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EU given ultimatum over issue of refugee crisis

Tuesday, 19 January 2016 4:58 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 19 January 2016 4:59 PM ]

European Council President Donald Tusk ©AP

The European Council has issued an ultimatum to the European Union to come to grips with the refugee crisis, saying the 28-nation bloc has up to two months’ time to sort out its policy on the matter.

In an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday, Donald Tusk, the president of the council, said, “We have no more than two months to get things under control,” warning that the Schengen zone would otherwise collapse.

The Schengen agreement abolished internal borders in the EU and allowed passport-free movement across most of the member states.

Tusk said a summit of EU leaders in Brussels, Belgium, in March “will be the last moment to see if our strategy works.”

The EU would “fail as a political project” if it failed to exercise proper control of its external borders, the official said.

On January 14, the medical charity group Doctors Without Borders censured the EU response to the refugee crisis, saying the bloc catastrophically failed to help the asylum seekers.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

Refugees carry children as they walk through a field after crossing the border from Macedonia, near Miratovac, Serbia, January 19, 2016. ©Reuters

The flow of asylum seekers into Europe has sparked rifts between EU member states and left the Schengen system on the brink of collapse, with some of the EU countries introducing internal border checks.

Many blame major European powers for the unprecedented exodus, saying their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and war in those regions, forcing more people out of their homes.

According to figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than one million refugees have reached Europe’s shores in 2015, while over 3,700 people either died or gone missing in their perilous journey to the continent.

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