Estonia: we can receive 156 refugees only

12 Jun 2015

“Hanno Baokor”, Interior Minister of Estonia, stressed that his country’s readiness to receive only 156 refugee from the refugees who arrived to the European beaches across the Mediterranean.

This comes after the Estonian government announced earlier last month, refusing to receive the 1064 refugees identified by the European Commission for Estonia in the framework of the quota system plan, aimed at distribution and resettlement of refugees in EU member states, during the next two years.

He expressed his unwillingness to go to the European Council in order to determine his country’s share of the refugees, saying “that every State of the European Union to determine the need of the refugees on the basis of population and the strength of its economy”.

Estonian minister said that receiving his country 156 refugees, will cost the government in two years 4.8 million euros.

The European Commission is planning to pass a law by the end of the year; for the distribution of the burden of hosting refugees across the Union, according to a binding quota system is based on four standard: population, gross national income, unemployment rate and the number of refugees who have taken them in the past.

According to the same distribution standards, the European plans undertake to resettle 20 thousand refugees are settling outside the EU, especially from countries suffer Syrian asylum pressure, that European Commission allocates 50 million euros to finance the project.