Juncker lashes states over refugee failings

The head of the European Union’s executive arm has lashed out at member countries for failing take refugees from overwhelmed Greece and Italy often because the migrants are Muslims.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday that some EU states believe that “we are Catholic countries. We don’t have any room for Muslims.”

Juncker said “I find that kind of reasoning unacceptable. People come first, then religion. It’s not religion first, then people.”

EU nations voted in September 2015 to share over two years 160,000 refugees in Greece, Italy and any other country unable to cope with migrant arrivals. So far, only around 5,000 refugees have been relocated. At that rate it would take almost two decades to meet the goal.