Prague (AFP) --- Czech President Milos Zeman called the
current wave of refugees to Europe "an organised invasion",
adding young men from Syria and Iraq should instead "take up
arms" against the Islamic State (IS) group.
"I am profoundly convinced that we are facing an organised
invasion and not a spontaneous movement of refugees," said Zeman
in his Christmas message to the Czech Republic released Saturday.
He went on to say that compassion was "possible" for
refugees who are old or sick and for children, but not for young men
who in his view should be back home fighting against jihadists.
"A large majority of the illegal migrants are young men in good
health, and single. I wonder why these men are not taking up arms to
go fight for the freedom of their countries against the Islamic
State," said Zeman, who was elected Czech president in early
2013.
He added that their fleeing their war-torn countries only serves to
strengthen the IS group.
The 71-year-old evoked a comparison to the situation of Czechs who
left their country when it was under Nazi occupation from 1939-1945.
It is not the first time Zeman has taken a controversial stance on
Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War II.
In November, the leftwinger attended an anti-Islam rally in Prague in
the company of far-right politicians and a paramilitary unit.
The country's Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, who has previously
criticised the head of state's comments, said Zeman's Christmas
message was based "on prejudices and his habitual simplification
of things".
Migrants are not the only target of Zeman's caustic remarks: he said
last week that his country should introduce the euro on the first day
after indebted Greece's departure from the common currency, causing
Athens to recall its ambassador.
He also said he was "very disappointed" that talks in the
summer to eject Greece from the euro did not come to fruition.
Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, former communist countries
that joined the European Union in 2004, have rejected the EU's system
of quotas for distributing refugees amid the current migrant wave.
More than one million migrants and refugees reached Europe this
year, mainly fleeing violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
The crisis has strained ties within the European Union, with
mostly newer members taking a firm anti-migrant stance and some
northern countries like Germany welcoming those fleeing war.
Few asylum seekers have chosen to stay in the Czech Republic, a
NATO member nation of 10.5 million people.
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