at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Luxembourg on June 8. The pact consists of two main documents concerning economic migrants and refugees. It foresees the introduction of admission quotas for illegal migrants, as well as the option to refuse to accept them, instead contributing to an EU fund to accommodate them in other countries.
Hungary and Poland opposed the plan. Bulgaria, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia abstained. Hungary said the issue should be resolved only by consensus, not by a simple vote.
Riots in France
Riots broke out across France after a police officer on June 27 fatally shot a 17-year-old driver in the Paris suburb of Nanterre who refused to follow orders. The police officer who fired the shot has been taken into custody and an investigation is underway. The average age of the people that have been detained amid the current riots across France is 17 years, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday. In some cases, police had to detain people as young as 13-year-old.
More than 1,300 people were detained in the latest wave of riots that swept through the country overnight into Saturday night. Seventy-nine law enforcement officers were injured. The government is using light armored vehicles and helicopters in an effort to maintain order.