European Union calls for mandatory refugee quotas

Kim Hjelmgaard | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Munich centre provides refuge to migrants Volunteers and medical staff are working at a welcome centre for refugees in central Munich, where they are given basic healthcare and a place to spend the night. Video provided by AFP

BERLIN — European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker urged Europe on Wednesday to undertake a "swift, determined and comprehensive" response to the migration crisis by increasing aid and imposing quotas for the bloc's 28 members.

Juncker, who leads the European Union's executive arm, said the bloc immediately needs to distribute 160,000 refugees across the EU, and participation by member nations should be mandatory.

He used his first State of the Union address to the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, France, to call for an agreement on the measures by early next week. A summit of European interior and justice ministers will take place Monday in Brussels.

“The refugee crisis will not simply go away,” Juncker told EU lawmakers. “It is high time to act. We are fighting against the Islamic State, why are we not ready to accept those who are fleeing Islamic State?”

Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees have traveled to Europe this year, but the EU has struggled to form a cohesive strategy for handling the influx. The crisis has rapidly developed into a humanitarian emergency with thousands of people stranded at various transit points and borders from Greece to Hungary.

Some 500,000 migrants have entered Europe this year, many from conflict-torn Syria and Libya. Several thousand have died trying to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the United Nations estimates.

Many more remain marooned in camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, countries that Juncker praised Wednesday for their response to the crisis.

"We need more Europe in our asylum policy. We need more Union in our refugee policy," he said.

He also spoke about the need to adopt a list of "safe" countries, such as Albania and Kosovo. Migrants from these countries would almost certainly face immediate deportation if they could not prove they are being persecuted or are threatened by violence.

Juncker singled out Greece, Italy and Hungary as countries that can no longer cope with the constant flow of new arrivals. He proposed relocating 120,000 people from those countries to other EU nations based on GDP, the average number of past asylum applications and unemployment rate.

Those 120,000 people would form part of the total redistributed 160,000 migrants.

He said the commission would start a $2 billion fund aimed at reducing the number of economic migrants who travel from Africa to Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed Juncker's comments, but cautioned that any agreement on the distribution of refugees needed to be binding for all member states. Germany has sheltered far more migrants than any other European country.

Not everyone agrees. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said his government’s opposition to mandatory quotas has not changed.

“The compulsory quotas are not a good solution,” Sobotka said in a statement. “To continue with a discussion about their establishment all across Europe only prevents us from taking really important and necessary steps.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron told lawmakers in London, “If all the focus is on redistributing quotas of refugees around Europe, that won’t solve the problem, and it actually sends a message that it is a good idea to get on a boat and make that perilous journey.”

Britain, Denmark and Ireland are permitted to opt out of the plan, based on longstanding positions on their borders.

In one illustration in Hungary of the strong feelings on the issue, a television camerawoman was filmed Wednesday tripping a man holding a child while running away from police near Hungary's border with Serbia. The camerawoman was subsequently fired, Hungary's N1 television channel said on its website.

Media outlets in Hungary and elsewhere reported that the channel has close links to the country's far-right, anti-immigration Jobbik political party.