MOSCOW (Sputnik) — An EU member state that refuses to take in an EU-approved refugee will carry the cost of their relocation elsewhere, a proposal tabled Wednesday by the European Commission indicates.
"A Member State will also have the option to temporarily not take part in the reallocation. In that case, it would have to make a financial solidarity contribution of €250,000 [$287,000] to the Member State receiving an applicant for whom it would otherwise have been responsible", the plan reads.
The payment, dubbed "solidarity contribution" by Brussels, will be part of a fairness mechanism designed to enforce the Commission’s refugee relocation quotas and help those EU states that are handling a "disproportionate number" of asylum seekers.
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their crisis-torn home countries in the Middle East and North Africa in search of asylum in stable and wealthy EU states.
