欧洲国家不接纳难民备受批评

As thousands of refugees are heading towards Europe, the continent has been criticized for not opening its arms wide enough to the stranded migrants.

One of the Mediterranean's deadliest migrant disasters happened in April, off the coast of Italy’s Lampedusa, when around 700 were killed in sea.

Southern European countries, including Italy and Greece, are said to be indifferent towards the migrants, even letting them drift on the sea for days.

Facing mounting international criticisms, these countries said they were struggling to cope with a weak economy, high unemployment rate and simply couldn't afford to take in more migrants.
 
Things took a turn in April, when the European Commission proposed a 10-point plan. This included an EU-wide voluntary pilot project on resettlement.

"The European Union will help frontline member states under pressure and coordinate the resettlement of more people to Europe on a voluntary basis, and with an option for emergency relocation for those who do not qualify as refugees we will operate an effective returns policy," European council president Donald Tusk said.

But the "voluntary" project was soon turned into something "mandatory".

The European Commission then in May proposed setting quotas for member states to admit refugee seekers.

The distribution number was the result of a complex calculation, which included individual country’s economic output, population, unemployment rate and number of refugees already been admitted.

Germany takes up the largest chunk, followed by France and Spain.

Under the EU law, the UK, Ireland and Denmark are exempted from the quota plan, which attracted strong opposition.

"There is no question of having quotas for economic migrants, that makes no sense. On what the European Commission is asking, that is to say figures to be imposed on countries, I do not think this is the right method. The right method is to have a global politics of solidarity and for a commitment by the countries involved," French president Francois Hollande said.

"Hungary and the European Union has every good reason to deal with the issue of economic immigration, ladies and gentlemen. It is my conviction that the proposal that's on the table from the European Commission in our simple language is absurd, bordering on insane, on insanity," Hungarian PM Viktor Orban said.

There are countries throwing their support behind the move.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has appealed to the other EU countries to take in more refugees from Africa. He called for the establishment of a fairer resettlement system in the EU.

But overall, the opponents still outnumber the proponents.