Germany to accept hundreds:

Germany has agreed to take in hundreds of migrants who are blocked in Italy in a move that might revive the European Union’s failed relocation programme, Italy’s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said on Tuesday.

As part of a deal to relieve pressure on Europe’s frontline states in the migration crisis, the European Commission last year devised a plan aimed at moving thousands of new arrivals away from Italy and Greece towards other EU members.

Under the scheme, up to 40,000 migrants could be relocated from Italy over two years, but so far only a few hundred have been flown out with many EU allies apparently reluctant to welcome in asylum seekers and refugees. (RTRS)