World
Migrant Crisis: EU Quota Plan to Take 20,000 Refugees
In this Monday, April 20, 2015, file photo, survivors of the smuggler’s boat that overturned off the coast of Libya rest on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard ship Bruno Gregoretti, in Valletta’s Grand Harbour. The United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday that more than 800 people were believed to have drowned in the weekend sinking of a boat packed with migrants trying to reach Europe, making it the deadliest such disaster in the Mediterranean. (AP Photo/Lino Azzopardi, File)
(BBC) — The EU aims to bring 20,000 refugees to Europe in the next two years, as part of the plan, at a cost of €50m (£36m).
The Commission is urging EU states to share the burden of processing asylum claims. Italy and Greece, facing a migrant surge, are struggling to cope. Under EU law the UK, Ireland and Denmark are exempt from the quota plan.
There is pressure for tougher EU action to send economic migrants back home.
Military option
The EU is considering naval action in the Mediterranean to intercept boats used to traffic migrants from North Africa, with Libya a particular hotspot.
But EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said concrete military measures would have to be decided on Monday by EU foreign and defence ministers.
Any military strike against human traffickers would require UN Security Council authorisation, the EU says. At a news conference in Brussels, Ms Mogherini called the migration problem in the Mediterranean “unprecedented” and “dramatic.”
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