The reasons for being hypocritical, Kaliňák told the show on the public RTVS television show on May 31, are mainly that Romania and Bulgaria are not accepted into the Schengen area. “With them, the political elite said they are worried about migration of the Roma across Europe, despite the fact that Romania and Bulgaria fulfil all criteria for acceptance into the Schengen area,” he opined. “So we don’t let Bulgarian and Romanian Roma into Europe, but we don’t have a problem with migrants from northern Africa?”
He continued to say that the problem is dangerous globally not only for the present, but also for the future. “We have to address causes and not consequences,” said the minister, adding that the migration flows are organised, so introducing quotas will only encourage more trafficking of migrants.
There is no community of theirs in Slovakia, so they have no infrastructure here, Kaliňák further said. “Even if we accept them, 80-90 percent of them would leave. That’s the experience from the past.”
There is no innate right for every person on the planet to live in the European Union, MEP and Opposition party Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) chairman Richard Sulík remarked. He also stressed that it should be Slovakia who decides who would live on its territory, and not “some bureaucrats in Brussels”. Sulík thinks the current situation, with Italy and Greece facing the onslaught of migrants, is a consequence of the EU not defending its southern borders well and also that the situation in northern Africa and Syria was made unstable. The SaS MEP opined that the EU should tell them to return back; and proposes that EU asylum should be granted directly in Africa.
The quota-based redistribution contradicts the whole system for movement in the EU, Kaliňák summed up, and added that with these migration flows, it can easily happen that the people who really need help will not get it.