The EU and Refugee Quotas

Europe is faced with the gravest migration crisis since WWII, so the EU has approved the EC's plan to relocate another 120,000 migrants.

România Internațional, 23.09.2015, 13:28

On Tuesday, the EU
interior ministers approved the EC’s plan to relocate another 120,000 refugees
in the 28 member states. The Commission’s proposal was approved by a large
majority, although Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Check Republic voted
against, and Finland abstained. Though it had initially disapproved of the idea
of mandatory quotas, Poland eventually voted in favour of the plan. According
to the European legislation, the countries that voted ‘against’ are obliged to
enforce the decision made by the majority. Romania has been allocated another
2,475 refugees, although Bucharest has repeatedly stated it cannot receive more
than 1785 people, because there are not enough refugee centers in Romania to
accommodate them.

In his speech at the extraordinary session of the Justice and
Home Affairs Council, the Romanian vice-premier Gabriel Oprea said that Romania
maintained its stand, according to which the internal refugee allocation
mechanism must be used on a voluntary basis, and that is why he voted against
mandatory quotas. According to Oprea, Bucharest has proven solidarity with the EU
countries affected by the big inflow of refugees by accepting, at the summer
European Council, to take over 1705 asylum-seekers who have reached Italy and
Greece, and another 80 from outside the Union. He has stressed the need for
tighter measures to combat illegal trafficking, to find concrete measures in
the countries of origin and transit through Europol, Frontex and the European
Asylum Support Office.

Also, the Romanian vice-premier has underlined the need
for a bigger involvement of the International Organization for Migration, of
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and of civil society, through NGOs. In
Bucharest, an INSCOP survey conducted a the request of the ‘Adevarul’ daily,
has revealed that 56% of the Romanians believe that Romania should not take in
any refugee, and 35% believe that the country should shelter migrants. Of those
who said Romania should accept refugees, 82% believe that this country should
set its own quota. Out of the total of interviewees, 65% have said that they do
not agree with the refugees settling in Romania.