Posted on 09/02/2009 10:12:32 AM PDT by Jonny foreigner
The European Commission has unveiled plans to allow more refugees from conflict zones and poor nations into European countries.
The scheme is aimed at discouraging immigrants - mainly from Africa - from attempting to reach Europe illegally.
Many risk their lives as they try to enter the EU, often on rickety boats, relying on human traffickers.
The UN says 65,596 refugees were resettled worldwide last year, but the EU accepted just 4,378, or 6.7%.
The Commission - the EU's executive arm - says this "contrasts sharply with the numbers taken in by many other countries in the industrialised world, particularly the US, Canada and Australia".
The Commission's new "Joint EU Resettlement Programme" concerns only the resettlement of refugees currently living outside the EU.
It is separate from proposals aimed at easing transfers of refugees from one EU member state to another - known as "burden-sharing".
States free to decide
Several Mediterranean countries, including Italy and Malta, have experienced a large influx of asylum seekers in recent years and want other EU states to help by taking in larger numbers. The Commission's statement on Wednesday said EU member states would "remain free to decide whether they want to resettle at all, and if so, how many refugees they wish to resettle".
Under the new scheme EU nations would decide together every year which refugee groups should be given priority for resettlement, and receive more money from a joint fund to give them a new home.
By the end of 2008, developing countries were hosting 8.4 million refugees, 80% of the global refugee population, with Pakistan alone hosting 1.8 million, the Commission says.
One of the biggest humanitarian crises has followed the conflict in Iraq. Two million Iraqis are now leading a precarious life in Syria, Jordan and elsewhere...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
The scheme is aimed at discouraging immigrants - mainly from Africa - from attempting to reach Europe illegally.
Why don’t they just get it over with fast and all commit suicide?
If they try to impose this on Poland and the Czech Republic, they would leave the EU so fast it would make their head spin.
Onward Europe marches towards cultural and religious suicide.
The same kind of nut who runs America has clones running the EU.
would be the same for my country (austria). a politician who would accept this could hit the next plane wich usually flys out illegal immigrants and stay along his new “friends” in his new home somewhere in Africa because
people would never accept this.
can we send them Nancy Pelosi and Dick Durbin?
Odd how the Austrians, Poles, Czechs, Germans and some northern Italians remember 1683 AD and the battle of Vienna aka the battle to stop Islam from taking over europe.
I hope Austria, Northern Italy, Germany, Poland, the Czech Repub, maybe Denmark and hopefully others say STOP. No more.
I love Austria. Not crazy about Arnuld as he is too much of a RINO. He should have married an Austrian woman with common sense not that dumb Kennedy broad. ;-)
if only the politicians would remember too.
Believe me unfortunatley “we” have enought politicians
who never get tired telling everybody that all is just fine
(while you can see it every day in our streets that it´s NOT) with those lovely muslim immigrants and brandish every one as a Nazi or racist who dares to speak out against
beeing overun by the muslim hordes. for Arnold. hey the left wing despise this man here because he is such a “conservative”. i guess this says it all.
greetings.
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