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UN-MIGRATION-POLITICS-CZECH
Czech Republic rejects UN migration pact
PRAGUE, Nov 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The Czech Republic said Wednesday it will
reject the United Nations migration pact set to be adopted in December,
following similar moves by Hungary and Austria.
Richard Brabec, a deputy prime minister, told reporters the government
wanted the pact to include measures preventing illegal migration, which it
distinguishes from legal migration.
“The final text does not reflect the fundamental proposals for changes the
Czech Republic has laid out, so the government has decided not to join the
pact,” said Brabec, a member of the ruling ANO movement of billionaire Prime
Minister Andrej Babis.
Babis himself said earlier he did not like the pact which is “not clearly
interpreted and could be abused.”
The Global Compact for Migration, whose final text was agreed in July after
18 months of negotiations, is set to be adopted during a conference in
Morocco on December 10-11.
It lays out 23 objectives to open up legal migration and better manage
migratory flows as the number of people on the move worldwide has increased
to 250 million, or three percent of the world’s population.
The United States quit talks on the pact last December, Hungary’s anti-
immigration prime minister Viktor Orban rejected it in July and Austria
followed suit in October.
Babis, a Slovak-born billionaire, has taken a strict anti-migrant stance,
refusing to accept a single refugee despite pleas from western European EU
partners.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1510 hrs