Czechs, Slovaks propose refugee corridor from Hungary to Germany

Prague: The Czech Republic and Slovakia on Friday proposed creating a rail corridor for Syrian refugees linking Hungary and Germany, as Central European leaders rejected an EU-wide quota system taking in refugees.

"The Czech Republic and Slovakia can create a rail corridor for Syrian refugees travelling from Hungary to Germany, if Berlin and Budapest agree," Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said at a joint press conference in Prague.

EU member Hungary has been taking often tough measures to deal with a huge flow of refugees and migrants who are trying to make their way to northern and western Europe.

"We thank the Czechs and Slovaks for securing a corridor for people who want to get to Germany. Germany must ensure visas for them so we could let them go to Germany," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at another press conference with his Czech, Polish and Slovak counterparts.

The four were meeting to focus on finding solutions to the EU`s escalating refugee crisis, with Hungary emerging as a frontline state along with Greece and Italy.

All leaders said their countries reject the adoption of binding quotas on the numbers EU member states take in, a measure that Germany and France support.

Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz insisted that her country, the largest in the region to reject adopting fixed quotas for hosting refugees, believes in "European solidarity".

"We understand this as allowing EU members to take sovereign decisions about their engagement, corresponding to their real possibilities," she added.

"The quotas are no solution, we don`t even know the formula we should use to redistribute migrants, and above all how to keep them on Czech and Slovak territories when virtually all of them don`t want to stay here," Chovanec told reporters.

While insisting that the EU`s Schengen system of passport-free travel must remain intact, Slovakia`s leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico warned that uncontrolled migration raised the risk of terrorists circulating freely within the EU.