Austria wants refugee quota for each EU member to help absorb influx

Austria wants a refugee quota for every country in the European Union to help absorb hundreds of migrants arriving every day by boat in southern Europe, Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a newspaper interview, according to Reuters.

Faymann described as 'totally absurd' the current system in which refugees are supposed to be taken in by the country where they first arrive. This would mean Malta, Italy and Greece would have to accommodate all the Mediterranean refugees, which they are unable to, he said.

'I want quick EU-wide rules that in future all 28 countries declare themselves willing to take in refugees on a scale linked to population. There should be a refugee quota for each country,' he told Oesterreich in an interview printed on Sunday.

'This naturally applies only to refugees fleeing war and seeking political asylum. We do not want and cannot take in economic refugees,' he added.