On Sunday, a meeting convened by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will bring German officials together with those of nine other European Union countries to discuss the refugee crisis.
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Europe has been beset by an enormous refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing to Europe to escape violence and poverty in their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In return the third country would need to agree on a ceiling or a cap for the numbers it can send to Europe and commit to keeping all other migrants and refugees, and accommodate them humanely.
German media have also reported that Juncker will present a 16-point plan at the talks, including an undertaking not to send migrants from one country to another without prior agreement, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Germany expects at least 800,000 asylum seekers this year, nearly 1 percent of the population. Seeing that the European Union defines a safe country as one to which migrants can be deported, and therefore as one with “a democratic system, no persecution, no torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, no threat of violence and no armed conflict”, it is highly contested to what degree the harsh criticisms likely included in the upcoming Progress Report will contradict or coincide with the definition of a “safe country”.
Like Merkel, he also called for more coordination between the affected countries, and better protection of the EU’s external borders.
It comes at a time when many working class voters have switched their support to the far right out of anger over unemployment, falling living standards and immigration.
The IOM said more than 2,600 migrants had drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean in the same period.
Peter Altmaier, the minister coordinating the government’s asylum policy, told ARD television that the move was “a signal” to would-be asylum seekers. “We have invested a huge amount in them, and now they are doing too little”.
A stampede of refugees heading to Germany across his country prompted Orban to seal Hungary’s borders with Serbia and Croatia, setting off a chain reaction of beggar-thy-neighbour actions by overstretched governments.
In the interview, Juncker also praised Merkel for focusing on the refugee crisis, which she has described as a bigger challenge for Europe than the Greek debt debacle.
Governments in central and eastern Europe are resisting demands from Berlin and Brussels to admit mandatory quotas of refugees.
“This isn’t about short-term popularity but about substance”, Juncker told the Funke group. “I just want this ordeal to stop”, said Hamrein, 20, fromSyria, as she held her feverish six-month-old son near the Slovenian village of Rigonce.
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A few 670,000 migrants have made the perilous journey to reach Europe’s shores since January this year, according to figures released by the worldwide Organization for Migration (IOM). Many lit fires and wrapped themselves in blankets as early morning temperatures sank close to zero.
