Portugal’s quota of refugees is set to increase from 40 last year to over 700, figures to be confirmed at the end of May.
The opportunity to take a slice of the increasing number of refugees who successfully have managed to cross the Mediterranean to southern Europe is being handled by a European Emergency Mechanism which announced the numbers on Wednesday.
The EU's European Agenda for Migration, which provides a temporary resettlement scheme for 20,000 refugees "in all Member States," allows for grants totalling €50 million to help countries with refugee settlement costs.
Portugal’s provisional quota is 3.5% of the total intake, corresponding to 704 refugees to be welcomed into a country whose own citizens have been leaving in worrying numbers.
This number is a leap forward for Portugal’s current intake process which has been characterised by sloth, indecision and a notable lack of effort despite the long term economic benefit an influx of new blood could bring.
Eurostat reported earlier this week that the 2014 refugee numbers for Portugal were 'practically non-existent' with acceptance of just 40 of the 155 applications in the system.
Of the 185,000 people granted asylum in the EC last year, Germany took the lion’s share, a total of 47,555, with Sweden (33,025), France (20,640) and Italy (20,630) taking on more than their fair share of migrants.
Although the European Commission has not published final details of the distribution plan for these people, the percentage system is the most equitable.
The United Kingdom has an exclusion clause in the relevant treaty, and Ireland and Denmark also may choose not to participate in the distribution system. This means Portugal may get more than the 704 announced today.
The quota system is based on population size, reflecting the ability of the country absorb refugees, and the country’s Gross Domestic Product, since this is considered indicative of the ability of an economy to integrate refugees.
In April there was an extraordinary summit in Brussels dedicated to the issue of illegal migration and the need to give asylum to refugees in the light of the ships sinking as they cross the Mediterranean and have caused hundreds of deaths.
