EU unveils ‘bold’ plan to tackle worst refugee crisis since second world war
Under EU plan, Germany would take more than 31,000 migrants, France 24,000 and Spain almost 15,000
EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled a major plan on Wednesday to deal with the continent’s worst refugee crisis in 70 years, as Greece and Hungary grappled with fresh flows of desperate people.
Juncker outlined plans for binding quotas that would share out 120,000 refugees across the bloc from swamped border states, as well as a more permanent system for a crisis that officials say will last for years.
Australia had earlier said it would take more people fleeing wars in Syria and Iraq, responding to calls from an increasingly strained Europe for the rest of the world to help shoulder the burden.
In his first EU State of the Union speech to the European Parliament, Juncker urged “bold, determined action”, saying, “Now is not the time to take fright.”
The migrants’ plight has touched hearts around the world, spurred especially by pictures last week of three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach.