Germany Agrees To Take Even More Migrants In EU Redistribution Scheme

The German government has agreed to take as many as 3,500 migrants from Italy in the first use of a European Union migrant redistribution scheme that was agreed upon last year.

Germany is expected to receive its first asylum seekers from Italy at some point this month and has so far accepted to take in at least 3,500 people, as part of 13 countries agreeing to take in over 8,000 migrants from countries like Italy to reduce the stress on states along the European Union border.

A spokeswoman for the German Federal Ministry of the Interior commented on the expected arrivals saying, “Germany is planning to start redistributions from Italy this month,”
and added, “The necessary talks on site are ongoing,” the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.

The European Union had initially put forward a “Mandatory Solidarity Mechanism” in September of 2020 and it was suggested that states would be compensated  €10,000 per adult and €12,000 for an unaccompanied child.

While 13 EU member states have agreed to take in migrants voluntarily through the system, others have criticised it, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

“Allocation’ or ‘quota’, to change the name is not enough. Hungary is against it. The basic approach is still unchanged. They [the Commission] would like to manage migration, and not to stop the migrants. The Hungarian position is stop the migrants,” Prime Minister Orban said in September of 2020.

Interior ministers from Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Spain also criticised the voluntary nature of the migration agreement, with Interior Minister of Cyprus Nicos Nouris stating in June of this year, “Solidarity in our mind cannot be voluntary.”

While Germany taking in 3,500 migrants may take some pressure off Italy, migrant arrivals have surged in recent months, with the months of July alone seeing more migrants arrive in Italy than the entire year of 2019, with over 13,000 arriving.

According to statistics from the United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR, over 43,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, with Bangladeshis, Egyptians and Tunisians making up nearly half of the illegal migrants.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.