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| Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babis |
Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Thursday he wanted to pull the Czech Republic out of a United Nations migration deal and would discuss this with his governing coalition partner, news website idnes.cz reported.
He spoke a day after Austria said it would follow the United States and Hungary in backing out of the UN pact over concerns that it would blur the line between legal and illegal migration. A minister in Polandโs arch-conservative government has also recommended his country quit the agreement.
The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved in July by all 193 UN member nations except US President Donald Trumpโs administration, which backed out last year. The pact is due to be signed next month in Morocco.
Babis told lawmakers during a Q&A session in parliament that he disliked the agreement, according to idnes, and would propose backing out to his ruling partner, the Social Democrats.
The Czechs have stood with central European neighbours like Hungary and Poland in maintaining an anti-immigrant stance during the course of the European Unionโs struggle to stem migration to the bloc by migrants fleeing conflict and deprivation, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.
Central European states refused to endorse a Brussels-prescribed quota system to share asylum seekers among all EU member states, a plan dropped earlier this year.
