Germany pledges 6 bn euros for refugees, France to take 24,000
8 Sept 2015 6:32 AM IST
Chancellor Angela Merkel said the scenes of spontaneous solidarity from hundreds of Germans who greeted families fleeing wars in Syria and beyond at railway stations with gifts and welcome signs were moving and “breathtaking”.
“What we are experiencing now is something that will occupy and change our country in coming years,” she said as French president Francois Hollande vowed his country would take a larger share.
Under pressure from Paris and Berlin, the European Union is readying fresh quotas that would see the two top EU economies take nearly half of the 120,000 refugees to be relocated under a plan by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
According to Juncker’s proposal for mandatory quotas for EU states which is set to be unveiled Wednesday, Germany would take 31,443 and France 24,031, to relieve the burden on Greece, Italy and Hungary, a European source told AFP.
Spain would take 14,931 under the plan, the source said. Migrant numbers have spiked since Friday, when Austria and Germany threw open their borders and eased travel restrictions to allow in thousands who had made it to Hungary, which has balked at the influx.
Merkel’s government –which expects to accept 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, four times last year’s total – earmarked the additional six billion euros ( 6.7 billion) to house and feed the newcomers for the next year.
“In these weeks and months, Germany is the destination for an unprecedented number of refugees who are seeking protection from war, persecution and distress,” the ruling coalition said after overnight talks.
Hundreds of refugees and their children again sat on blankets and suitcases early Monday outside Berlin’s refugee registration centre in scenes repeated across the country.
But the government hailed the “wave of solidarity” that Germans were showing and said the country’s economic strength would enable it to meet the challenge.
Europe has battled to overcome deep divisions on the migrant crisis and French President Francois Hollande warned that unless the EU makes a greater collective effort, the core European ideal of open borders will be in peril.
“If there is not a united policy, this mechanism will not work, it will collapse, and it will ... undoubtedly be the end of Schengen, the return of national borders,” he said about the passport-free zone across much of the continent.
But Europe looked far from united as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has taken a hard line, said quotas would be futile so long as refugees kept streaming in.
“As long as we can’t defend Europe’s outer borders, it is not worth talking about how many people we can take in,” Orban said in a speech in Budapest.
Hungary, struggling with massive numbers arriving through the Balkans, had Friday and Saturday bussed refugees to the border with Austria, from where some 20,000 travelled on to Germany over the weekend.
Under pressure from Berlin and Paris, the European Union is readying fresh quotas that would see the two top EU economies take nearly half of the 120,000 refugees to be relocated, under a plan by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
According to Juncker’s proposal to be unveiled Wednesday, Germany would take over 31,000, France 24,000, and Spain almost 15,000 to relieve the burden on frontline countries Greece, Italy and Hungary, a European source told AFP.
Hollande confirmed France would take in 24,000 refugees over the next two years and proposed to host an international conference on Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
In Berlin, hundreds of refugees and their children again sat on blankets and suitcases outside a registration centre, as volunteers brought them water and food, in scenes repeated across the country.
“Germany is one of the best countries in Europe and the world, but it’s too slow here with the paperwork,” said a 25-year-old Syrian music student, waiting for his turn in the overwhelmed office.
“I’ve been here for 12 days without anything happening.”
The governor of the Bank of Finland, Erkki Liikanen, meanwhile said he would do his part by donating a month’s salary to help asylum-seekers.
“That is 10,000 euros ($11,200),” he wrote on Facebook. “I know the funds will get across to those who are suffering the most.”
And the UN High Commissioner urged Italian millionaires to help Syrian refugees in Jordan by donating 15,000 euros, enabling 10 families to live in dignity for a year.
Turkey detains 5th suspect over toddler’s death
Turkish authorities have detained a fifth suspect over deaths of 12 Syrian migrants in boat sinkings, including a 3-year-old boy whose image became a symbol of tragedy of refugees, a report said.
Spain fears IS could infiltrate refugee tide reaching Europe
Spain’s interior minister on Monday called for tighter controls to prevent members of the armed jihadist group Islamic State from infiltrating the “avalanche” of refugees arriving in Europe from Syria.
“The vast majority are refugees fleeing war, terror, but we can’t forget the Daesh is over there and these barbarians have shown that they are capable of carrying out their threats,” Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz told daily ABC using the Arabic acronym for the group.
“How can we doubt that, among this avalanche people who are not refugees could infiltrate themselves,” he added in the interview published in the conservative newspaper.
“Besides it is obvious that these people are fleeing above all Syria and Daesh is established there,” he added. “Spain will not refuse the right of asylum to anyone,” Diaz told ABC before adding that “controls must be strengthened to welcome these people”.
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