The decision at an emergency meeting of EU interior ministers came after Germany reintroduced border checks and the Netherlands, Austria and Slovakia said they would also tighten controls.
Hungary closed its border with Serbia to migrants MOnday as the Schengen zone - Europe’s area of passport-free travel - looked increasingly precarious.
“This decision establishes a temporary and exceptional relocation mechanism over two years from the frontline member states Italy and Greece to other member states,” the European Council said in a statement.
The ruling will apply to those in “clear need of international protection” arriving between Aug. 15 and Sept. 16.
Welcoming the decision, Luxembourg’s Jean Asselborn, who chaired the Brussels meeting, said it sent an “important political message.”
Member states will receive 6,000 euros ($6,800) per migrant they accept.
Denmark and the U.K. are not participating in the scheme, first proposed in May.
The EU has announced it intends to distribute 160,000 asylum seekers across 23 EU states through the quota system.
However, the UN's refugee agency has said at least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year and next.
Tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa, risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy or from Turkey to Greece.
The quota system is opposed by many recent EU members in central and eastern Europe.
- EU to target people smugglers in Mediterranean
On the other hand military action against people traffickers in the Mediterranean Sea was approved by EU member states Monday, according to a statement.
The proposed action could see Europe’s navies seize and destroy smugglers' vessels operating from Libya and came after the EU Naval Force Mediterranean completed the intelligence-gathering phase of the plan.
“This important transition will enable the EU naval operation against human smugglers and traffickers in the Mediterranean to conduct boarding, search, seizure and diversion on the high seas of vessels suspected of being used for human smuggling or trafficking,” the council of ministers said in a statement following a meeting in Brussels.
The operation, for which no start date was set, can operate in international waters. To work in Libyan seas would require a UN Security Council resolution.
The EU naval force was launched in June in response to the escalating death toll among migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Libya.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 432,000 refugees reached Europe by sea this year, double the levels for the whole of last year. More than 2,700 migrants have lost their lives during the journey.
Nearly 310,000 arrived in Greece from Turkey while more than 121,000 reached Italian shores.
www.aa.com.tr
14/9/15
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Hungary enacts tough new laws...
ReplyDeleteHungary has brought in tough new migrant laws which it says will "start a new era" in preventing the inflow of illegal immigrants.
Police can now detain anyone who tries to breach a razor-wire fence built on the border with Serbia.
Hungary has become a key point on the journey north for thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa.
On Monday, EU ministers failed to agree unanimously on mandatory quotas to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers.
Instead, at the meeting in Brussels, a majority agreed "in principle" and negotiations will now take place ahead of another meeting in October.....BBC
15/9/15