Finland accepts EC's migrant quota but opposes compulsory approach

Finland is ready to receive nearly 2,400 asylum seekers as assigned by the European Commission (EC), but opposes a permanent mechanism of binding quotas to cope with human flows, said Finnish Minister of Interior Petteri Orpo on Friday.

The European Commission on Wednesday put forward a comprehensive package of proposals to address the worsening refugee crisis in the member states of the European Union.

In order to reduce pressure on Greece, Italy and Hungary, the commission proposed to relocate a total of 160,000 asylum seekers to other countries of the EU. Finland's quota will be 2,398.

In addition to Finland, Germany will receive the highest number of refugees (31,443), followed by France (24,031 ) and Spain ( 14,900 ).

Orpo said that Finland rejected the commission's suggestion that a permanent mechanism be set up to tackle the human flows -- a compulsory approach to resettling people in Europe.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila supported Orpo's view in the press conference that Finland advocated an independent national discretion on how many asylum seekers to take in.

Since the beginning of this year, a large number of refugees have poured into the European Union. According to the latest figures published on Sept. 1 by the International Organization for Migration, there have been 350,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe.

The Finnish Ministry of Interior estimates that the number of asylum seekers arriving in Finland this year could reach up to 30,000.

Source: XINHUA