EU leaders agreed at an emergency summit last week to boost funding and resources for search and rescue missions but Britain, speaking for many, said it would not take in any migrants picked up at sea for asylum processing.
The summit followed the worst migrant disaster in the Mediterranean, with hundreds dead after their rickety boat sank between Libya and southern Italy, sparking global outrage and demands for action.
"The Dublin II rules are not adequate. They must be changed so as to spread the burden of asylum seekers across the EU," said Manfred Weber, head of the European People's Party, the largest in the European Parliament.
The European Union's Dublin II protocol requires that the member state which first takes in an asylum seeker must then process their request on its soil and take responsibility for returning home those denied admission.
The last attempt to change the rules, in 2013, failed when 24 of the 28 EU member states voted against, with only Italy, Malta, Cyprus and Greece -- those now bearing the brunt of the migrant influx -- in favour.
"The guidelines for this more equitable sharing regime need to be determined but they will take account of the size of the country involved, its economy, the number of refugees already accepted," Weber told a press briefing.
"We need to go beyond Dublin II. We cannot let one country, in this case Italy, bear all the burden.... There will have to be compulsory quotas," he said, touching on one of the most sensitive issues... AFP
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28/4/15
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