Slovakia is to be the latest nation to follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead in withdrawing from the United Nations (UN) migration compact, its prime minister has announced.
Speaking after a European summit on Brexit Sunday, Peter Pellegrini said: “Slovakia will not support this United Nations pact under any circumstances and will not agree with it.”
“As the prime minister, I reject the wording of the compact … and I refuse to enter it into effect in Slovakia,” he said of the document, which describes mass migration as “inevitable, necessary, and desirable”.
“Slovakia does not believe that there is no difference between legal and illegal migration,” Pellegrini told reporters in Brussels, stressing: “We consider economic migration illegal, harmful, and a security risk.”
Foreign affairs minister Miroslav Lajčák had threatened to resign last week unless Slovakia signs up to the so-called Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, telling reporters that his priority in post was “to pursue the vision of a democratic, European Slovakia that is part of solutions”.
Lajčák, a veteran diplomat who was UN General Assembly president at the time the migration pact was adopted, insists it would not be legally binding, claiming that the 32-page document is more like a “catalogue” of ideas that would inspire countries to solve the global migration crisis, according to local media.
With Slovakia joining Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic in withdrawing from the agreement, Pellegrini’s announcement means that all four Visegrad nations have now vowed to pull out, along with their fellow EU member states, Austria and Bulgaria.
Switzerland, Australia and Israel all also recently announced they would not be signing the document, which in July had previously been approved by all 193 UN member nations except for the U.S.
President Trump pulled America out of the agreement in December last year, commenting that the compact appeared to demand a “no borders, everyone can come in!” approach to managing migration flows.
Advocates argue the document is not legally binding and so would have no impact on national sovereignty, while the governments of Sweden and Germany claim signing up will benefit their countries and even reduce illegal immigration flows.
Experts have warned that the agreement, which requires signatories “commit to eliminate all forms of discrimination” with measures including state promotion of “diversity”, prevention of “hate speech” and opening up of welfare systems to illegal immigrants, was written in such a way that it would create a legal framework.
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