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	EU to discuss relocating 160,000 refugees across Europe</p>
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	Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald will join her EU counterparts in Brussels this afternoon for an emergency meeting on the deepening refugee crisis.</p>
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	Ministers will discuss the European Commission&#39;s proposals to relocate 160,000 refugees across Europe and a permanent mechanism to allocate those seeking asylum in Europe through the use of binding quotas.</p>
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	Yesterday Germany closed its borders with Austria, effectively suspending the Schengen free-travel area.</p>
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	It said it was overwhelmed by the numbers of people flocking to Germany through its southern border.</p>
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	One week ago German Chancellor Angela Merkel won plaudits for effectively opening Germany&#39;s doors to refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria.</p>
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	Now following another surge of people pushing up through Serbia, Hungary and Austria to seek a new life in Germany the country has been forced into a change of direction.</p>
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	The authorities in Munich say 13,000 people arrived on Saturday and a further 3,000 yesterday.</p>
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	They say they simply can no longer cope.</p>
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	Germany&#39;s interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said the move was temporary and was permitted within the Schengen rules.</p>
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	The interior minister of southern Bavaria state has said Germany will maintain its new border controls to slow a record influx of refugees for at least &quot;several weeks&quot;.</p>
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	&quot;It makes no sense, and it&#39;s not even in the interest of refugees, to allow such chaos, and at the same time this is about the security of Germany,&quot; said Joachim Herrmann.</p>
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	The conservative minister said he was glad that his proposal for reintroduced border control had quickly met with a positive response, adding that it was likely to stay in place &quot;for several weeks at least&quot;.</p>
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	Mr Herrmann also recalled that the Schengen agreement for passport-free travel also includes &quot;an obligation to control the (European Union&#39;s) external borders all the more tightly&quot;.</p>
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	&quot;And that hasn&#39;t been the case at all for quite a while in some countries, such as Italy and Greece, and we cannot accept that&quot;.</p>
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	The discussion that other countries need to share the burden will dominate today&#39;s meeting of justice ministers in Brussels.</p>
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	Countries such as Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic remain bitterly opposed to any binding quotas for refugees.</p>
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	Hungary will even introduce a law this week that anyone illegally entering the country will face prison.</p>
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	Such is the sensitivity of the issue that it may have to wait until EU leaders meet in mid-October before agreement can be reached.</p>
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	Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron is in Beirut today for a one-day visit to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis, a Lebanese government source said.</p>
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	Mr Cameron is visiting a Syrian refugee camp in the Bekaa valley and is meeting his Lebanese counterpart Tammam Salam, the source said.</p>
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	Last week Mr Cameron announced that the UK would take 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years.</p>
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	Today he announced he is appointing Richard Harrington as minister for Syrian refugees to ensure the arrivals are given a &quot;warm welcome&quot; in the UK.</p>
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	Some 1.1 million Syrians have found sanctuary in Lebanon - the equivalent of more than a quarter of the country&#39;s population - after being forced to flee the violence meted out by dictator Bashar Assad and the Islamic State terror group.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0914/727640-refugee-crisis/">http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0914/727640-refugee-crisis/</a></p>
