Rights groups slam EU's new refugee plan
Jerome Hughes
Press TV, Brussels
Rights groups have accused the European Commission of bowing to anti-immigrant governments as the EU's executive arm unveils a new refugee policy.
The European Commission says it has just unveiled a plan which would see all other EU nations do their part, instead of putting all the responsibility on Berlin.
If agreed by member states and the European Parliament, the commission's 'Pact on Migration and Asylum' would force EU nations to organize the deportation of migrants deemed illegal in the event they refuse to take in people deemed as legitimate refugees.
The net result; fever immigrants in the EU, many thousands of whom are currently living in awful conditions in the so-called hotspots of Greece, Italy, Cyprus and Malta.
The new plan aims to process an asylum application within 12 weeks. Billions of euro will be spent in non-EU countries to prevent refugees from arriving in the first place. Some EU lawmakers claim the bloc is incapable of hosting these desperate people.
Rights groups and workers' unions are pouring scorn over the European Commission's new refugee plan. They claim it is designed to appease anti-immigrant countries like Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Austria. They point out, on paper at least, the EU is one of the richest areas on earth.
And it's for this reason rights groups say every single EU member state, not just Greece and Germany, but each individual member state should be taking in its fair share of refugees.
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