The European Commission has decreed that refugees who refuse to go to the onward destination chosen for them, will be excluded from the European host system.
If people really don’t want to go to certain countries, they can make an application for asylum in the country where they are, which for most means Greece or Italy.
A EC spokeswoman Natasha Bertaude, said the relocation of 160,000 refugees agreed by EU countries is being hampered by people wanting to choose their own destination, rather than accepting that they will go where they are sent.
The governments of Greece and Italy are not best pleased as the option of refugees claiming asylum will give the countries longer-term headaches than those they already are experiencing as 'initial destination' countries.
The European Community "Does not force anyone to go where they don’t want. It is an offer, it is not a requirement."
Natasha Bertaud valiantly added that one of the "challenges of the scheme is to 'explain the opportunities' to asylum seekers.”
This is all largely theoretical at the moment as EU numbers show that only 159 refugees have been relocated out of the 160,000 that were to be forwarded under the quota system.
Portugal is still ready, allegedly, for its first 100 refugee allocation as part of an agreed obligation of 4,750. Some 17 Syrian and Sudanese refugees came to Portugal on November 7th, but these were not part of the 160,000 but in a UNHCR resettlement programme.45 were due but many decided to hang out and see if they could get to Germnay.
Most refugees, quite naturally, want to head to Merkel’s paradise where there is no limit to the demand for free services provided by the German taxpayer whose ingrained guilt eventually must reach a limit.
Of 40 asylum seekers offered relocation to Spain, just 12 people agreed to go, the others preferring to wait until a better offer pops up.
Portugal’s associate director of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) said the refugee relocation process is "having trouble" due to good old Portuguese bureaucracy, but also that the refugees prefer northern Europen destinations such as Germany and Sweden.
The president of the Portuguese Refugee Council, Teresa Tito Morais, said she did not have sufficient evidence to say there is a refusal by refugees to come to Portugal.
For those in Portugal that remain convinced that hordes of foreigners are poised to flood in, eat all our food and build mosques in every village, it seems that for as long as refugees are given a choice, the beauty of the Algarve, the history of Lisbon and Coimbra and the plains of the Alentejo will remain unaffected.
