Arithmetic of Despair: Numbers from Europe’s migrant crisis

Ms Fleming said it is “essential” that the 120,000 additional places are approved this week for any relocation programme to be considered “credible” but claimed that any scheme can not be effectively implemented without the creation of “adequate reception facilities” in countries where refugees and migrants enter Europe.

A common solution “demands an investment, a mobilisation of resources and a political determination that until now has been lacking”, Guterres said.

The crisis has exposed deep divisions among European states.

“Solidarity can not be forced solidarity”, Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said in Warsaw.

After talks on Monday between Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, all of whom oppose quotas, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek insisted the four were still “absolutely dedicated” to finding a solution.

Some of the dissenters also worry that anything decided on the emergency relocation of the 120,000 asylum seekers – which comes on top of an already agreed move of 40,000 people out of Greece and Italy – will set a precedent for a permanent redistribution scheme being sought by Brussels. “We cannot properly welcome people, if we send out the signal that we can accommodate everyone right now”, said Bernard Cazeneuve, French Interior Minister.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn says his country, which holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, has put a “very balanced consensus text” on the table following hours of negotiation, adding that the proposal “should make everybody happy”.

The issue is dominating Tuesday’s meeting of European Union interior ministers in Brussels.

“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.

Meanwhile, new President of the United Nations General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft has said that all countries must contribute to solving the refugee crisis.

The closure of borders and the imposition of border controls have not stopped migrants from crossing into Europe. More than 260,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Greece so far this year, most reaching the country’s eastern islands on flimsy rafts or boats from the nearby Turkish coast.

The EU’s executive has for instance been looking at whether it can reallocate up to 1 billion euros in funding for Turkey to help it cope with the 2 million Syrian refugees it has taken in.

The number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey a high-ranking United Nations official has said might attempt to come to Europe.

Pressure has also heaped on countries along the refugee trail, some of which have closed their borders while others have diverted the flow elsewhere.