Bulgaria Only Took In 6 Migrants from Greece Since September

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | September 29, 2016, Thursday // 09:34
Bulgaria: Bulgaria Only Took In 6 Migrants from Greece Since September An Iraqi boy holds climbs on a fence at Amygdaleza pre-departure centre for refugees and migrants who are asking to return in their countries, in Athens, Greece, September 21, 2016. EPA/BGNES

Bulgaria compares to most other EU member states which have not accepted a big enough share of the 160 000 migrants from Italy and Greece, EU data released on Wednesday shows.

Bulgaria has so far taken in only six people, all from Greece, the same figure that was reported by the State Agency for Refugees early in August.

A majority of the relocations so far have been from Greece and not from Italy. France (1721 from Greece and 231 from Italy,), the Netherlands (548/178), Finland (430/260). Portugal (372/183) and Spain (313/50) are the EU countries that have accepted the biggest number of relocations.

EU member states including Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovakia haven't taken any refugees from Italy.

Countries like Belgium (29), Germany and Luxembourg (20 each) have taken in less than 30 migrants.

The deadline, September 2017, was agreed last autumn with regard to some 120 000 people, with Bulgaria committing itself to take 1600 people under the migrant relocation scheme.

Overall, only 5651 asylum seekers have been resettled since the agreement, 4455 of them from Greece and 1196 from Italy.

Some EU member states, especially the four members of so-called Visegrad Group (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic) have defied quotas. Hungary is even set to hold a referendum on the issue later this week.

An earlier system, the European Resettlement Scheme agreed in July 2015, has resulted in 10 695 people being rehomed.

Additionally, the EU announced it had resettled 1614 Syrian refugees from Turkey across the bloc, under a deal reached between Brussels and Ankara in the spring. As many as 578 migrants who had crossed into Europe were returned to Turkey within that period.

Countries to which Syrian refugees were resettled include Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

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Tags: migrants, refugees, greece, Italy

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