GETTY Czech president Milos Zeman has called for economic migrants to be deported

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Furious Czech leader Milos Zeman ordered Brussels to send all failed asylum seekers to "empty places" in North Africa or "uninhabited Greek islands" to deter further mass migration to Europe. The outspoken president said EU nations should provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution in Syria, but insisted anyone found to be an economic migrant should be sent home.

His strident intervention comes as European states continue to bicker over the best way to bring the spiralling migrant crisis under control, with big cracks opening up in the 28-member bloc. German leader Angela Merkel has recently called for the roll-out of deals similar to the one Brussels has with Turkey - whereby all economic migrants are sent back across the Aegean - to North African countries like Egypt.

EPA Hungarians are voting in a referendum on migrant quotas today

REUTERS Hungary has taken a tough stance on migration

And Mr Zeman blasted: “I am for deportation of all economic migrants. “Of course I respect the cruelty of civil war in Syria, Iraq, and so on. But we do not speak about those people, we speak about economic migrants. “We are in Greece, and Greece has plenty of uninhabited islands, and big foreign debt. "So if you have ‘hotspots’ in Greek islands, this would be a sort of payment of foreign debt."

Mr Zeman also echoed the comments of other eastern European leader, like Hungary's Viktor Orban, in linking the influx of migrants from the Middle East to a rise in the terror threat to Europe. He told the Financial Times: "I am sure there is a strong connection between the wave of migrants and the wave of jihadis…and those people who deny this connection are wrong.” His outspoken remarks came as voters in Hungary headed to the polls today to vote in the country's historic referendum on whether to accept Brussels imposed migrant quotas.

Migrant Crisis: Mass exodus from the migrant camp continues Tue, October 25, 2016 Hundreds of migrants are continuing to arrive in Europe as they flee the scenes of chaos and brutality of the Islamic State in the Middle East. Play slideshow 1 of 224