“We must remember that 70 years ago, millions of Europeans were refugees fleeing conflict in much the same way”.
Advertisement
“Tonight we have a common understanding that we can not continue like we did before”, he said, adding that the crisis will only deepen.
Chancellor Angela Merkel made the announcement after meeting state premiers to discuss ways of helping the states, which are struggling to look after 800,000 asylum seekers expected this year alone. “Therefore we need to correct the policy of open doors and windows,” he said.
“Proper management and control of our external borders is our common responsibility,” he said.
Despite the warning, the package agreed was relatively modest.
Nearly 29,000 refugees and economic migrants had entered Croatia in the last week, with almost all of the new arrivals wanting to leave for another European nation that is more prosperous or where they might have family.
“It’s a very ambitious project, but for us today the most important thing is to cooperate with our partners… about this very problem [of] refugees,” he said.
Johannes Hahn, the commissioner responsible for ties with the EU’s neighbors, said Wednesday that “this is a signal and hopefully will stimulate our member states to do the same”, and push the total to 1 billion euros. The United Nations said in a recent report that it required more than US$450 million to help Syrians in Lebanon in 2014.
He warned that the numbers of refugees trying to reach Europe from the Middle East could rise into the millions as the turmoil in the region continued.
“Leaders also agreed that the current chaos at our external borders must end”.
The measures agreed at the September 23 meeting would not end the crisis, Tusk said. Member states should also contribute more to stabilize African countries that have become a source of displaced persons, the leaders said.
Kbeih – whose disabled son needs specialist medical care – claimed that “if you asked anyone” in the migrant camp he is staying in they would agree.
As part of efforts to win cooperation from Turkey, locked in a long love-hate relationship with Europe and host to some 2 million Syrian refugees, Tusk and European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker will host President Tayyip Erdogan on October 5. The European commission, the initiator of the quotas idea, thinks it has set a precedent for future action.
But Syrians and Iraqis find themselves living in Turkish cities with a status just a step or two above illegal migrant.
The migrant crisis overwhelming the European Union tugged at the very fabric of the 28-nation bloc Wednesday with bitter divisions casting a shadow over an emergency summit aimed at staunching the flow of asylum-seekers.
Leaders met in a toxic atmosphere after the relocation plan to forcibly move migrants from Italy and Greece to other countries was pushed through under a qualified majority vote against the wishes of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
Advertisement
“‘Mohammed, here is your flight to Stuttgart”. But diplomats and officials concede that this will run up against stiff resistance on the grounds of national sovereignty.
