European Union states agree on relocation of 120000 refugees ‘by large majority’

EU’s interior ministers on Tuesday voted by a majority in favour of the quota system, which will see migrants in Italy, Greece and Hungary redistributed to other member states.

Slovakia, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary voted against the plan, while Finland abstained.

More than half a million people have already braved risky sea crossings and arduous land treks to make it into Europe this year, heaping pressure on countries along the migrant trail, some of which have closed their borders while others have diverted the flow elsewhere.

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.

In informing the public about the developments, Czech ministers should not omit the aspect of human suffering, and they should emphasise countries’ moral duty to take special measures in face of so deep a human tragedy, the letter reads.

“As long as I am prime minister migrant quotas will not be implemented in Slovakia,” he said after the meeting, vowing to defy the new rules.

Organizers from Italian associations for hostels and for sports culture said in Rome Wednesday they devised the plan in hopes that hostel facilities like tennis courts and soccer fields will facilitate integration.

“I would rather go to an infringement than to accept this diktat,” he said, quoted by Slovakia’s leading SME daily. “Today was a defeat for common sense”.

The European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, has floated the idea of an EU coast guard, because the Mediterranean is one of the major entry pathways for refugees.

While members of the Syrian community demonstrate outside the Dáil this evening to explain why Syrians are seeking refuge in Europe.

“We should repeat this as many times as necessary to have the amount of money that we need to handle the crisis,” he told a meeting of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union, the sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.

US President Barack Obama has pressed European nations to take their “fair share” of refugees.

Washington has promised to take in only 10,000 refugees next year.

The V4 met in Prague on Monday to discuss the migrant crisis.

Others have called for more to be done to address the causes of the migration crisis.

Only refugees from Syria, Iraq and Eritrea will qualify, because there is a threshold: at least 75% of refugees from those countries get worldwide protection in the European Union, according to official data.

It also involves the creation of “hotspots” – special centres in frontline states for receiving and processing asylum seekers and separating economic migrants from refugees fleeing conflict. Last week, ministers approved a separate plan dating from May to relocate 40,000 refugees.