France welcomes first batch of refugees

France opened its doors on Wednesday to 200 refugees from Syria and Iraq, the first slice of 24,000 asylum seekers that French President Francois Hollande pledged to take in the next two years.

Earlier on Wednesday, 53 refugees arrived at Champagne-sur-Seine, east Paris, and they would be sheltered by the Red Cross. Forty-six others who came from Germany were hosted in Cergy, northern suburbs of the French capital where they would stay at least for two months.

The rest of the 200 arrivals were expected to arrive later Wednesday, according to local reports.

In a statement posted on its web site, the Red Cross said it would welcome 1,000 refugees over the next three days in a move to ease pressure on Germany where thousands of migrants tried to cross to Europe's main powerhouse from Austria.

The first arrivals of migrants that had been given refugee status by French authorities, came as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker outlined an emergency plan to distribute 160,000 refugees among the 28 EU member states.

On Monday, Hollande pledged to welcome 24,000 refugees in the next two years and urged "permanent, mandatory system" to address migrants crisis.

"This is a crisis, and it is a grave and dramatic one. It can be brought under control and it will be," Hollande said at a press conference.

"We must act with the countries of origin and transit. If we want to avoid the exodus, the challenge is to provide humanitarian assistance to all these countries. We need to work up a co-development policy," he added.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls was chairing a cabinet meeting to find housing solutions for the 24,000 refugees France has pledged to take in.

Source: XINHUA