Due to Government Inaction, Migrant Crisis Explodes in Neighboring Slovakia

What is currently happening in the southern districts of Slovakia is a turn of government policy towards tolerating illegal migration, Smer-SD party President Robert Fico said at a press conference on Sunday. The party intends to call an extraordinary parliamentary session on the issue, reported Ma7.sk.

The current situation is not the result of goodwill, but reflects the will of the current government, which is doing everything to ensure that as many migrants as possible reach Slovakia, the leader of the largest Slovak opposition party said, pointing out that the situation is being resolved by legalizing the stay of migrants rather than protecting them from entering the country. However, the Smer president questioned whether all migrants are war refugees, pointing out that most of them cannot be reliably identified.

“All of them are Syrians and Aleppo residents, all of them born on 1 January,” Fico commented, drawing on his experience in the town of Velky Krtís (Nagykürtös). At the press conference, he also showed pictures of the area near the assembly center where the migrants were housed. He also pointed at the disastrous conditions in which migrants are living. “They have nothing but a water tank and a portable toilet, they sleep on the floor,” he said.

The Smer president fears that the number of illegal migrants in Slovakia could increase.

This smacks of a humanitarian crisis,”

the party president pointed out, while announcing that his party would call an extraordinary parliamentary session on the matter on Monday.

He also praised the efforts of the Velky Krtís municipality in resolving the situation and the attitude of the police officers present. Over the weekend, several parties called on Prime Minister Lajos Ódor and National Police Chief István Hamran to immediately resolve the situation, and inform the population about the real situation and the concrete measures taken to prevent illegal migration.

The Ministry of Interior and the police announced that all available forces and resources have been deployed to address the situation. At the same time, they pointed out that in their view, migrants have not yet violated public order. “All suspicious circumstances are being checked,” they stressed, while asking for the patience of residents. They also recall that these people are fleeing war to the west. “They do not want to stay on Slovak territory and will only stay here for the necessary time to pass the checks of the Slovak and European systems,” they added.

The caretaker government’s above response reflects the incompetence and complacency with which the entire crisis has been handled so far. As Fico correctly pointed out, the identity of most of the illegal migrants cannot be established, therefore claims that these people are fleeing war are misleading.

As to the assertion that these people have not violated any public order legislation, the locals point out that they have crossed the borders illegally, they are brazenly entering private property, such as gardens and courtyards, are defecating and littering in parks and city centers. Finally, as to the claims that migrants will not stay in Slovakia, and will move on to richer Western European countries, experience shows, such as the one from Serbia, that if smugglers identify a country as a weak spot, the stream of large numbers of economic migrants will be constant, and those leaving will be replaced by new arrivals in ever growing numbers.

Featured Image: Facebook Jozef Cuper