European Union leaders are set to gather for an emergency summit on the refugee crisis, a day after ministers forced through a controversial deal to relocate 120,000 refugees in a major blow to unity within the bloc. Aljazeera has more:
The leaders will gather on Wednesday evening in Brussels to try to adopt a unified approach to the crisis that has seen 477,906 people stream into Europe from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, according to estimates by the UN refugee agency.
Interior ministers briskly voted through the deal on Tuesday, under which EU countries must take a share of new arrivals from overstretched frontline states, like Greece and Italy. But in a rare step, it was passed by a majority vote instead of unanimously, with fierce opposition from Eastern European states.
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia all voted against the plan, while Finland abstained, straining regional ties as Europe wrestles with its biggest migration crisis since World War II. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that his country will go to court to challenge the quotas for distributing asylum-seekers.
