Paris: France Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced on Thursday to take in 400 refugees per month from Greece under a European Union plan for distributing asylum seekers.
Cazeneuve said in a statement that 97 refugees arrived this week from Greece and Italy. An additional 253 asylum seekers are due to come next week. He also reiterated determination to honor commitment to help handling migration crisis.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls who was in Athens assured to offer reassurances that Paris would live up to its commitments to take in 32,000 additional asylum seekers over the next two years.
Last September the EU plan for sharing out refugees was agreed, but has been very slow in taking off.
The scheme was set up as Greece struggled to cope with the chaotic arrival of nearly a million people last year, by risking their lives by boarding rickety boats to seek better life on the other Mediterranean rim. Most of the Syrian refugees went to Germany.