Mediterranean migrant crisis: EU refugee quotas to be proposed

The European Commission is expected to make the controversial proposal that EU member countries should take in refugees under an EU quota scheme.

The UN estimates that sixty thousand people have already tried to cross the Mediterranean this year.  

Migrants are being driven to make the journey by "horrific abuse" in Libya. 

According to Amnesty International, more than one thousand 800 migrants have died this year in the Mediterranean, a 20-fold increase the same period in 2014. 

The European Commission's migration policy, to be announced on Wednesday, will also propose organising legal means for migrants to come to Europe so they don't turn to traffickers.

However, it will need to be agreed by EU states. 

European leaders will discuss the proposals at a summit at the end of June.

BBC