EU Faces Pressure from Germany & Disappointment from UN over Migrant Crisis

Local Editor

The United Nations said Tuesday it was "deeply disappointed" at the failure of European Union ministers to reach a final consensus on a plan to share the relocation of 120,000 refugees.

"Decisive agreement is needed without further delay to address the needs, as is bold action based on solidarity from all member states," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR] said in a statement.

A majority of EU interior ministers, meeting in Brussels Monday, agreed in principle to share out 120,000 asylum seekers on top of some 40,000 distributed on a voluntary basis so far. But details of the deal, to be formalized on Oct. 8, were vague with several ex-Communist central European states still rejecting mandatory quotas.

Furthermore, an estimated 464,876 migrants have now crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, up from 432,000 as of Friday, which already doubled the total for all of 2014, the International Organization for Migration [IOM] said.

Some 72 migrants are believed to have died in past few days trying to cross the seas from Turkey to Greek islands, the IOM said.

In a related notion, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Tuesday the EU must talk about how to put pressure on EU countries opposed to sharing out refugees to help cope with a record influx of people that is straining resources.

De Maiziere said the EU was still some way from agreeing long-term quotas for refugees.

"So I think we must talk about ways of exerting pressure," he said, adding that some of the countries opposing quotas were the beneficiaries of EU structural funds.

Hence, De Maiziere said he was sticking to his forecast that some 800,000 refugees would arrive in Germany this year, despite some senior politicians saying there could be as many as 1 million new arrivals.

"I don't want to change the forecast," said de Maiziere.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team