The European Commission released yesterday data regarding the EU emergency refugee relocation scheme endorsed by the state members on September 23. According to the September commitment, EU countries agreed to relocate 160,000 people “in clear need of international protection” from Greece and Italy over the next two years.
The relocation scheme is part of measures adopted by the EU in order to alleviate the pressure upon the most affected member states. Other measures include financial, logistic and operational support.
The data revealed that so far only 1418 places out of the 160,000 were made available by 14 member states. However only 86 asylum seekers have been relocated from Italy and 30 more from Greece to Luxembourg.
Great Britain, Denmark and Ireland have an opt-out of the scheme while Britain has announced that it will not participate to the relocation scheme.
A total of 569 people that do not qualify for international protection were returned from Italy to their country of origins. Those were primarily from Nigeria, Albania, Pakistan, Egypt, Tunisia and Kosovo.
The EU has increased its financial support to the affected member states in order to provide transport and relief items -such as beds and blankets- to the refugees. However the report states that beyond the logistical challenges “too few Member States have responded to these calls, and a large number of resources must still be provided for Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia”.