EU ministers to hold refugee crisis meeting Sep 22

Hopes of a unanimous deal collapsed in the face of opposition from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania at the crisis meeting in Brussels, officials said. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the crisis is a “German problem”.

“We did not find the agreement we wanted”, EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters. It would be up to the Commission to assess the reasons notified by the country and decide on whether they would justify its non-participation in the scheme for a maximum of up to 12 months.

A second EU source said the French had convinced others that “willingness” is the equivalent to “voluntary”.

“The path is now clear for the Council to adopt our proposal”, it said in a statement.

The weakened pact follows the drowning deaths of some 15 children and babies off the Greek island of Farmakonisi on Sunday.

After a day of talks, Asselborn announced late Monday “it is premature for the Council to take a decision today”.

There were many reservations about the plan, not only about the quotas, Kalinak said.

“Procedures must be respected”, he added.

“The ball is now firmly in the court of EU member states”.

The influx into Croatia puts Slovenia next in line on the route to Austria and the chosen destination of most migrants and refugees, Germany.

Ministers have now said a further 120,000 refugees will also be redistributed around around the continent.

But 124 MEPs voted against and there were 54 abstentions.

In the end, Luxembourg’s minister for immigration and asylum was proven wrong.

Last week, EU Council President Donald Tusk warned that he will call an extraordinary summit if the home affairs ministers fail to reach an agreement.

Large migrant processing facilities to register and fingerprint migrants will be set up on mainland Europe, with those who are ineligible for asylum swiftly deported.

In addition, Ministers decided to exclude Turkey from the list of “safe countries” proposed by the European Commission.

Refugees in Hungary protest outside a train that they were refusing to leave for fear of being taken to a refugee camp.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Queen Rania said the arrival of 1.4 million Syrian refugees into Jordan had caused “immense strain” to the country’s economy. More than half are in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. An additional 40,000 spots were agreed to earlier in the summer, but after many nations resisted the requirements, they were made voluntary, and not all the spaces have actually been assigned to countries.