Emergency EU plan to share flood of refugees
STRASBOURG: European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker urged EU governments yesterday to accept a mandatory system to share out a wave of refugees fleeing war and poverty, but also promised to improve frontier defences and deport more illegal migrants.
In his first state of the union address to the European Parliament, Juncker outlined an emergency plan to distribute 160 000 refugees among the 28 EU member states and promised a permanent asylum mechanism to cope with future crises. Defending his muchcriticised proposal for mandatory burden sharing, he said Europe could not leave Greece, Hungary and Italy, the main receiving countries, to cope with the flood.
He appealed to Europeans to respond to the crisis with humanity, dignity and “historical fairness” and not take fright, saying the vast majority of the 500 000 people who had arrived in Europe this year were fleeing war in Syria and Libya, “the terror of the (selfstyled) Islamic State” or “dictatorship in Eritrea”.
Europe was a continent where many had been refugees over the centuries and it was rich enough to cope with a challenge far smaller than the one facing Syria’s neighbours – Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. “It is Europe today that represents a beacon of hope,” the former Luxembourg prime minister said. “The Europe I want to live in is illustrated by those who want to help,” he added, denouncing calls to discriminate among refugees according to their religion.
He was heckled by Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, who said most of those arriving were “economic migrants” and the EU should emulate Australia’s “stop the boats” policy to halt a flow of “biblical proportions”.
Juncker’s proposals face opposition from several central European governments when EU interior ministers meet on Monday. Many reject compulsory quotas and some, such as Slovakia, want to take in only a handful of Christian refugees. But under strong pressure from Germany, France and Italy, the tide appears to be turning towards more European solidarity.