A man sits on the side of a road after being detained by Turkish soldiers with other Syrians trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos from Dikili, western Turkey, on March 5, 2016 | Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images Don’t want migrants? Pay for them instead Planned relocation scheme would have financial penalties for those who don’t join in.

The European Commission will on Wednesday propose a mandatory relocation system for asylum seekers, and will make it expensive for those EU countries that refuse to take part, according to an internal Commission document seen by POLITICO.

It's part of a planned shake-up of the bloc's asylum rules that aims to ease the pressure on the EU countries at the bloc's external borders. If the proposal becomes law, the EU country in which migrants first set foot would in principle have to process their asylum claims, but that country would no longer be obliged to host all of the migrants it receives.

The Commission document highlights the shortcomings of the current system, including that "asylum seekers often refuse to make asylum applications [in the] member state of first arrival, and they then move on, in an illegal way."

The EU plans to stop that happening by giving each country a threshold of asylum seekers. If the actual number of arrivals reaches 150 percent of the country's set figure, “an automatic corrective allocation mechanism...is triggered" and all further new applicants would be relocated, the document says, until the number of asylum seekers is back below the threshold.

The problem for the Commission is that some EU countries refuse to take part in any relocation scheme. Hungary has announced a referendum on the issue and Slovakia is going to court over a similar, one-off relocation scheme agreed upon last September.

The Commission’s answer: You don’t want to take in refugees? Pay for them instead.

Governments will be allowed to opt out of the scheme, if they’re willing to pay the country that takes care of its migrants.

“Member states would be able to choose a different kind of solidarity by contributing financially to the efforts made by other member states, those confronted with the disproportionate situation or those relocating asylum seekers,” the document says.

We’re talking serious amounts of money. “The proposal is meant to contain a financial sanction mechanism,” an EU source familiar with the matter told POLITICO.

Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas on Tuesday refused to comment on a report in the Financial Times that said the fine would be €250,000 per asylum seeker.

The financial penalty is expected to be high, however. The EU source said the fine "should go beyond symbolism and be understood as prohibitive pricing.”

Greece and Italy would profit most from the relocation plan, although an EU official warned that the likes of Poland, Latvia or Finland should be worried about the impact of waves of migration in the future.

Countries without external borders would have to acknowledge the reality that asylum seekers don’t care about the Dublin rules that dictate which member country has to deal with asylum claims.

The Commission will on Wednesday also propose stricter rules for asylum seekers themselves. So-called asylum shopping would no longer be allowed. To stop it, the Commission will oblige migrants to stay in the country processing their asylum claim, with sanctions for those who don’t comply.

It will also recommend visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in the EU, part of its deal with Ankara on stopping the flow of migrants into Europe. The Commission will make a “qualified” recommendation for visa liberalization, officials said.

That means the Commission’s endorsement is contingent on Ankara’s fulfillment of the entire catalog of 72 “benchmarks” required of applicant countries. Turkey has met most, though not all, of the criteria, a list that includes everything from introducing biometric passports to ensuring rights of minorities.

The final decision on whether to grant Turks visa-free travel, expected at the end of June, rests with member-country leaders.