Brussels, 09/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Nineteen Eritrean refugees flew from Rome to Sweden on Friday 9 October, the first since European home affairs ministers decided on 20 July that 40,000 asylum seekers should be relocated.
The event was described by Italian Home Affairs Minister Angelino Alfano as “historic for the EU”. At a press conference in Rome Airport with their Italian counterpart, Luxembourg Migration and Asylum Minister Jean Asselborn and European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos also hailed the start of the relocation process, alongside which “hotspots”, which register migrants, have been implemented. The two European leaders were due to travel on to Athens to ensure that the first relocations of refugees from Greece take place next week.
Other countries will announce in the coming weeks the numbers of people they will take in as part of the relocation process. Some, however, do not wish to make any commitment until they are certain that the four Italian hotspots and the Greek hotspot at Piraeus are fully operational. France is one of these countries and, on Thursday, it said only that it would shortly be sending several dozen officers to support external borders management agency Frontex, without giving any indication on the number of people it would take in under relocation. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)