First asylum seekers leave Italy under EU relocation plan

A small group of Eritreans left Italy for Sweden on Oct. 9, the first contingent of asylum seekers to be relocated under a much-contested European Union scheme to ease the burden of the migration crisis on frontline countries.

Grinning shyly before the media, 19 young Eritreans -- five women and 14 men -- waved and blew kisses as they boarded a small propeller plane at Rome's Ciampino airport after hugging members of the Red Cross and UN Refugee agency goodbye.
 
"Today is an important day for the European Union, it is a day of victory... for those who believe in Europe, for those who believed in saving human lives," Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told journalists after the departure.
 
"It is a defeat for those who claim it is better for the Mediterranean to become a lake of death... and believe that scaring the European people is the way forward," he added.
 
The scheme follows months of tensions over the more than 600,000 people who have flooded into Europe this year.
 
EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and Luxembourg minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the EU presidency, were in Rome to launch the relocation of 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece to other member states in the 28-nation bloc over the next two years.
         
The plan, which hopes to help ease the bloc's worst migration crisis since World War II, was only given the green light after Brussels flatly overruled stiff opposition from Eastern European nations.
 
"This is a tangible example of what we can do when we work together. We are nations of immigrants and we've made an important step forwards," Avramopoulos said, adding that it showed "Italy is not alone".
 
Alfano said Italy was...