The Slovakian Prime Minister has claimed his country is “monitoring every Muslim” after the terrorist attacks in Paris.
Prime Minister Roberto Fico, 51, who is running for re-election in March, said recent events in France served to underline fears about accepting refugees and Muslim communities’ integration into European communities.
Multiple attacks across Paris on Friday night saw 129 people killed and more than 300 injured, with many of those remaining in critical condition.
“We are monitoring every Muslim in our territory,” Mr Fico said after observing a minute’s silence outside his country’s French embassy. “We have increased monitoring of a refugee camp and detainment camps, as well as monitoring of far-right extremists.”
Earlier that day the PM had claimed “virtually every time there has been a terrorist attack [in Europe] representatives of the Muslims were responsible”.
“Therefore if we have these people staying in Slovakia legally it’s our duty to verify whether they have contacts with problematic persons,” Mr Fico told Reuters.
Slovakia has been opposed to EU efforts to implement quotas on the number of refugees accepted by each nation with elected officials claiming they will only accept Christian refugees.
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In October, Mr Fico claimed: “We don’t have any mosques in Slovakia so how can Muslims be integrated if they are not going to like it here?”
“Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home,” he told the BBC.
