Czech Republic rejects introduction of permanent refugee relocation quotas

After about a seven-hour debate on the migration crisis, Czech Chamber of Deputies rejected on Thursday the idea of introducing a permanent mechanism for redistributing refugees among the European Union (EU) states.

The MPs (members of the parliament) also rejected proposals by a part of the opposition that the Czech Republic file a lawsuit over the previously approved mandatory quotas for the relocation of dozens of thousands of refugees at the European Court of Justice.

Czech Chamber of Deputies supported the measures aimed to improve the protection of EU's external borders, the return of migrants without the right to asylum and crackdowns on people smugglers.

The resolution was supported by 91 out of 141 deputies who were present at the meeting, and the other 20 deputies were against it.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said that the Czech Republic is still convinced that quotas will not solve anything, but it respects the decision. He reiterated that the Czech Republic would not follow Slovakia which wants to challenge the approved mandatory quotas at the European Court of Justice. He said the Czech Republic would not do anything that could eventually weaken its position.