With Quota Plan Passed, EU Leaders to Discuss Aid to Neighbors

European Union leaders are gathering Wednesday for an emergency meeting in Brussels to discuss the next steps after interior ministers agreed to a plan to distribute 120,000 migrants among the 28 nations in the EU.

The plan is designed to reduce strain on EU states at the eastern edge of the bloc, which have been handling a flood of incoming migrants in recent months, many of them trying to escape violence in Syria or Afghanistan.

Due to objections from Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Romania, the deal was passed by majority rather than unanimous vote among EU interior ministers.

“It is necessary for EU countries to retain their sovereignty in this matter,” Czech Republic Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said. “It must be the governments who will decide.”

Wednesday’s meeting is expected to deal with strengthening the EU’s external borders and aiding non-EU nations, such as Turkey, that are also under strain from the pressure of incoming migrants.

Nearly half a million migrants, 40 percent of them Syrians, have crossed the Mediterranean this year, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East in search of a better life in Europe.

The United Nations refugee agency said the constant stream of migrants is so large — 6,000 a day landing on European shores — that a relocation plan covering 120,000 migrants “will not be enough to stabilize the situation.”  It called for the opening of refugee reception centers on the EU perimeter.

Germany has by far accepted the biggest number of refugees; but, Berlin’s intelligence chief, Hans-Georg Maassen, warned that radical Islamists already in Germany could try to recruit refugees for terrorist attacks on the pretext of offering them humanitarian assistance.

The EU interior ministers’ meeting occurred after the European Parliament approved the quota plan last week over the opposition of several countries.

On Monday, Hungary’s parliament authorized its army to use non-lethal force against migrants who try to enter the country illegally.

Hungary has already sealed its border with Serbia with razor wire and now Hungarian soldiers may use rubber bullets, tear gas and net guns. They can also search homes for illegal migrants.

Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, told parliament that the migrants “are overrunning us. They’re not just banging on the door, they’re breaking the door down on top of us.”

Other European nations are strongly critical of Hungary’s reaction to the migration crisis, accusing it of using violence and Nazi-like tactics.

Some nations that originally welcomed the migrants, such as Germany and Croatia, are now restricting entry, leaving men, women and children stranded in the open with no shelter or food.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States plans to issue up to 100,000 refugee visas a year starting in 2017 — up from the current 70,000. 

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