Danes Appoint Envoy as Europe’s Asylum System Braces for Reform

The arrival in 2015 of well over a million migrants and refugees seeking sanctuary or better lives sparked one of the European Union's biggest recent political crises.

Coastal Mediterranean coastal countries felt abandoned by their fellow EU members as they struggled to cope. Others erected fences to keep migrants out.

Countries bickered over who should take responsibility and whether they should be obliged to help.

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The foundation of Europe’s asylum system — a rule stating that migrants must apply for asylum and stay in the country where they first arrive — remains a contentious issue that the EU has not addressed.

Denmark received about 20,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, a small number compared with its Swedish and German neighbors. 

(Writer: Jan M. Olsen) 

Source: https://apnews.com/6430b4cf69dc93fa526b549915a70374