Asylum Seekers Start Relocating from Italy to Sweden under EU Plan

The hotspots are being set up in Italy and Greece, where most of the people seeking new lives in Europe first land after often-dangerous boat trips from Libya and Turkey.

However, diplomats working on the quota policy say it is nearly impossible to identify potential beneficiaries among the 600,000 people who have entered the European Union this year because most refuse to be registered at the point of entry in Greece or Italy and do not want to be relocated to arbitrary countries on a quotas list.

Lofven said on Friday up to 150,000 people could seek asylum this year in the Scandinavian country, which is struggling to find housing for the new arrivals.

Over the past two days, the Italian coast guard has coordinated the rescue of more than 2,750 migrants in the central Mediterranean, including 928 who were picked up from seven dinghies and one vessel on Tuesday. “It is impossible. And with the (severe) winter weather in the Balkans there could be a tragedy at any moment”, UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres said.

The aircraft carrying the refugees was bound for Kallax Airport in Lulea, in the far north of Sweden.

Another of their countrymen was not so lucky: a 17-year-old was seriously injured after he apparently jumped on a Eurotunnel shuttle from France to Britain.

The scheme launched on Friday was pushed through against the objections of several eastern European countries after France and Germany threw their weight behind it.

For instance, to move 19 migrants on a first flight to signal a controlled exodus is nothing but a mere drop in the ocean when you compare that with the numbers of hundreds still flooding into Italy off the coasts of Sicily on a daily basis.

“This relocation scheme is a really important step towards stabilising the refugee crisis in Europe”, said Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“This is the first example of this issue of redistribution that we have fought for so much, to make sure that we are all prepared to accept our part of the responsibility”, he was quoted by the Swedish TT news agency as telling fellow ministers.

On Thursday, EU Interior Ministers agreed to beef up its border force Frontex in order to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers.

Perilous boat crossings in the Mediterranean have cost over 3,000 people their lives this year.

Alfano was joined by European Union migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and Luxembourg’s foreign minister at a farewell ceremony at Ciampino.

Separately in Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the decision to increase the number of refugees the United States will admit next year to 100,000, including 10,000 Syrians.