EU urges members to speed up refugee relocation scheme
The European Union has urged its member states to speed up the implementation of the refugee relocation program.
The EU migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said on Wednesday that he had made the plea in written statements to all the EU members.
The commissioner said about 500 refugees have been relocated since last September out of the 160,000 agreed at the time.
“The results are very poor. So right now we have to step up our efforts for all member states to do their part,” Avramopoulos said, adding, “We need urgently to switch gears on relocation.”
EU interior ministers agreed in September 2015 to share the increasing burden of refugees who have amassed on frontline countries such as Greece and Italy. However, progress has been slow, with some countries refusing to abide by their commitments.
The EU relocation scheme has led to divisions among some EU member states with those in the east saying the arrival of refugees in their countries could hugely undermine their susceptible economy while it could trigger serious security issues.
The European Commission, the powerful executive body of the EU, vowed last month "not to give up" on the relocation program despite its slow progress.
“That is why I have addressed a letter today to each interior minister with a clear and strong message to remind them that they are bound by the relocation decisions, which have to be implemented immediately in light of the emergency of the situation,” Avramopoulos said during the Wednesday press conference.
Some EU states say they have no problem with the resettlement program, but blame an array of issues, including lack of housing and education for asylum seekers, and logistical problems over chartering planes, for the delays. They say the terrorist attacks of November 2015 in the French capital Paris, which were claimed by Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, have also prompted the EU states to set up intensified screening checks for the refugees arriving in those countries.
More than a million refugees arrived in Europe last year, triggering the worst such crisis the continent has seen in decades. Most of those refugees are from war-ravaged and poverty-stricken countries in the Middle East and Africa, with many saying EU powers are also to blame for the unprecedented exodus as they have done little to contain the problems in those regions.
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