BRUSSELS – The EU blocs executive has proposed that the 40,000 asylum seekers in Italy and Greece should be taken in by other EU countries.
Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Migration Commissioner said this on Wednesday in Brussels during a controversial bid, to distribute the burden of a migration surge that has challenged Europe for months.
He said the commission was proposing the relocation of the asylum seekers to 23 EU countries.
“Britain, Ireland and Denmark have special arrangements with the bloc allowing them not to participate.
Avramopoulos said the commission proposed that 24,000 asylum seekers be relocated from Italy and 16,000 from Greece over two years.
He said this would represent 40 per cent of the “asylum seekers in clear need of international protection,” who arrived in the two nations last year.
The commissioner said the plan foresees the largest contingents of asylum seekers going to Germany and France, based on a calculation involving EU countries’ population sizes, unemployment rates, wealth and existing refugee intake rates.
Avramopoulos said Germany would take in 8,763 people, followed by France with 6,752, Spain with 4,288 relocations and Poland with 2,659 relocations.
He said any country taking in relocated asylum seekers would receive 6,504 dollars per person from the EU.
“The plan focuses on Italy and Greece because they currently face “heavy” migration pressures.
“Other countries could benefit similarly in the future if they had to contend with similar migration influxes,’’ he said.
Avramopoulos said the commission’s proposal has to be approved by EU governments to come into effect.
“Several member states are expected to put up a fight.
“France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia are among the countries that have already spoken out against relocation quotas,’’ he said.
Avramopoulos said their arguments varied, but included assertions that such quotas would violate EU rules.
He said it also includes encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing, and would fail to prevent migrants from moving on to more attractive EU countries.
The commissioner said some also say that EU nations know best how many migrants they can take in and that it should not be up to Brussels to decide.
Avramopoulos said the relocation scheme was part of a wider-ranging migration strategy that the commission has pledged to implement, to prevent drowning in the Mediterranean and stem the migration flow towards Europe.
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He said it was also recommended that member states should take in 20,000 refugees, who are outside the EU, to prevent them from turning to smuggling networks to reach the bloc.
Avramopoulos said EU was in the process of setting up a military operation, against those migrant smugglers. (dpa/NAN)
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