France’s Hollande: imposing migrant quotas not right way to handle problem

BRATISLAVA – Reuters

AFP Photo

French President Francois Hollande said June 19 that he thought commitments by individual EU member states offered a better way of resettling African and Middle Eastern migrants rather than the imposition of national quotas by Brussels. 

“We need to address the reasons that have led to and that have caused the migration,” Hollande told a news conference after meeting the leaders of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in Bratislava. 

“I do not think [quotas] make any sense for migration. I do not think it is the right method,” he said, commenting on proposals from the executive European Commission on how to deal with the large numbers of migrants arriving in Europe.   

Britain, meanwhile, will take in “several hundred more” vulnerable Syrian refugees, a government source said June 19, after Prime Minister David Cameron said London was expanding a resettlement program for the conflict-ravaged country. 

Britain had previously agreed to take in up to 500 Syrian vulnerable refugees, including women and children, in a three year program in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 

However the opposition Labor Party had urged the government to take in more of the millions of refugees who have fled Syria during fighting between government forces and rebels, particularly those who have faced persecution and torture.