See Why European Union Leaders Are Summon For Emergency Meeting.

The leaders will gather on Wednesday evening in Brussels to try to adopt a unified approach to the crisis that has seen 477,906 people stream into Europe from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, according to estimates by the UN refugee agency.European Union leaders are set to gather for an emergency summit on the refugee crisis, a day after ministers forced through a controversial deal to relocate 120,000 refugees in a major blow to unity within the bloc.Interior ministers briskly voted through the deal on Tuesday, under which EU countries must take a share of new arrivals from overstretched frontline states, like Greece and Italy.But in a rare step, it was passed by a majority vote instead of unanimously, with fierce opposition from Eastern European states.

‘Emergency situation’

ADVERTISEMENT

Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said the plan was forced through despite opposition because it was an “emergency situation”.
“If we had not done this, Europe would have been even more divided,” he told a press conference.
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia all voted against the plan, while Finland abstained, straining regional ties as Europe wrestles with its biggest migration crisis since World War II.With the relocation vote out of the way, Wednesday’s emergency EU summit will focus on strengthening the bloc’s external borders, as well as giving extra funding to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and UN agencies.But there may be trouble ahead as Greece will likely face pressure to accept outside help in managing its borders – renewing sovereignty concerns in Athens just months after it was forced to accept a huge eurozone bailout.The EU’s new relocation plans were outlined after pictures of a drowned Syrian refugee toddler lying on a Turkish beach sparked global outrage.But the proposal has opened fresh rifts in a bloc already reeling from the Greek debt crisis.Europe is under increasing pressure over its handling of a huge influx of hundreds of thousand of refugees this year, many of them fleeing conflict and repression in Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea.“We have no choice but to leave,” said Abdullah, a 35-year-old father-of-two from war-ravaged Aleppo in Syria who has worked for three years to save up the money to travel to Europe.