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Arrest of Muslim teen for bringing clock to school ‘inevitable byproduct of culture of fear’

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ACLU says arrest of student ‘raises serious concerns about racial profiling and the disciplinary system in Texas schools’

After taking a homemade clock to school, Irving MacArthur High student Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was taken in handcuffs to juvenile detention. Police say they may charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock. (Photo: Vernon Bryant/Dallas News)

After taking a homemade clock to school, Irving MacArthur High student Ahmed Mohamed, 14, was taken in handcuffs to juvenile detention. Police say they may charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock. (Photo: Vernon Bryant/Dallas News)

by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams

A Muslim teen with dreams of becoming an engineer brought a clock he made to his Texas high school on Monday.

Then this happened: the teen, 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, sporting a NASA t-shirt, was arrested, handcuffed, and suspended for three days. The ACLU says the arrest has sparked questions about racial profiling.

“They arrested me and told me I committed a crime of a hoax bomb—a fake bomb,” the freshman at MacArthur High told News 8.

Mohamed showed his creation to his engineering teacher at Monday morning, according to reporting by the Dallas Morning News. “He was like, ‘That’s really nice,’” Mohamed said. “‘I would advise you not to show any other teachers.’”

The clock made a beeping sound during his English class, and when he showed it to her, that teacher said: “that looks like a bomb.” He was taken out of class during a later period by the principal and a police officer. The Dallas paper continues:

The bell rang at least twice, he said, while the officers searched his belongings and questioned his intentions. The principal threatened to expel him if he didn’t make a written statement, he said.

“They were like, ‘So you tried to make a bomb?’” Ahmed said.

“I told them no, I was trying to make a clock.”

“He said, ‘It looks like a movie bomb to me.’”

They led Ahmed into a room where four other police officers waited. He said an officer he’d never seen before leaned back in his chair and remarked: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.”

A clearly shocked Ahmed Mohamed. (Photo: Anil Dash/Twitter)

He was taken to police headquarters where he was interrogated.  Local news NBC-DFWcontinues:

“I tried making a phone call to my father. They said, ‘You’re in the middle of an interrogation. You can’t have a phone call,'” he said. “I really don’t think it’s fair, because I brought something to school that wasn’t a threat to anyone. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just showed my teachers something and I end up being arrested later that day.”

Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said late Wednesday morning that no charges would be filed against Mohamed, though, as WGCU reports, police seemed to be unable to believe that the student had simply brought in something he made to show his teacher.

“He would simply only tell us that it was a clock,” said police spokesman James McLellan. “He didn’t offer an explanation as to what it was for, why he created this device, why he brought it to school.”

Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, stated Wednesday that “Mohamed’s avoidable ordeal raises serious concerns about racial profiling and the disciplinary system in Texas schools. Instead of encouraging his curiosity, intellect and ability, the Irving ISD saw fit to throw handcuffs on a frightened 14 year-old Muslim boy wearing a NASA t-shirt and then remove him from school.

“We should not deprive our children of liberty when they haven’t broken the law, and we should not suspend them from school when they haven’t broken the rules. The State of Texas in general, and Irving ISD in particular, need to take a long, hard look at their disciplinary policies to ensure that blanket prejudices and the baseless suspicions they engender don’t deprive our students of an educational environment where their talents can thrive,” Burke continued.

Glenn Greenwald writes Thursday that the arrest was hardly an aberration, but “highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of cultivated fear and demonization” that has existed since 9/11.

Greenwald goes on to describe the arrest as “the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many years.”  Mohamed’s arrest was not surprising, he says: “You can’t have a government that has spent decades waging various forms of war against predominantly Muslim countries — bombing seven of them in the last six years alone — and then act surprised when a Muslim 14-year-old triggers vindictive fear and persecution because he makes a clock for school.”

Support for the teen has flooded social media, with many taking to Twitter with the hashtag #IStandWithAhmed. In addition to the support Mohamed got via Twitter from scientists, his arrest also got the attention of President Barack Obama and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, with Obama inviting the teen to bring his clock to the White House:

UN ‘shocked’ over Hungary action against refugees

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Ban says police’s use of tear gas and water cannon at crowds desperate to cross the border from Serbia “not acceptable”.

hungarian-riot-police

by Al Jazeera

The UN chief has said he was “shocked” after Hungarian riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at crowds of refugees desperate to cross the border from Serbia.

When asked about the border clashes on Wednesday, Ban Ki-moon said the treatment of the refugees by the Hungarian police was “not acceptable”.

Tensions boiled over at the Horgos-Roszke crossing where hundreds of furious people tore down the wire meshing separating them from Hungarian territory, and police clashed for hours with refugees, some of whom threw stones, sticks and plastic bottles.

The unrest left 14 Hungarian police officers injured, the authorities said.

Serbia lodged a formal protest with Hungary over the use of tear gas on its territory, and Nebojsa Stefanovic, interior minister, said police reinforcements were being sent to the Serbian side of the border to help calm tensions.

“We want to leave! We want to leave to Germany!” cried one French-speaking man at a protest at the border through a megaphone.

“Open the door!” he added in English, with hundreds echoing his call.

Children separated

In the chaos, at least four children were separated from their families and apparently taken by police to a nearby border control building, according to Amnesty International, the human rights organisation, said.

“The families are desperate to be reunited with their children,” Tirana Hassan, the crisis response director, said.

“Not only have they experienced the traumatic journey to the border and the use of force by the police – they have now lost the security of being with their parents.”

Large numbers of refugees camped out by the side of the road in the Serbian village of Horgos, close to the Hungarian border overnight into Thursday.

Some have tents while others lie under blankets to keep warm. Small groups gathered around makeshift fires after a night exposed to the elements.

The road leading to the closed border, that is protected by gates and barbed wire, bore the scars of Wednesday’s clashes. Scarred clothing and plastics could be seen stuck to the tarmac close to the border.

Under its new rules, Hungary said it had determined Serbia was “safe”, and therefore it could automatically deny asylum claims at the border.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross said on Thursday that several thousand people had entered Croatia in the last 24 hours, as refugees shifted their route through the Balkans after the Hungarian border closure.

“I cannot assess the exact figure, but it is surely several thousand people that entered the country,” said the local Red Cross spokesperson.

The last official police figure from Wednesday evening was around 1,500 people.

“We witnessed more inflow of people overnight,” she said.

US Muslim student arrested over ‘hoax bomb’ clock

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Ahmed Mohamed, 14, detained for bringing a homemade clock to school that authorities said was a “hoax bomb”.

Ahmed Mohamed

by Al Jazeera

A US high school student from Texas has been arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school that police officers said resembled a “hoax bomb”.

Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old ninth grader at MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, said the clock caught the attention of one of his teachers who reported it to the school’s principal on Monday.

“An officer and the principal came and took me to a room filled with five [police] officers,” Mohamed told local station Dallas News in a video interview from his electronics workshop at his home.

Mohamed said police officers asked him if he intended to make a bomb, but he repeatedly asserted that he had only ever tried to make a clock.

Mohamed said officers claimed it was a “hoax bomb”, while school Principal Daniel Cumming reportedly told Mohamed that he would be expelled unless he gave a written statement.

“They interrogated me and searched through my stuff … later I was taken to a juvenile detention centre.”

A photo of Mohamed in detention recently surfaced on Twitter.

At the centre, police searched Mohamed again, took a mugshot, and took his fingerprints before releasing him.

The incident has renewed the issue of anti-Islamic discrimination in the city, whose mayor, Beth Van Duyne, received attention earlier in the summer for anti-Islamic rhetoric.

His father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, a Sudanese immigrant, said that he believed the arrest was racially motivated.

“He just wants to invent good things for mankind, but because his name is Mohamed and because of September 11, I think my son got mistreated,” the father said.

Police spokesman James McLellan confirmed that Mohamed had never claimed to have made a hoax bomb.

“He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.”

Hungary declares state of emergency over refugee influx

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Police arrest almost 10,000 people for illegally crossing border with Serbia, as tough new asylum laws come into force.

Refugees waited on the Serbian side of the border between Serbia and Hungary after authorities closed the crossing [EPA]

Refugees waited on the Serbian side of the border between Serbia and Hungary after authorities closed the crossing [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

The Hungarian government has declared a state of emergency to cope with the influx of refugees, as almost 10,000 people were arrested on Monday for illegally crossing the border from Serbia, police said.

On Tuesday, police also detained at least 60 people claiming to be Syrian and Afghan refugees after they illegally crossed the border with Serbia, police spokeswoman Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has indicated that asylum requests from refugees trying to enter Hungary from Serbia will be rejected because Serbia is a safe country where refugees do not risk war or persecution.

Meanwhile, Serbia was talking to the Hungarian government about the buildup of refugees on their frontier, a Serbian government minister said, adding Budapest would “have to open the border”.

Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s minister in charge of tackling the refugee crisis, did not elaborate.

UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said on Tuesday that it is likely that thousands of refugees will simply divert their route now that Hungary has closed its border with Serbia.

“We’re definitely in touch with different countries on contingencies and UNHCR is ready to move and assist different countries as best we can,” Fleming said.

“It’s going to be just as much a struggle as it has been for Macedonia and Greece.”

Over 200,000 refugees have reached Hungary so far in 2015, nearly all by walking across the southern border with Serbia.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Roszke on the Hungary-Serbia border, said there were more soldiers and policemen than there were refugees at the crossing.

“We had heard that in the last 20 minutes there were a couple of dozens that crossed this way. They were probably going to the official border crossing which is about 2km from here.

“Although we understand from local officials that at that crossing, they are not letting refugees come into Hungary.

“There are at least a few hundred refugees begging authorities at that crossing point to let them to cross over into Hungary,” Jamjoom said.

On Tuesday, fewer refugees crossed into Austria from Hungary on Tuesday after Budapest started to clamp down on the flow through the Balkan peninsula to the richer countries of northern and western Europe, Austrian police said.

On Monday, the last day before Hungary sealed off its Serbian border with a razor wire fence, a record 15,700 people arrived in eastern Austria via the border town of Nickelsdorf.

“Yesterday 15,700 people crossed the border here at Nickelsdorf making it a day of record numbers. The night was a bit quieter,” Helmut Marban, from the regional Burgenland police, told Reuters news agency.

“We have had around 1,800 people from midnight until now,” adding that he did not expect the flow to ease despite Hungary now having closed its border with neighbouring Serbia,” he said.

Some 2,500 people spent the night in tents at the Austrian border, which had been set up by the country’s army.

Hungarian police said on Tuesday that two crossings on the border with Serbia have been closed to all traffic as stricter rules about the entry of migrants are applied.

“Since 12:30 the Hungarian border to Serbia has been closed. This means that no new migrants will be crossing the border there,” Marban said.

“But it is the case that we think that many thousand people were still on the go in Hungary before the border closed and they will surely make their way to Nickelsdorf here in Austria and try to continue their journey to Germany”.

Australia to get new PM after Abbott loses challenge

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Tony Abbott to step aside as prime minister after losing leadership challenge to Malcolm Turnbull.

Tony Abbott

by Al Jazeera

Australia is to get a new Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, after embattled leader Tony Abbott lost a challenge for the leadership of the Liberal Party, the senior partner in the ruling conservative coalition.

The former communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is to become Australia’s 29th prime minister after defeating Abbott in party room spill with 54 votes to 44.

Turnbull is expected to be sworn in as prime minister by Australia’s governor-general Peter Cosgrove on Tuesday.

Turnbull on Monday said he informed Abbott he would challenge him for the leadership after losing confidence in his management of the economy.

“The prime minister has not been capable of providing the economic leadership our nation needs. He has not been capable of providing the economic confidence that business needs,” Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.

Volatile

The leadership vote continues an extraordinarily volatile period in Australian federal politics, especially as the Liberals were elected in 2013 as a stable alternative to the then Labor government.

Labor came to power under Kevin Rudd at the 2007 elections, only to dump him in the face of poor opinion polling for his deputy Julia Gillard in 2010, months ahead of elections.

The bitterly divided and chaotic government then dumped Gillard for Rudd just months before the 2013 election.

Before Rudd was elected in 2007, John Howard was in power for almost 12 years.

The government has trailed the opposition in a range of opinion polls since April last year.

Charlie Hebdo mocks the drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi

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Charlie Hebdo Aylan Kurdi

by Emre Basaran, Daily Sabah

Eight months after the terror attack, which claimed the lives of 12 people including its cartoonists, French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s latest issue features the Syrian toddler washed ashore on a Turkish beach.

The magazine featured cartoons depicting the three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who was washed ashore in southwestern Turkish city of Bodrum two weeks ago. Mocking the death of the toddler, the the drawing’s title was “Si près du but…” which translates to “So close to his goal.” The drawing featured the dead body of the toddler washed ashore in front of a publicity board with a McDonald’s ad, saying “Two children combos for the price of one.”

In another controversial cartoon, the magazine also features a cartoon entitled “The proof that Europe is Christian,” which featured a man -supposedly Jesus Christ- standing on water and saying “Christians walk on the water” and a toddler sinking into the sea, saying “Muslim children sink”.

The magazine received harsh public reaction by Twitter users after the pages started circulating on social media.

Following the magazine’s controversial cartoons featuring Prophet Muhammad, on January 7, 2015, a group of extremists forced their way into the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo and opened fire, killing twelve persons including five staff cartoonists, an economist, two editors Elsa Cayat and Mustapha Ourrad, guest Michel Renaud, a maintenance worker, two police officers and wounding eleven, four of whom were in critical condition.

Veteran leftist MP Corbyn voted leader of UK opposition

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Jeremy Corbyn, critic of austerity and military intervention, elected to lead Labour Party with 59.5 percent of ballot.

Corbyn has been an outspoke critic of the British government's austerity policies [Reuters]

Corbyn has been an outspoke critic of the British government’s austerity policies [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

The UK’s opposition Labour Party has elected veteran left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn to be its new leader, in one of the most controversial leadership votes in recent British political history.

The announcement of Corbyn’s success brings to close a bitterly fought contest, which could herald the start of renewed divisions within the party between those in support of his anti-austerity platform, and those advocating a further shift away from the left.

Corbyn won the vote in the first round, picking up 251,417 or 59.5 percent of votes cast.

In a speech delivered after the announcement of his victory, Corbyn said his first act as leader of the party would be to attend a protest demanding better treatment of refugees.

“They are the generational victims of war, who end up in desperation, end up in terrible places, end up trying to get a place of safety … they are human beings just like you, just like me,” Corbyn said.

“Let’s deal with the refugee crisis with humanity, with support, with help, with compassion … we cannot go on like this with grotesque levels of global inequality.”

Corbyn said he would take the ruling Conservative Party to task for its cuts to welfare payments and public services, which he blamed for rising poverty in the UK.

“The Tories (Conservatives) have used the economic crisis of 2008 to impose a terrible burden on the poorest people in this country … it’s not right, it’s not necessary and it’s got to change,” Corbyn said.

The MP for the London constituency of Islington North, also thanked a number of trade unions for their backing during his leadership campaign.

Corbyn’s support base derived largely from left-leaning members, and from new members who joined the party after its crushing election defeat in May.

Labour’s new leader also slammed coverage of his campaign by the British press, many sections of which have cast him as economically dangerous.

Andy Burnham, Corbyn’s nearest competitor, received 19 percent of the ballots cast. MP Tom Watson was elected Corbyn’s deputy.

As refugee aid falters, European leaders pursue military action at sea

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Led by Britain, European leaders ask United Nations Security Council to approve military targeting of ‘human smugglers’ along route from Libya

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

Refugees and migrants on a fishing boat pictured before making contact with the Italian navy. (Photo: Italian Coastguard/Massimo Sestini)

by Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams

As their humanitarian response to the ongoing refugee crisis falters, European leaders are pressing the United Nations Security Council to authorized an escalated military force to pursue so-called “human smugglers” in the Mediterranean Sea’s international waters.

The effort to advance the draft resolution is, according to Foreign Policy, being led by Britain, whose government has come under fire for “turning its back” on people seeking refuge from war and poverty.

Specifically, the plan would approve military action in international waters along a route from the coast of Libya to Italy, according to reports from the New York Times on the proposal, which will soon be circulated within the UNSC.

The route is commonly used to transport people fleeing West Africa, Eritrea, and Afghanistan, while Syrians are increasingly using a pathway that passes through Turkey.According to an unnamed Security Council diplomat quoted by The New York Times, the proposal stipulates for seized boats to be taken to Italy, where the refugees aboard would then be considered for asylum.

The plan is less severe than a previous proposal, circulated by Britain last spring, that would have allowed European military forces to pursue “human smugglers” in Libyan waters and even on the country’s soil. Britain eventually abandoned the measure after failing to secure Libyan approval.

However, many have argued that military targeting of “smuggling” networks would neither deter nor help refugees, who undergo tremendous hardship and risk their lives in a bid to escape war and poverty. The UN refugee agency recently declared they do not expect the influx of refugees to Europe to slow.

Going further, many observers argue a military response is the polar opposite of the humanitarian response wealthy nations owe refugees. “A whole generation of people are putting themselves in debt to be smuggled into Europe, only to be thrown out,” UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants Francois Crepeau told Al Jazeera last month. “That is a really ridiculous transfer of wealth… We can help people by giving them better options.”

The Britain-led resolution is not the only effort underway to ramp up Europe’s military response to the humanitarian crisis. The European Council agreed in May to another plan to escalate military targeting of so-called smugglers, by giving a European maritime force the power to seize vessels. The Council is continuing to press Libya to approve pursuit on their soil.

The proposed military campaigns at sea have been accompanied by parallel efforts on land, with some EU leaders already tightening borders, and Hungary moving forward with a 110-mile razor wire fence to bar refugees from entry—while also bolstering its military at the border.

What’s more, elected leaders across Europe and the world are using the humanitarian crisis to justify military escalation towards Syria, despite warnings that there is no military solution to the hardships refugees endure.

Dramatic rescues as tsunami-like flood hits Japan city

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More than 100,000 flee homes after Kinugawa river breaks banks, leaving houses submerged and residents stranded.

The building of an open-air spa, right, that belongs to Kinugawa Plaza Hotel, falls into the rapid stream of the Kinugawa River swollen by heavy rainfall in Nikko, northeast of Tokyo [Kyodo News/AP]

The building of an open-air spa, right, that belongs to Kinugawa Plaza Hotel, falls into the rapid stream of the Kinugawa River swollen by heavy rainfall in Nikko, northeast of Tokyo [Kyodo News/AP]

by Al Jazeera

Military helicopters have plucked residents from the top floors of their homes after raging floodwaters poured in and inundated a wide swath of a city north of Tokyo.

As heavy rain pummelled Japan for a second straight day, the Kinugawa River broke through a flood berm on Thursday, sending a tsunami-like wall of water into Joso, about 50km northeast of Japan’s capital.

The flooding has forced more than 100,000 people from their homes, at least 17 people were injured. Two people were missing.

A 63-year-old woman was missing in a landslide that hit her home while a man in his 70s in Joso was feared trapped when water engulfed his home, NHK national television said.

Earlier, NHK showed aerial footage of rescuers lowered from helicopters and clambering onto second-floor balconies to reach stranded residents.

In one dramatic rescue by a military helicopter, the rescuer could be seen descending four times over about a 20-minute period to take four people up one-by-one, as a deluge of water swept around the home.

Yuko Yoshida from the Japanese Red Cross told Al Jazeera that the exact number of those in need of emergency rescue was not known because many people had evacuated before the rains came in.

“From our assumptions, the government has managed this situation well. Medical facilities are operating,” Yoshida said.

Woman missing

Elsewhere in the region, one woman was missing hours after a landslide hit houses at the foot of a steep, wooded incline. Bullet train services were partially suspended.

Others waved cloths from their veranda as torrents of water around them washed away cars and knocked buildings off their foundations.

Tokyo was also drenched with rain, but the hardest-hit area was to the north in Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures.

The rain came on the heels of Tropical Storm Etau, which caused similar flooding and landslides Wednesday as it crossed central Japan.

The Fire and Disaster and Management Agency said 15 people were injured by Etau, two seriously. Both  were elderly women knocked over by strong winds.

Al Jazeera’s weather forecaster, Everton Fox, said the worst of the rains would clear within the next 12 to 18 hours, adding that by Friday the downpour will have largely stopped.

“The floods are likely to peak for some time because the run off from the higher ground will seep through for a couple of days and then we can expect a gradual improvement in the situation,” Fox said.

A man carries belongings through a flooded street in Oyama, northeast of Tokyo on Thursday [Kyodo News/AP]

EU sets deadline to relocate 160,000 refugees

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EU Commission President Juncker calls on member nations to agree on plan by next week as he unveils $2bn refugee fund.

eu-refugee

by Al Jazeera

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called on EU countries to agree by next week to share 160,000 refugees, as thousands continued to stream across European borders, fleeing from war and persecution.

In an impassioned appeal on Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Juncker unveiled a list of new proposals to help Europe confront its biggest refugee crisis since World War II.

The plan, which will see Germany and France take in the lion’s share of refugees, is likely to run into serious resistance from some member states.

Juncker warned that Greece, Italy and Hungary, where most of the refugees are currently camped out, can no longer cope alone.

“It is time for bold, determined action by the European Union,” Juncker told EU lawmakers, noting that some 500,000 migrants have entered Europe this year, many from conflict-torn Syria and Libya.

In his proposal, Juncker wants 22 of the member states to accept another 120,000 people, on top of the 40,000 already agreed upon in June, bringing the total number to 160,000.

All the 120,000 additional refugees are currently in Greece, Italy and Hungary. Under the new proposal Germany will take in 31,443 refugees; France, 24,031; Spain, 14,931; Poland, 9,287; and The Netherlands, 7,214. Other member nations will take the rest based on wealth, population, unemployment rate and the number of asylum applicants already processed.

“It is a matter of humanity and human dignity,” Juncker said.

“We are fighting against Islamic State, why are we not ready to accept those who are fleeing Islamic State?” he said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group that has taken over territories in Iraq and Syria.

“It is high time to act, to manage the refugee crisis, because there is no alternative. No rhetoric. Action is what is needed for the time.”

Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, reporting from Strasbourg, said the EU leader “told it like it is”, making the point that many Europeans themselves have been refugees at in recent years.

Stiff resistance

Under the proposal, countries refusing to take in refugees could face financial penalties.

Germany, which hosts the largest number of refugees, has already backed the idea. It has welcomed Syrian refugees, waiving EU rules and saying it expects to deal with more than 800,000 asylum seekers this year alone.

Italy, which is one of the main arrival points for thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean is also in favour and so are France and Spain.

But the plan has met stiff opposition from countries like Hungary, which is building a fence to keep refugees away from its borders.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from the Roszke on the Hungarian Serbian border on Wednesday, said Hungary has already clamped down on refugees crossing the country, and has stopped providing information to countries like Austria about the movement of refugees.

Its neighbours, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Slovak Republic have also said that mandatory and permanent quotas would be unacceptable.

Following Juncker’s speech on Wednesday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Europe does not need a new plan to deal with the crisis, and instead stick to an earlier agreement.

“It is necessary to move from negotiating tables to action and to work hard on those measures that we have approved with other EU leaders and agreed on in the past months,” Sobotka said in a statement.

The EU’s first refugee plan never won full support, and only around 32,000 refugees have been allocated. Hungary was among the countries to reject it, along with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

Juncker wants both plans endorsed on Monday at a meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels. “This has to be done in a compulsory way,” he said.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the new plan and also called for it to be made compulsory.

On Monday, France threw its weight behind the EU plan by saying that it would take in 24,000 refugees this year, exactly the figure the new scheme calls for.

Britain, which is not taking part, announced separately that it would welcome up to 20,000 refugees currently in countries outside of the EU over the next five years.

On Wednesday, the Commission also unveiled a plan to set up a $2bn fund to help African nations better manage their borders and help reduce the number of refugees heading for Europe.

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