NEARLY 5000 people marched through the centre of the Polish capital on Saturday chanting anti-Islamic slogans, joining similar anti-migrant demonstrations across Europe.

Agence France-Presse reports the protesters in Warsaw joined other demonstrations in three eastern European capitals after leaders from the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia opposed an EU scheme to fix refugee quotas.

Organisers claimed the rally drew 10,000 people, but police would not confirm the figure. Banners included slogans such as “Islam will be the death of Europe”, while demonstrators chanted “Poles against migrants” and “Migrants today, terrorists tomorrow”.

Police in the Czech capital, Prague, said some 800 people protested, holding up banners saying “Send them back!” and “Protect the borders”, according to AFP.

Demonstrators called on the Czech government to resign and for a withdrawal from the European Union which it joined in 2004.

Counter-demonstrations in support of welcoming refugees drew 200 people elsewhere in the Czech Republic, which has a population of 10.5 million. In London, people brandished signs reading “Open the Borders”, while in Copenhagen, 30,000 took to the streets.

Pro-migrant demonstrators also turned out in Berlin, while rallies in Stockholm, Helsinki and Lisbon each attracted about 1000 people.

All poorer members of the EU, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic on Friday ruled out accepting refugees under a compulsory quota system outlined by the European Commission, rejecting German pleas for European solidarity in tackling the crisis, AFP reports.

The European Union’s 28 interior ministers are to meet on Monday to discuss a the EC plan, which involves a quota system for distributing 160,000 refugees around the bloc.