Migrant crisis: European Union ministers discuss quotas

An emergency summit by European Union leaders is also scheduled for Wednesday.

Not only could the Islamic State thus more easily launch future attacks in Europe, but if as asylum seekers the militants eventually gain European citizenship, an E.U. passport would allow easy access to the US which does not require short-term visas for most European countries.

The aim is to endorse a plan to share 120,000 refugees arriving in Italy and debt-laden Greece, and perhaps Hungary, even though Budapest is refusing to take part in this kind of arrangement.

Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic could be out-voted, but diplomats said they were trying to find consensus to avoid a row which could poison relations between member states. While the leaders are expected to sign off on any proposals agreed by justice ministers, they will also discuss more long-term measures.

European countries are deeply divided over the refugee crisis.

The number of such people who could be eligible for asylum or some form of global protection in Europe. Figures for those seeking asylum from Kosovo showed a dramatic drop.

The arrival of about 500,000 people this year, mostly through Greece and Italy, has laid bare fundamental divisions between former Communist countries and partners further West over how to manage migration.

German authorities received 80,900 applications of the 213,200 made across the European Union between April and June according to Eurostat data published on Friday morning.

On August 31, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would intensify its efforts to speed up processing procedures of refugee applications and increase the number of places in preliminary reception centers for refugees.

Almost 2,750 people, including children and babies, have perished in the Mediterranean since the start of the year, as the often overcrowded and rickety vessels taking them to Europe have capsized.

Immigration lawyer Greg Ó Ceallaigh, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers, said this decline in the rate of successful applications was because entry clearance officers are “convinced that [Syrians] are going to claim asylum”.

Germany is a prime destination for migrants coming to Europe.

Police in the state of Bavaria said 1,700 people arrived in the town of Passau from Austria yesterday by train and they were taken to a new reception centre for refugees in the town of Feldkirchen.

Responding to the escalating crisis in Europe, the chair of Labour’s refugee taskforce Yvette Cooper said: “Britain’s approach of only planning to take refugees from the camps in Syria isn’t working”.