E.U. approves plan to distribute 120,000 refugees

Middle-Eastern migrants at the Croatian-Hungarian border.

(Image credit: ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP/Getty Images)

published 22 September 2015

European Union ministers approved a plan Tuesday to distribute 120,000 refugees across its 28 member nations. Though the plan faced dissent from four former Soviet bloc countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia — E.U. ministers ultimately voted to overrule that objection. Germany, along with other world powers, backed the plan.

While the plan only addresses what The New York Times says is a "small fraction of those flowing into Europe," it intends to take some pressure off of front-line nations like Italy and Greece. Nearly half a million people have fled to Europe this year from war-torn areas of the Middle East and Africa.