EU Countries Fail to Cope With Refugee Crisis Because They Are Different – NGO

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Anastasia Levchenko — The refugee crisis has highlighted the discrepancies between the European Union states, the spokesman of Asylkoordination Austria, protecting rights of refugees and asylum seekers, told Sputnik on Monday.

“EU countries cannot cope with the crisis and find consensus because they are too different,” Herbert Langthaler said.

Langthaler added that while some countries, like Austria or Germany are "fighting for consensus in the European Union", others, like Poland or the Czech Republic refuse to cooperate, not because they lack necessary infrastructure to host refugees, but "it is only the political will that is lacking."

“If they can’t find consensus in this issue, then where will the European Union go to? If the only sphere in which they can find consensus is economy,” Langthaler stressed.

Europe is experiencing a large-scale migration crisis, as tens of thousands of refugees attempt to cross into the bloc. According to the EU external border protection agency, Frontex, the number of refugees detected at EU borders between January and July 2015 stands at 340,000, three times higher than during the same period in the previous year.

The majority of migrants entering Europe come from crisis-torn countries in North Africa and the Middle East, where radical Islamist groups, such as Islamic State, have been on the rise.