Zeman: No one invited you here. But now you are here, you must respect our rules, as we respect the rules when we go to your country.
AFP
Prague
Czech President Milos Zeman lashed out at illegal immigrants yesterday after dozens tried to flee a detention centre, prompting police to use tear gas against the demonstrators.
“No one invited you here. But now you are here, you must respect our rules, as we respect the rules when we go to your country,” he said in an interview published on the website of popular newspaper Blesk. “If you don’t like it, then leave.”
About 100 people who were awaiting deportation, mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, tried to flee a detention centre in the northeast of the country on Friday.
Police were called in and used tear gas against the migrants, some of whom caused damage to the centre, the authorities said.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec had said the migrants were probably trying to reach Germany.
“We can better assist these people on their own territory,” said Zeman, a former Social Democrat prime minister. “We should work to bring down these terrorist regimes, the Islamic State in particular, to eliminate the main reason they leave (their own countries).”
According to a survey published on Friday by the Centre for Analysis and Empirical Studies, more than 70% of Czechs are reluctant to welcome migrants from Africa and the Middle East into their country.