European Union ministers debate controversial migrant quota plan

UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said: “This may be the last opportunity for a coherent European response to manage a crisis that is increasing suffering and exploitation of refugees and migrants and tension between countries”.

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

In an interview with several European newspapers, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned the “raison d’etre of Europe” was at stake, while the OECD grouping of developed countries said the continent had the capacity and an “obligation” to absorb migrants and refugees fleeing conflict and poverty.

Many of them are refugees like Abdullah, a 35-year-old Syrian father of two from war-ravaged Aleppo.

A group of central European states is resisting calls for EU members to accept mandatory quotas.

But at the meeting due later on Monday, the Foreign Ministers from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are expected to reaffirm their opposition to Germany’s call for a more even distribution of migrants.

If disagreements persist, ministers could force a deal through by a majority vote, rather than a unanimous decision.

The figure of 120,000 to be relocated will remain in the draft, but it is not immediately clear which countries will now benefit from the relocation of the 54,000 asylum seekers that were originally earmarked in Hungary, sources said.

The interior minister meeting comes a day before leaders gather in Brussels for an emergency summit, with tightening borders and ramping up aid set to dominate the agenda.

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

“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 global said.

The closure of borders and the imposition of border controls have not stopped migrants from crossing into Europe. The United Kingdom has agreed to take 20,000 Syrian refugees from camps in neighbouring countries. 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.

Still, the original plan has been reworked in recent days by ambassadors and experts to try to find some margin for compromise among intractable member states.

When compared to the 4 million refugees being sheltered in Turkey, Lebanon and impoverished Jordan, the numbers seem paltry for a major world trading power with population of 500 million.