European Union urges 'bold' plan of sharing 1,60,000 refugees

European Union Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled major plans on Wednesday to force the bloc to share 1,60,000 refugees and ease the pressure on border states from the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

With Greece and Hungary struggling to cope, Juncker urged Europe to look to its history and not be afraid of his "bold" proposals for compulsory quotas for refugees fleeing conflict in Syria and elsewhere. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- whose country expects 8,00,000 asylum claims this year and has said it could take half a million annually over several years -- urged Europe to go further, claiming binding quotas were the only way to ensure a "fair" and proportionate sharing of the burden.

The refugees' plight has touched hearts around the world, spurred especially by pictures last week of three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach. In response to appeals for help from an increasingly-strained Europe, Australia said it would take an additional 12,000 refugees from the Syria and Iraq conflicts and several South American countries also agreed to help. "Now is not the time to take fright, it is time for bold, determined action for the European Union," Juncker said in his first EU State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

But he also warned member states against making religious distinctions when deciding to admit refugees. Mandatory quotas have faced stiff opposition, especially from eastern EU states such as Hungary, which is on the front line of Europe's largest migrant wave in 70 years. "We need a binding agreement on the binding distribution of refugees according to fair criteria between member states," Merkel told the German parliament. "We cannot just fix a ceiling and say I don't care about anything above that."

As Merkel and Juncker were speaking, at least 400 refugees broke through police lines at the flash point town of Roszke on Hungary's southern border with Serbia, yelling "No camp!" as they scattered all directions. Some ran towards a nearby motorway heading to Budapest which police then closed in the latest confrontation with thousands of refugees pouring across the frontier. "We don't want to live any longer in the camps in Hungary or elsewhere, the conditions are horrible. It's too cold and everything is dirty, and it smells bad," said a young man from Damascus.

A Hungarian TV camera woman was fired on Tuesday after footage appeared to show her kicking refugees, including children, as they ran away from a police line during disturbances at Roszke. Juncker urged EU interior ministers, who are meeting next Monday, to back his new plan for the relocation of 1,20,000 refugees in Hungary, Greece, and Italy, and a plan first floated in May to relocate 40,000 others in Italy and Greece.