Extraordinary Council meeting of EU ministers agrees initial relocation of 40,000 refugees, with a further 120,000 proposed
The European Commission released a statement on the refugee crisis facing Europe yesterday following a meeting by EU interior ministers for an Extraordinary Council.
Describing the challenge of the refugee influx into Europe as "enormous", the statement said that EU Member States have agreed to "express their solidarity with one another" by deciding to relocate 40,000 refugees "in the shortest possible timeframe". The agreement is based on the European Commission's first emergency relocation proposal of 27 May.
In addition, the statement said a "majority" of Member States agreed to move forward on proposals to relocate a further 120,000 people in clear need of international protection, as proposed by the European Commission on 9 September.
"Today we have taken a first step forward as a Union on the refugee crisis. However, this is only the beginning ... We now need to see the same sense of responsibility and urgency on the new emergency measures we proposed last week. More ambition is needed to respond to the magnitude of the challenge that Europe is facing. We need to come to a more fundamental change of the current system to better combine responsibility, solidarity and effective management within a truly European Asylum and Migration Policy," the European Commission said.
However, BBC News noted that there was no agreement on a plan for mandatory quotas, which a number of central and eastern European countries oppose.
While Home Secretary Theresa May attended the meeting in Brussels, the UK (along with Denmark) will not participate in the EU relocation of refugees.
The Guardian said the UK was left "sitting on the sidelines", with May stressing that Britain had already granted asylum to 5,000 Syrians since 2011 and has committed to take 20,000 refugees from Lebanese and Jordanian refugee camps over the next five years.
According to the Guardian, May also expressed support for an "alarming" EU proposal of removal centres in transit countries in Africa, which, the Guardian says, appear to enable the rapid return of failed asylum seekers from third countries who cannot be sent back home. They would remain at the removal centres until it is safe for them to return to their country of origin.
"We also need to be setting up removal centres in transit countries in Africa. By doing these things we can be sure we offer protection to those who need it and return the economic migrants who do not," May was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, BBC News reported yesterday that Austria, Slovakia and the Netherlands said they would tighten border controls, following Germany's imposition of checks on its border with Austria.
Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior said in a statement that the reintroduction of border controls was "intended to contain the current influx into Germany and resume orderly procedures for entering the country. This is necessary for security reasons and is also required by the Schengen Borders Code."
AFP said Germany was buckling under the pressure of the wave of asylum-seekers, with Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel saying the total number of asylum seekers this year could top a previous estimate of 800,000 and reach one million.
Gabriel stressed, however, that "everyone who applies for asylum on German soil is allowed to stay here until a decision is reached. We are not changing that."
Today, Hungary implemented draconian border controls, criminalising people who cross the border from Serbia without permission or damage the newly built border fence, the Guardian reported.
The Home Office announced yesterday that Richard Harrington MP had been appointed Minister with responsibility for Syrian refugees.
Harrington will be responsible for coordinating and delivering work across government to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees in the UK, along with coordinating the provision of government support to Syrian refugees in the region.