EU Members Agree to Import Nearly 40,000 Afghan Migrants, Over Half to Germany

BERLIN, GERMANY - DECEMBER 06: Annalena Baerbock, Party Chairwoman and Federal Foreign Min
Andreas Gora - Pool/Getty Images

15 EU member-states have agreed to take in nearly 40,000 migrants from Afghanistan, with over half being taken in by Germany alone.

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, has announced that 15 EU member-states have agreed to take in over 38,000 migrants from Afghanistan.

Of this number, it is understood that Germany, now led by Olaf Scholz of the leftist Social Democratic Party (SPD), will be taking 25,000 of the migrants — over half of the total amount being accepted by the EU.

AFP reports that the Netherlands will take the second-highest number, at just over 3,000, while Spain and France will be joint-third in the venture, taking 2,500 migrants each.

Commissioner Johansson praised the measure, calling it an “impressive act of solidarity” and claiming that preventing “irregular arrivals” requires EU members to invest in “legal ways to come to the European Union”.

While Germany has agreed to take in 25,000 Afghans, the country’s new Euro-federalist foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has previously promised to take in a lot more.

Baerbock, who heads of the Green Party which is now part of Germany’s new coalition government, has said that her country is obliged to take in 50,000 migrants from Afghanistan alone.

The coalition has also vowed to boost immigration more generally, opening up the country to mass chain migration by allowing migrants to bring family members to Germany.

This comes despite the number of problems Germany has had with migrants in the past.

The nation’s lax migration policy under Scholz’s predecessor Angela Merkel, for example, resulted in both the infamous Cologne sex attacks as well as an Islamist attack on the Berlin Christmas market in 2016.

Alternative for Germany (AfD), a populist, anti-immigration party, has slammed the new government’s new policies, saying that they promote “the abolition of Germany”.

As Germany prepares to accept 25,000 Afghan migrants, Italy has also welcomed in a small number of legal migrants on Thursday, who travelled to the country via a so-called humanitarian corridor.

According to a report by InfoMigrants, the Afghans using the new corridor are to be cared for by the Community of Sant’Egidio, working in collaboration with a number of humanitarian and religious organisations, as well as the Italian state.

The corridor is expected to remain open for two years, with an extension of one additional year possible should the corridor be in high demand.

While legal migrants are beginning to use this new corridor, far more are coming to Italy illegally, with some paying up to €8,000 to be smuggled into the country on stolen yachts.

Travelling from Turkey to the south-west of Italy, migrants smuggled this way are transported below deck on boats registered as far away as Delaware in order to avoid being detected by the Italian authorities.

Meanwhile, fishing boats overladen with migrants are arriving illegally into the country from North Africa.

The ships used for these voyages are often in poor shape, with the Italian coastguard occasionally having to pick up hundreds of migrants who become stranded at sea.

Overall, Italy has seen over 56,000 migrants land on its shores this year, with over 2,500 arriving in the country in a single week last month.

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