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World

Switzerland calls for European solidarity in asylum seekers redistribution

2017-09-15 11:10:15

GENEVA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Switzerland on Thursday called on all European countries to honor their quotas as part of a EU pledge to redistribute some 160,000 asylum seekers, local media reported.

At a meeting of European ministers in Brussels, Swiss Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga said Switzerland will honor its promise of taking in 1,500 refugees from Italy and Greece by the end of this year.

She said the program only works if everyone acts in the same manner, and that a European migration policy cannot be achieved without solidarity.

Sommaruga also called for EU members to support migrants who are willing to return to their country of origin voluntarily.

Switzerland is currently providing financial support to the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programs. Over 38,000 migrants were assisted with voluntary return by the IOM in the first half of 2017, of which 73 percent were from the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

In 2015, the European resettlement scheme was passed to reduce pressure on frontier countries like Italy and Greece. Mandatory quotas for accepting asylum seekers were then introduced based on a country's population size, GDP, asylum applications and unemployment rate.

However, EU members like Poland and Hungary have refused to accept asylum seekers under the mandatory quota, while Hungary and Slovakia had lodged a complaint against the scheme that was recently rejected by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Editor:Jiang Yiwei