1st LD-Writethru: EU home affairs ministers gather to seek refugee relocation deal

Home affairs ministers of European Union (EU) member states gathered here Tuesday afternoon to resolve the dispute over the emergency relocation of 120,000 refugees.

The European Commission has proposed resettling the 120,000 refugees on top of the 40,000 refugees that member states agreed to relocate from EU countries exposed to massive migratory flows.

However, the plan was outright resisted by many member states, including Britain and several countries in central Europe.

Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec, who has disputed the legality of the quota system, said the plan was an "empty political gesture" ahead of the meeting.

The minister previously said his country was ready to take in thousands of people, but on a voluntary basis.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere predicted a difficult meeting before he stepped into the talks. "This will be a hard meeting. I'm not sure that we will have a result," he said.

However, he said the ministers would struggle to cope with how to handle the huge number of refugees at the emergency meeting.

"We will work hard and I think it is unacceptable if Europe sends a message to the world that today there is no possible solution. "

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's minister of immigration and asylum, pledged to break the deadlock on his way into the talks.

As the president of the emergency talks, Asselborn said "very hard work" had gone into agreeing on a draft text before the meeting. He was confident the draft text would have a "very positive influence" on all the delegates and should form the basis of an agreement.

The European Commissioner in charge of migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, reiterated the call from the EU to the member states, saying today's meeting was the time for EU ministers to "show we really mean it when we talk about responsibility and solidarity."

Theresa May, secretary of state for the Home Department and minister for women and equalities in the United Kingdom, reaffirmed that Britain would not be participating in the relocation scheme.

She said the EU must "get on with the job" of breaking the link between economic migrants making dangerous journeys and settling in the EU.

"We need to return those people who are illegal economic migrants and have no right to be here, and we need to ensure the people arriving at EU borders are properly dealt with, properly fingerprinted, so the decision can be made on whether illegal migrants can be returned," she said.

On May 27, the commission presented a first implementation package including a proposal for a Council decision to trigger an emergency relocation of 40,000 persons in clear need of international protection from Italy and Greece.

On Sept. 9, the Commission presented a second package of measures to respond to the refugee crisis, including an emergency relocation proposal for another 120,000 refugees from Greece, Hungary and Italy to other EU member states.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, together with leaders of Germany and France, has been pressing reluctant member states to support Commission proposals.

A massive influx of migrants in search of refuge in European countries has occurred in Europe in recent weeks. Endit