Refugee influx biggest challenge for European Union: German FM
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says the unprecedented influx of asylum seekers could be the European Union’s greatest-ever challenge.
The refugee crisis is "probably the biggest challenge for the European Union in its history," Steinmeier told a joint news conference with the foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland in the Czech capital Prague on Friday.
He also urged the other four countries to agree to a fair way to redistribute the growing number of refugees hitting European shores.
"This challenge cannot be borne by one country. We have to invoke European solidarity," he noted, adding, "I said to my colleagues that we have to agree on a fair mechanism of redistribution of migrants."
In recent months, Europe has been facing a huge influx of refugees, mainly coming from conflict-hit countries like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Most of the refugees land in Italy or Greece, and then head for the wealthier countries of northern Europe by transiting through countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, like Macedonia, Serbia, and Hungary.
The International Organization for Migration declared on Friday that over 432,000 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe so far this year, with 2,748 dying or going missing en route.
On Wednesday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced a plan to share 160,000 refugees now in Greece, Italy and Hungary among the EU nations, and set mandatory quotas for countries which had earlier refused to offer to take in refugees on a voluntary basis.
However, the German minister’s appeal for EU members to accept the plan fell on deaf ears among eastern nations. Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary ruled out the acceptance of the compulsory quota system.
Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said he preferred a solution "that is not imposed" but "made jointly."
Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said Prague should keep control over the number of asylum seekers it can accept.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also warned that the number of refugees in his country could rise to up to 500,000 by the end of 2015.
The EU's 28 interior ministers are set to meet on Monday to discuss Juncker’s quota system plan.
On Friday, thousands of Italians staged a rally in the capital Rome in solidarity with the asylum seekers arriving in the country. The demonstrators gathered outside a refugee center, carrying placards reading “Migration is not a crime" and "Refugees welcome, no one is illegal," and chanting slogans including "No borders, free borders!"
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