The latest plan from the European Commission shows Portugal’s refugee total intake increasing to 4,775 as the figures are reworked due to rapidly increasing numbers and the inability of Greece and Italy to cope with boatloads of refugees arriving each day from north Africa.
Germany, France and Spain will receive the lion’s share of the 160,000 that member states are to accommodate, according to the latest proposal from the European Commission.
The French president, François Hollande, has said France is ready to take in 24,000 people but the total allocation now will be higher as refugees currently in Greece and Italy are divided up and relocated.
The EC announced that individual country figures will still be open for debate but the proposal by the President of the European Commission to be made on Wednesday will make it perfectly clear that the total re-homing of 160,000 refugees already in Europe will happen.
The headline figure includes 40,000 that currently are in Greece and Italy, countries which are not able to cope as, together with Hungary, they have received 160,000 refugees this year to date and do not have the infrastructure to deal with such numbers.
British Prime Minister David Cameron today announced that Britain is to respond to the refugee crisis by taking 20,000 refugees from the camps on the borders of Syria over the next five years.
Cameron told the parliament that the UK would “live up to its moral responsibility” towards people forced from their homes by the forces of the Syrian president and by the Islamic State terror group.
The British prime minister said the refugees would not immediately be granted full asylum status, giving them a right to settle in the UK, but instead they would get a new ‘humanitarian’ status that will allow them to apply for asylum at the end of five years.
Steve Symonds, a refugee expert from Amnesty International UK said today that, “It shouldn’t have taken a photograph to get politicians to start to do the right thing, but this news offers a vital lifeline to thousands of Syrians. If acted upon urgently, it will be a truly positive step forward.
“However, it does not address the huge challenge facing Europe right now – countries like Greece and Hungary cannot cope alone. Nor does it offer a solution to the many Eritreans, Afghans and others, forced to flee bullets, bombs, torture and overcrowded refugee camps elsewhere.
“We all need to acknowledge there is no single measure that can immediately solve the current crisis, and no one country can achieve its resolution all by itself.”
Portugal has set up a working party of ministers to decide on resettlement protocols for the refugee intake with many members of the public offering help, support and accommodation to those fleeing oppression.
