Courtesy of Mish.
More Refugee Math
- Up to 6,000 refugees pour into Greece every day.
- Merkel offered to help countries like Greece with pledge to relocate 160,000 refugees.
- Since September, the EU's relocation effort has moved precisely 147 refugees.
- By the way, 6,000 a day is 2,190,000 a year
I said Merkel's relocation plan was idiotic the moment she hatched it, but I have to admit the results are far worse than even I expected.
Floundering Migrant Policy
The Financial Times reports Europe’s Leaders Struggle to Save Floundering Migrant Policy.
With up to 6,000 people pouring into Greece each day, EU leaders will rake over what has gone wrong with the bloc’s response and how to cut a deal with Turkey, which has become the main stopping-off point for people trying to enter Europe.
The much-vaunted plan to contain asylum-seekers in Italy and Greece before distributing 160,000 across the bloc has been sluggish. Despite months of planning, only 147 have been relocated since it was approved in September.
The scheme was the subject of bitter political argument between Germany, which backed it, and its eastern neighbours, who opposed it. Now it is being hindered by everything from the reluctance of national capitals to provide the places, IT failures on the ground and even asylum-seekers’ point-blank refusal to take part. (Last week’s flight to Luxembourg was the second attempt after a previous group turned down transit to the Grand Duchy).
As chancellor Angela Merkel comes under pressure from within her own party, Germany is banking on a deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants from the Middle East. Berlin, along with the European Commission, has led overtures to Ankara, bearing promises ranging from €3bn in aid to Schengen visas for Turkish citizens.
with winter approaching, Mr Asselborn [Jean Asselborn, migration minister for Luxembourg, current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency] seemed to grasp the need to make progress, both for the EU’s overburdened member states and the thousands of migrants on the road.
“We don’t just want a symbolic start, we want to get it off the ground properly,” he said of the relocation scheme. “We cannot have a situation where we have a critical humanitarian situation at our borders. We cannot let people die in the cold in the Balkans.”
"We Cannot Let People Die in the Balkans"
I have a simple question: Why not?
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