Seems the European Union is trying to come up with some refugee scheme that won’t serve as a pull-factor that would only encourage more illegal aliens to try to reach Europe. Good luck with that!
From the Ottawa Citizen:
BRUSSELS – The EU this week unveils plans to boost and coordinate Europe’s response to the waves of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, seeking to polish its own international image at the same time.
On Wednesday, the European Commission will get the ball rolling with a recommendation for a “joint EU resettlement programme” under which nations would take in more refugees from poor and war-hit third countries.
This scheme, though voluntary, is aimed at cutting the numbers seeking to reach Europe’s shores aboard rickety boats or via unscrupulous people traffickers.
The EU’s executive arm is also trying to ease the pressure on countries such as Malta, Italy and Spain which are in the frontline of the influx and feel that other member states are not sharing enough of the burden.
Then in October, the commission will publish proposals for harmonizing asylum and family reunion criteria through Europe.
I’ll be watching for that “harmonizing” this fall, won’t you?
Also, according to the story the UNHCR is telling the EU what bad boys and girls they are for only taking 6.7% of the world’s refugees last year. Funny, I thought we were hearing that wonderful “welcoming” European countries like Sweden were taking the lions share.
The EU wants to improve its humanitarian image.
While the European Union is keen to do its best to help refugee-laden countries plus the immigrants themselves, there is also a feeling that at the moment the bloc has an image problem.
“The current relatively low level of involvement of the EU in the resettlement of refugees impacts negatively on the ambition of the EU to play a prominent role in global humanitarian affairs and hence on the influence of the EU in international fora,” the commission said in the resettlement proposals.
Be sure to use our search function for ‘Malta’ and learn how the US has been adding to the “pull factor” by taking some of Malta’s illegal aliens to the US.