Afghanistan NATO fiasco: Central European leaders worry over Afghan migration ‘wave’

Central European leaders on Friday voiced concern over what they said was a potential migration rush from Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO forces pull out from that country. They also complained that a small group of powerful countries within the European Union continue to call the shots without input from smaller or less wealthy member states.

Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki Morawiecki said a NATO troop withdrawal from Afghanistan could trigger a migration influx into Europe, on top of a steady stream of migrant arrivals from Africa.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis took it a step further to suggest that a “migration wave” from Afghanistan constitutes a “big threat.” “For that reason we must be capable of protecting our external borders,” Morawiecki said.

The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – all EU and NATO members – gathered in Slovenia on Friday, just days after the Alpine Nations took over the EU’s rotating presidency. The countries make up the so-called Visegrad Group, an informal body that aims at closer regional cooperation.

Most Central and Eastern European countries have in the past opposed allowing into Europe people fleeing war and poverty from the Middle East, Africa or Asia.

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