EU proposes quota system for migration crisis, Britain opts out

The EU announced a plan on Wednesday to distribute asylum-seekers more fairly around its member states and take in 20,000 more refugees, but Britain’s newly re-elected Conservative leaders rejected any quota system imposed from Brussels. Shocked by thousands of deaths among people trying to reach Europe from North Africa across the Mediterranean, the European Union is trying to put in place a fairer way to resettle asylum-seekers at a time when anti-immigration parties are on the rise.

Each member state has a legal and moral obligation to do its duty.

President Jean-

Britain wants the bloc to do more to target people smugglers in Libya. EU foreign ministers are expected to approve on Monday plans for a naval and air mission to seize smugglers’ vessels. But a programme with a wide scope is waiting for a U.N. Security Council resolution the EU hopes it can have by Monday. Italy and other southern European countries are clamouring for help to relieve the influx. Germany, Sweden, Austria and others are favoured destinations for migrants who, once ashore, travel across the bloc’s open borders to claim asylum.

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