Nationalist and populist
movements in European Union countries are contributing to the
difficulties weighing on the migration quota proposal brought by
the European Commission in May, said UN immigration expert
Francois Crepeau on Thursday.
The proposal, in which 40,000 asylum seekers arriving in
Italy and Greece would be redistributed throughout the EU, has
met with difficulty from EU nations hesitant to open their
borders to the arrivals, mainly from African nations.
A decision about whether or not to implement the plan was
put on hold this week after interior ministers from 28 EU member
states failed to come to an agreement at a home affairs meeting
in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
Crepeau, the UN's special rapporteur on the human rights of
migrants, said he's "not very confident" that an agreement can
be reached, and added, "it will depend on the national electoral
campaigns of the next 12 months".
"In many countries, nationalist and populist movements have
dictated the terms of debate for thirty years, and the principal
political parties haven't been able to assert different themes,"
Crepeau said.
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