Refugees stuck in Greece

Thousands of refugees who have found a temporary shelter in Europe might not be able to finally settle down to a European country so as to start over their life. The Council of Interior Ministers of the EU did not reach a decision regarding the relocation of refugees.

Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic refused to discuss EC’s proposal for refugees relocation, while Germany’s strategic move to temporarily introduce boarder controls so as to force the other member-states to accept more refugees does not seem to get anywhere.

Interior Ministers of the European Union, however, adopted yesterday the first proposal of the European Commission for the relocation of 40,000 refugees from Italy and Greece, as EU announced.

“This is an important political message. Indeed, the first relocations of people in need of international protection can start quickly. At the same time, the “hotspots” in Italy and Greece now have the necessary legal basis to start working,” Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s Minister for Immigration and Asylum and president of the EU Council said, adding however that the country of relocation has only been determined for 34,000 refugees.

Concerning, though, the second Commission proposal on relocating 120,000 refugees from Greece, Italy and Hungary, which was presented last week, the Council only agreed on principle and the proposal will be discussed again in the next meeting of EU interior ministers on October 8.

“For our proposal on 120,000 we did not have the agreement we wanted,” EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said, noting that member-states agreed in their majority, but there was no unanimity.