The EU fails to fulfil its refugee relocation scheme

The state members of the European Union have fallen far short of fulfilling the commitment to take in more than 160,000 refugees through the refugee relocation and settlement program.

The European Parliament approved it in September 2015, and most of those refugees had come mainly to Greece and Italy at the height of the refugee crisis.

The EU has barely managed to move one out of every four people it has committed to.

Despite initial political will, host figures have fallen far short of the target. The Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid has produced a video explaining what they consider a "failure".

ONLY MALTA HAS MET ITS COMMITMENT

Only Malta has met all its commitments, with 112.9% of resettlements and relocations performed.

Norway and Lichtenstein opted in to the scheme voluntarily, and have both fulfilled their commitments to relocate 1500 and 10 respectively.

Finland has welcomed 1,951 asylum-seekers (or 94% of its commitment) while Germany is the country that has relocated the most, more than 8,000 people.

Ireland has taken in 459 asylum-seekers, or 76.5% of its commitment, followeb by Luxembourg with 69%.

The last countries in the EU to meet their quota are Spain (11.4%), Croatia (8%), Bulgaria (3.8%), Slovakia (1.7%), Austria (0.7% ) and Czech Republic (0.4%).

Those countries that said they were not going to relocate refugees - Hungary and Poland – are facing possible sanctions.

OXFAM INTERMON DENOUNCES SPAIN

The Spanish chapter of Oxfam International has denounced the government in Madrid for failing to respect the European agreement.

Oxfam Intermon has asked the European Commission to take action against Spain. The complaint has been presented to the Commission's Madrid office with backing from the Spanish Social Democrat and leftist parties PSOE and Podemos.

The complaint is the first of its kind to the European Commission from an NGO.

They have asked the Commission "to send a motivated opinion paving the way for European justice to intervene before the deadline for enacting the agreement expires," Oxfam's general director, José Maria Vera said.