Mandatory quotas to distribute migrants across European Union member states won't prevent deaths, Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said Friday at a session of Parliament's European affairs committee.

"The quotas won't preclude any of the disastrous images that we've seen with drowned children or dead migrants," said Kalinak, adding that even if the proposed quotas were to be adopted, no country can stop a migrant who wants to go to, say, Austria from going there. "Quotas work against the migrants. They'll be the first to be unhappy with them," added Kalinak.

Kalinak also urged the EU to ensure better protection of its borders and pronounce clearly that illegal immigration is just that -- illegal.

"If the Union tells migrants that they have no chance of immigrating legally, because it's banned here, then we won't be producing the 'push' effects for waves pressing on our borders. It would also do us a good service to start protecting the borders," Kalinak said.