The European Union as part of the ambitious plan to tackle the teething problem of African and Asian migrants seeking to enter Europe at all costs, has taken a decision to bring 20,000 refugees to Europe in the next two years. The measure is said to cost 50 million Euros (about FCFA 32.8 billion).

The European Commission has called on European Union States to share the burden of the migrants of processing asylum claims, BBC reports. The Commission's plan incorporates the idea of national quotas for the refugees.

The Commission's "European Agenda on Migration", consists of policy guidelines that would have to get approval from a majority of EU governments to become law. The proposed quota system for distributing migrants already in European countries which is separate from refugee resettlement, is based on key data such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP), unemployment figures and national population.

The Commission calculates that Germany would take the largest number; 18.4 per cent, followed by France (14 per cent), Italy (11.8 per cent) and Spain (9 per cent). Italy and Greece, facing a migrant surge, are struggling to cope, reports say.

Under the European Union Law, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark are exempt from the quota plan. The new mechanism is called a "distribution key". It is to be launched on a temporary basis by the end of May 2015, with a permanent plan to follow by the end of this year. France, Germany, Italy and some other countries back the Commission's quota proposal.