Brussels calls on Czech Republic to take in 1,300 refugees on top of previous proposed allocation

The European Commission has asked the Czech Republic to take in over 1,300 asylum seekers from Syria and Eritrea who are already in Italy and Greece. Under the plan unveiled on Wednesday, EU states would take in a total of 40,000 such refugees in the next two years. EU officials also repeated a recently announced call for members to take in 20,000 refugees, of which over 500 would go to the Czech Republic. Prague is opposed to such quotas and argues that asylum seekers should only be accepted on a voluntary basis. However, the Czech government cannot block the plan alone as it will be voted on using the qualified majority system.

Author: Ian Willoughby