Last Autumn, the European Commission and Angela Merkel hatched a plan to redistribute 160,000 migrants from overloaded countries to countries less overloaded.



Results so far: 272 refugees relocated. In the meantime, another 400,000 or so refugees have poured in.



Rather than admit they are hopelessly out of touch with reality, and despite no popular backing from citizens, European leaders have decided automation of a failed plan is the way to go.



Quasi-Automatic Redistribution



The Wall Street Journal reports European Commission Plans New Try at Redistributing Migrants.



The European Commission is seeking a sort of automatic mechanism for redistributing asylum seekers across Europe, despite most governments showing little support for the idea.



A plan to reallocate migrants who have already come to Europe was the main response from the European Union’s executive arm to the bloc’s migration crisis last year—during which more than one million people from the Middle East and North Africa arrived, mainly via Turkey and Greece.



But the EU program to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers out of Italy and Greece to the rest of the bloc has so far managed to move only 272 people, mostly because many have gone on their own to EU states that were more welcoming and gave more generous benefits, particularly Germany and the Nordic countries.



Speaking to EU lawmakers on Thursday, migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said he envisaged a “system under which applicants will be quasi-automatically allocated to member states.”



Mr. Avramopoulos gave no details as to how many people would be reallocated under such a plan, and under what circumstances. EU diplomats familiar with the talks say that if a country were faced with an influx it couldn’t cope with, a certain share of the burden would be evenly redistributed to other EU states.



“We have to be realistic and honest,” he said. “The situation is getting worse. This year we had no winter break: There were 3,000-4,000 arrivals a day over Christmas and New Year.”

Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania have refused to go along with relocation plans despite being obliged to do so.

2,000 to 4,000 refugees arrive every day. Assuming the lower bounds, that's 60,000 every month, 180,000 or so every three months.

Assuming quasi-automatic redistribution will achieve a 100% success rate, up from zero (0.17% to be precise), within three to four months, new refugees arriving will exceed those relocated.

By all means, let's be realistic. And honest.And how is this quasi-automatic redistribution supposed to work?No one has stepped up to the plate to explain how, or what happens when various countries refuse to participate.It's magic.Mike "Mish" Shedlock