The vote came 24 hours before European Union leaders meet in Brussels for an emergency summit on migration.
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Germany and France were able to push through the proposals despite Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic voting against the idea.
The proposal was approved by a large majority, but some central European states are opposed to compulsory quotas.
Finland abstained from the vote. You know our position, but we will respect the outcome of the vote.’ And so these member states, all of them, respect the outcome of the vote.
“I would rather go to an infringement than to accept this diktat,” he said, quoted by Slovakia’s leading SME daily. “Nobody challenged that decision”.
A country can appeal if it feels the fundamental principles of its social security or legal systems are under threat.
Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, who is chairing the meeting, said: “We have a text on the table which should deliver an agreement“. The administrative arm of the European Union said in a statement that it “welcomes the efforts undertaken by all member states to reach this result”.
The country’s Right-wing prime minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Janos Lazar said the “assertive, uncompromising defence of the border has visibly held back human trafficking and forces them to change direction”.
The Dáil will now be asked to sign off on Ireland’s participation, which will involve around 1,800 refugees, although the Government has committed to taking more than twice that number.
EU Ministers are in Brussels to discuss relocating 120,000 people.
The UNHCR is calling for the establishment of facilities capable of receiving tens of thousands of people.
“EU leaders have to show leadership and face the crisis head on, not build more barriers and carry on quibbling over quotas, ” the human rights organisation, Amnesty worldwide said.
Belgium’s State Secretatry for Asylum Policy and Migration Theo…
One day prior, the Hungarian parliament passed a law authorizing the government to deploy the military to help handle the refugee crisis.
When compared to the 4 million refugees being sheltered in Turkey, Lebanon and impoverished Jordan, the numbers seem paltry for a major world trading power with a population of 500 million.
The mainly Syrian refugees are staying at a wrestling arena in the city of Edirne, about 5 miles from the Greek border, in the hope of moving on to Greece or Bulgaria and avoiding the alternative and risky sea voyage to Greece, the Associated Press reported.
“If we had not done this, Europe would have been even more divided and its credibility even more undermined”.
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Most of all though there will be emphasis on increasing funding for United Nations agencies that deal with refugees in countries bordering Syria, and on closer cooperation with and more assistance for Turkey.
