European migrant crisis: Germany pledges 6 billion euros for asylum seekers; France vows to take 24,000 ahead of EU quota announcement
Updated
Germany has pledged an extra 6 billion euros to help the record numbers of desperate refugees crossing its borders as France vows to take in 24,000 over the next two years.
The move comes as Germany expects at least 10,000 more asylum seekers to arrive Monday, after 20,000 came at the weekend, an official said.
The estimate of asylum seekers coming mostly on trains and buses from Hungary via Austria to the southern city of Munich was "10,000 plus," said Upper Bavaria district president Christoph Hillenbrand.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said the scenes of spontaneous solidarity from hundreds of Germans who greeted families fleeing wars in Syria and beyond at railway stations with gifts and welcome signs were moving and "breathtaking".
"What we are experiencing now is something that will occupy and change our country in coming years," she said as French president Francois Hollande vowed his country would take a larger share.
What we are experiencing now is something that will occupy and change our country in coming years.
German chancellor, Angela Merkel
Under pressure from Paris and Berlin, the European Union (EU) is readying fresh quotas that would see the two top EU economies take nearly half of the 120,000 refugees to be relocated under a plan by European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.
According to Mr Juncker's proposal for mandatory quotas for EU states, which is set to be unveiled Wednesday, Germany would take 31,443 and France 24,031, to relieve the burden on Greece, Italy and Hungary, a European source told news agency AFP.
Spain would take 14,931 under the plan, the source said.
Migrant numbers have spiked since Friday, when Austria and Germany threw open their borders and eased travel restrictions to allow in thousands who had made it to Hungary, which has balked at the influx.
Chancellor Merkel's government â which expects to accept 800,000 asylum seekers or four times the amount it took last year â earmarked the additional six billion euros ($9.6 billion) to house and feed the newcomers for the next year.
"In these weeks and months, Germany is the destination for an unprecedented number of refugees who are seeking protection from war, persecution and distress," the ruling coalition said after overnight talks.
Hundreds of refugees and their children again sat on blankets and suitcases early on Monday outside Berlin's refugee registration centre in scenes repeated across the country.
But the government said the country's economic strength would enable it to meet the challenge.
As Europe's biggest economy, Germany has taken in by far the EU's largest number of refugees, but it has also spearheaded a push for fairer burden sharing across the 28-country community.
But with Europe deeply divided on how to deal with the crisis, the UN's refugee chief said the crisis could be "manageable" if European countries all pulled their weight and agreed on a common approach.
"The European asylum system is deeply dysfunctional, it works badly," UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres told French broadcasters.
"Some countries make the necessary effort, and the effort of many others is nearly non-existent."
He said the situation could be tackled "if everyone agrees on a joint action plan".
Europe's share of refugees 'ridiculously small', Turkey says
Turkey, which has borne the largest burden of refugees fleeing neighbouring Syria, lashed out at the "ridiculously small" share EU countries were accepting.
In a local German newspaper, Turkish prime minister Ahmed Davutoglu hit out at "Christian fortress Europe", pointing out that Turkey had already taken in more than two million people from war-torn Syria and Iraq.
His remarks came just days after Hungary, which is building a fence to keep out migrants after some 50,000 new arrivals in August alone, raised the alarm over the impact of mainly Muslim refugees on Europe's "Christian culture".
Pope Francis urged a different approach in a Sunday sermon, urging "every parish, every religious community, every monastery [and] every sanctuary in Europe" to take in a family.
"Faced with the tragedy of tens of thousands of asylum-seekers fleeing death [as] victims of war and hunger who are hoping to start a new life, the gospel calls on us to be the neighbour of the smallest and the most abandoned," he said.
The Vatican's two parishes will take in two refugee families "in the coming days", he said, setting an example for more than 50,000 other parishes across the continent.
In Italy, prime minister Matteo Renzi referred to the death of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, who was found dead on a Turkish beach last week, to make a passionate speech to members of his Christian Democratic party in Milan.
He pointed to a picture of the drowned Syrian child and said there were "thousands like him".
"We need rules, we cannot take in everyone," said Mr Renzi.
"But nothing will ever stop us trying to save a life whenever possible. This is our challenge."
France to prepare air strikes against IS in Syria: Hollande
Meanwhile, France will launch surveillance flights over Syria from Tuesday with a view to conducting airstrikes on Islamic State positions, Mr Hollande said on Monday.
"I have asked the defence ministry that from tomorrow surveillance flights can be launched over Syria, allowing us to plan airstrikes against Daesh," Mr Hollande told a press conference in Paris.
"What we want is to know what is being prepared against us and what is being done against the Syrian population," he added.
He also confirmed that France would not send ground troops into the country, saying it would be "inconsequential and unrealistic".
He said it was unrealistic "because we would be the only ones" and it also risked being "transformed into an occupation force".
"So we won't do it ... it's for regional forces to take their responsibilities. France, however, will work to find political solutions," he said.
He said that finding a political transition that sidelined Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was "essential".
"The transition is an essential point. Nothing must be done that can consolidate or maintain Bashar al-Assad," he said.
France has so far only carried out airstrikes against IS in neighbouring Iraq. Mr Hollande said the French military had so far carried out 200 strikes in Iraq.
Britain is also thought to be considering military strikes in Syria, with prime minister David Cameron trying to organise a new parliamentary vote on the issue in the coming weeks.
British MPs rejected such action two years ago, in a decision that embarrassed Mr Cameron and drew criticism from the United States.
In an interview with The Guardian, UN security general Ban Ki-moon said the UN security council had failed Syria because of power divisions which had prevented moves to end the conflict in Syria.
