European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has set out his plan for how many refugees he wants each nation to take.
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The pledges came as Europe struggles to cope with a growing influx of refugees, mainly from war-torn Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Eritrea.
After Juncker’s speech, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak repeated Bratislava’s rejection of proposals on how many migrants must be taken by each EU member state. A Reuters piece quotes Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban as saying, “It’s not 150,000 (migrants coming) that some (in the EU) want to divide according to quotas, it’s not 500,000, a figure that I heard in Brussels, it’s millions, tens of millions, because the supply of immigrants is endless”.
European nations had also been failing to implement common standards for the way asylum seekers were received and their applications are dealt with, with 32 infringement proceedings underway against member states since the summer, and more due.
In May, the EU announced plans to absorb some 40,000 migrants.
As the heartbreaking image of a drowned refugee boy who washed up on a beach in Turkey ricocheted around the world on social media, UNHCR had appealed to the EU to admit up to 200,000 refugees as part of a mass relocation program with the mandatory participation of all member states.
Meanwhile, police in Denmark have been forced to close a motorway and rail links with Germany to stem the number of refugees making their way north to Scandinavia.
“We have to defend the Schengen system, we must comply with those rules”, he said.
A Hungarian camerawoman has been fired after she was caught on video kicking and tripping migrants entering Hungary across the border with Serbia.
Facing criticism that his government has been too slow to help, US President Barack Obama pledged to admit at least 10,000 Syrian refugees in the year starting October 1.
“While the proposals published by the commission today will help to address the refugee crisis, they certainly will not solve it – neither in the short-term nor the long-term”, the organization said in a statement.
France has already agreed to take that number, while Britain has said it would take 20,000 over five years, although they would come from refugee camps on the Syrian border and not other EU states.
“With respect to the refugee status, it should be clarified… that for even those persons who are really exposed to political persecution, eligibility for refugee status does not mean a free choice of country“, he said. The numbers of migrants streaming through the Balkans into Hungary on Thursday was the highest yet recorded, many braving police truncheons and torrential rain in their desperate attempt to reach Western Europe.
Hungarian police said on Thursday that 3,300 refugees were taken to camps on Wednesday for initial processing after crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border.
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“We need more Europe in our asylum policy”. “Citizens were, understandably, taking out their savings since they had little trust and confidence in the financial capability of the state to support its banking system”.
