The European Commission is expected to unveil a new proposal next week to relocate an extra 120,000 refugees across the European Union, amid mounting calls for a united EU response to the migrant crisis unfolding across Europe.
The plan, to be revealed by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday in Strasbourg, will propose the redistribution of 120,000 people arriving in Italy, Greece and Hungary across the bloc. This is in addition to the 32,000 migrants that the EU agreed to accept in June.
But there were fears that the EU would struggle to secure the support of all member states for the proposal, with Britain, Spain and a clutch of east European countries still opposing the redistribution of refugees. The EU is facing the biggest mass movement of people since the second World War.
No opt-out for Ireland
Ireland, which has an automatic opt-out from most EU justice and home affairs legislation, will be obliged to opt in to any new relocation proposal.
The British government was expected to announce plans on Thursday night to relocate thousands of refugees in UN refugee camps on the Syrian border to Britain. This follows strong criticism of British prime minister David Cameron’s handling of the crisis by the Council of Europe, the 47-member human rights body yesterday. It is not clear whether Britain will opt in to any EU-wide plan.
The refugee crisis is expected to dominate Friday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg which will be attended by Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan.
As thousands of undocumented people continued to enter the EU by sea and land yesterday, the three-year-old boy found dead on a Turkish beach on Wednesday was named as Aylan Kurdi. He and his five-year-old brother and mother were among a group of up to 13 people who drowned off Turkey, though his father survived.
The family, from the Kurdish town of Kobani, were hoping to join relatives in Canada. Turkish news agencies reported that four people-smugglers had been arrested.
Chaos in Hungary Meanwhile, chaotic scenes continued in Hungary on Thursday. Following a two-day stand-off between migrants and Hungarian authorities, those seeking asylum were permitted to enter Budapest’s main international station and board trains. However, a train heading to the Austrian border stopped in the town of Bicske, 35km from Budapest, where migrants were ordered to go to a nearby reception area, sparking protests.
Speaking in Brussels, where he held emergency meetings with top EU officials, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban struck a defiant tone, describing the migrant crisis as a "German problem". Mr Orban sparked anger by referring to the religion of those seeking asylum in an article in German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine. "Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture," he wrote. "This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity."
Speaking in Paris on Thursday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the picture of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi “may well shock political processes into taking action”.
