Migrant crisis: EU leaders argue over sharing burden.

Migrants wait to disembark from the Norwegian cargo ship Siem Pilot after they were rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, at Palermo harbour, Italy, Wednesday, 24 June 2015EU leaders are holding urgent talks on the Mediterranean migrant crisis, with summit chairman Donald Tusk calling for burden-sharing.
He said there was no agreement on mandatory quotas - the EU Commission's plan to relocate migrants across the EU.
"Now we don't need empty declarations on solidarity, only deeds and numbers," he said.
At least 153,000 migrants have tried to enter the EU this year .
That is a 149% rise compared with last year, the border agency Frontex says.
The migrant crisis is high on the agenda for the EU summit, which opened in Brussels on Thursday.

Migration into Europe 2015

153,000
migrants counted on Europe's borders
  • 149% increase from 2014
  • 63,000 migrants reached Greece by sea
  • 62,000 migrants reached Italy by sea
  • 10,000 on Hungary/Serbia border in May
However, the impasse in the Greek debt talks threatens to overshadow the meeting, while UK PM David Cameron's renegotiation aims are also set to be discussed.

'Commitment'

In the Mediterranean, Italy wants more help from its EU partners to handle the boatloads of migrants leaving war-torn Libya at enormous risk.
New figures from the UN refugee agency UNHCR show that 63,000 have arrived in Greece by sea this year, compared with 62,000 in Italy.
"Each country should make a commitment," French President Francois Hollande said, echoing Mr Tusk's call for credible pledges to take in genuine asylum seekers.
EU summit: Greece and migrants to dominate agendaThe crisis is being fuelled by the many Syrians fleeing the ferocious civil war in their country.
More than three million refugees are being housed in countries on Syria's borders - far more than the EU has taken in.
But many thousands are also fleeing chaos, violence and dire poverty in Eritrea, Somalia and other countries of sub-Saharan Africa.

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