Miroslav Lajcak Quotes

I ask our European partners for a truly European migration management. The burden of landings cannot weigh only on the countries of arrival.

But last year there were 540,000 people, roughly, detained coming across the border illegally. Forty-five thousand of them came from countries other than Mexico, demonstrating the fact that Mexico itself now is a pathway into the United States for people all around the world, and we don't know what their intentions are.

Migration is as natural as breathing, as eating, as sleeping. It is part of life, part of nature. So we have to find a way of establishing a proper kind of scenario for modern migration to exist. And when I say 'we,' I mean the world. We need to find ways of making that migration not forced.

Before we kill Schengen, we have to make Dublin work.

In 2015, the majority of refugees and migrants reached the European Union through Greece. Greek authorities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving at their shores. But they did not stay there. They were waved through to Central Europe at an increasing pace.

In Greece, refugees are being waved through to the heart of Europe. That is simply unacceptable in the long run. The European Union cannot act like a human trafficker.

Germany has got to deal with its global responsibilities in a mature way. There has been insufficient thought to immigration law, and we need to differentiate between different kinds of migrants. There are valid refugees whose lives are at risk at home.

If Macron thinks there is no immigration crisis in Italy, he should open his doors to the 9,000 migrants France agreed to welcome from Italy in accordance with signed European agreements.

Our feeling of community and security in Europe requires safe external borders.

The migratory phenomenon exists, and Europe will have to face it together. The only alternative is a 'beggar-thy-neighbor' solution, in which countries try to load the problem off on their neighbors.

We need to shift our focus from the debates about redistributing refugees within the E.U. and should concentrate more on external border protection.

I'm against illegal migrants. Too many of them are dangerous for Italy and Europe.

Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity

[Refugees] cannot be stopped, but they can and must be managed better, more humanely, protecting migrants' human rights whilst accepting states' rights to control their borders.

When we have sealed the outer border and thus stopped the illegal migration, we can talk about any solution.

Some people say these aren't huge numbers, but let's also remember that our job here is to make sure this doesn't turn into a new route for ever-increased illegal migration, so I want to stop it now as much as I possibly can.

The world's poor have discovered that the E.U. (that's the country we live in, no point pretending there's anywhere called Britain any more) has absolutely no clue how to stop determined immigrants.

We must set up large refugee camps outside the E.U. with armed security and financial support provided by the Union.

Stopping and returning illegal migrants to their countries of origin must become standard procedure.

The question of a valid parental-child relationship is at the center of how the Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services handle detainment. Because of fraudulent documentation, profits to smugglers, and false asylum claims, there is essentially no way to prove or verify adults traveling with children are indeed their parents.

Bangladeshi illegal immigrants are a threat to the security of this nation.

One of the issues that has been an issue in how we deal with net migration up until now is that we haven't been able to have any control over freedom of movement from the European Union. We will have that control in the future once we leave the EU.

Going back to the discussion we were having about immigration reform, some of the most challenging discussions I've had are with activists who essentially would argue that any immigrant from Central America, let's say, who gets here to this country should be allowed to stay because their country is dangerous, their country is poor, and the opportunities for that mom and that kid are much greater here, and why would you send them back?

Let's put it this way: I am confident that Schengen will continue to be defended. And when it comes to repatriations, we have the same opinion.

We now have two options: We can commence operations at the Hotspots in Italy and Greece and continue to do nothing - in which case they would soon be overflowing. Or we can show responsibility and organize a distribution system that takes into account the limits of each individual member state. Migrants, for their part, must recognize that, while they have a right to protection, they do not have the right to freely choose the country. In addition, it is clear: Not everybody can come to us.