Today the European Parliament voted in favour of an emergency procedure for a ‘relocation mechanism’ of a further 120,000 refugees. The Parliament voted in favour of the European Commission’s proposal for a the relocation around the EU of refugees in Italy , Greece and Hungary . The proposal will now go the Council (Heads of Government) to adopt the proposal.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has helped create the current crisis by saying that any ‘refugee’ that made their way to Germany would be allowed to stay. This encouraged a flood of migrants from Syria and way beyond. There is increasing evidence that many, if not the vast majority, of those people forcing their way into Europe are not genuine refugees fleeing persecution but are in fact economic migrants.
UKIP’s position is that aid should be given to refugee camps in Syria and Turkey and the surrounding area rather than encouraging a mass exodus to Europe .
The EFDD (Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy) Group, to which UKIP belongs, tabled eight amendments to this proposal. These amendments were to limit the damage it would do. For example there were deletions to ensure that the Geneva Convention on what constitutes “international protection” should be used and not the EU’s own definition.
These amendments also sought to limit the EU’s power to impose financial penalties on Member States who won’t take their designated number of migrants; and to delete powers given to the EU to change to quotas imposed on Member States (i.e. increase them going forward).
UKIP MEPs voted for these amendments limiting the EU’s powers, but predictably they were heavily defeated. The position of the European Parliament and the Commission is that they want to open up Europe ‘s borders to yet more waves of mass migration. Only UKIP MEPs consistently defend the UK ‘s national interest in the Parliament.
