By Carlotta Duken.
Today marks an important day in the ongoing refugee crisis: the European Commission in Brussels agreed on the redistribution of 160 000 refugees in Europe.
Other measures which will be taken include increasing the budget and amount of personnel of EU-agencies to address the refugee crisis. This year and in 2016, considerable amounts of the money will go to EU agencies, humanitarian aid, the World Food Program and to the emergency assistance for the most affected member states.
Besides the budgetary support, the EU Commission plans to enhance its operations on-site. In a plan by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, which he will present to the European Heads of State and Government tonight, the EU will improve the relocation and migration management in the most affected areas, support boarder guards on outer European borders, intensify cooperation with third countries and enhance the protection, assistance and supplies to the people themselves.
The above-mentioned measures are a reaction to the sudden rise in the number of refugees arriving on European borders. The redistribution is mainly meant to relieve those countries which have been receiving most refugees, namely Greece and Italy, and which capacities are exhausted.
According to the newest numbers by the International Migration Organization (IOM), the number of arrivals by sea in Greece have again increased dramatically in the past weeks. Most people that flee their countries and seek shelter in Greece in the first place come from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Just this year, the number of arrivals exceeds 350,000.
In Italy, the IOM records a slight decline in the number of arrivals by sea from August to September of this year. Most refugees arrive from Syria or African countries such as Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan. This year, the IOM counted 127,605 arrivals, thereof about 70% men. With regard to the 9472 minors landing on Italian soil this year, nearly all of them arrived unaccompanied.
