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         Merkel: EU Quotas Only 'First Step' in Solving Migrant Crisis

   by VOA News

   German Chancellor Angela Merkel has told her country's 16 state
   governors that Europe's agreement on a quota plan to accommodate
   120,000 migrants is a sign of unity, but cautioned that it is only a
   first step.

   She said in a meeting in Berlin Thursday that Europe is still "very
   far" from where it needs to be in dealing with the situation. She said
   the violence in Syria that caused the displacement of so many people
   can only be resolved with help from the United States, Russia, and the
   Middle East.

   On Wednesday, European Union leaders agreed to give $1.1 billion to
   international aid agencies helping refugees at camps near their home
   countries.

   The European Council President Donald Tusk made the announcement after
   an emergency summit in Brussels ended early Thursday.

   ''

   He said the leaders from the 28 EU countries agreed on increased aid to
   countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey which are hosting millions of
   refugees from war-torn Syria.

   The leaders also agreed to set up "hotspots'' by the end of November
   where EU experts can quickly register and identify people eligible for
   refugee protection, Tusk said.

   The move is intended to also quickly filter out economic migrants who
   are unlikely to qualify for asylum in Europe.

   He did not say if the countries had reached an understanding on how to
   cope with the thousands of asylum-seekers streaming to Europe, even
   after interior ministers adopted a country-by-country quota plan
   Tuesday to disperse 120,000 migrants throughout the 28-nation bloc.

   Slovakia, one of four countries that voted against the quota proposal,
   said it would not accept any refugees and would sue to challenge the
   plan. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán attacked German Chancellor
   Angela Merkel for her support of the quotas, calling it "moral
   imperialism."

   But Romania, another quota opponent, said it would accept the
   additional 2,400 migrants called for in the quota system. Poland, which
   initially objected to the quotas, said it would take in about 5,000 in
   addition to another 2,000 it earlier agreed to accept.

   ''

   Former Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said, "the problem is not
   'how many,' but 'how.' It doesn't make sense to say: let's host
   everyone. But it doesn't make sense to threaten either and to build a
   xenophobic atmosphere."

   Ahead of the summit, EU President Tusk told the heads of state in a
   letter, "There is a long list of issues where we could blame one
   another, but it will not help us in finding a common solution." He said
   the EU leaders "must absolutely work out policies that we can implement
   in order to help each other."

   Germany has by far accepted the biggest number of migrants. But
   Berlin's intelligence chief, Hans-Georg Maassen, warned Tuesday that
   radical Islamists already in Germany could try to recruit refugees for
   terrorist attacks on the pretext of offering them humanitarian
   assistance.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/merkel-eu-quotas-only-first-step-in-s
   olving-migrant-crisis/2976699.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/merkel-eu-quotas-only-first-step-in-solving-migrant-crisis/2976699.html