‘Refugee debate must be based on fact, not emotions’

EU leaders concentrated on how to seal Europe’s borders as they were warned to expect many millions of refugees over the coming months and years.

The emergency summit in Brussels tried to clear the atmosphere after a damaging vote that split the Union and resulted in all countries having to accept some of the 120,000 refugees to be relocated from Greece and Italy.

They agreed with plans to immediately spend around €2.5 billion from the EU budget and from national contributions to help the UN and the World Food Programme to look after the four million people who have fled Syria to surrounding countries and the eight million displaced inside the war-torn country.