EU migration meltdown as countries rush to pull out of refugee relocation scheme

European countries are rushing to pull out of the EU’s refugee relocation programme. The continent has seen an upsurge in migrants heading to its borders in recent years, as wars and economic crises ravage many parts of the world.

Under the EU’s Solidarity Pool, member states are obliged to share the burden of accommodating refugees. Countries must accept a quota of asylum seekers, pay for each person they decline to take in, or offer another form of assistance. However, Brussels tweaked the rules on Tuesday to allow countries facing intense migration pressures to opt out of the scheme.

The states eligible to apply for the exemption are Poland, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia and Estonia. Poland became the first country to officially declare it was pulling out of the Solidarity Pool on Wednesday.

“We have been saying for months that there is no agreement on any relocation mechanisms,” Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński said in announcing the decision.

“Poland bears enormous costs of protecting the borders of the European Union, is under migratory pressure from Belarus, and has accepted war refugees from Ukraine.”

Warsaw has been lobbying Brussels for months to get recognition of the migration pressures it faces.

A number of states in the former eastern bloc have faced continuing flows of refugees as part of a “weaponisation of migration” by Russia and Belarus.

“Our partners [in the EU] know it very well, we’re subject to a very big migration pressure and … we must not face any more commitments,” the Polish government spokesman Adam Szłapka said.

Migration has become a toxic issue in Polish politics, with most political parties opposing the current refugee quota system.

The Czech Republic also submitted its own application for exemption from the provisions of the migration pact on Wednesday.

New data has shown a decrease in the number of migrants heading to Europe over the past year.

Released on Monday, the European Commission’s annual migration assessment showed a drop of 35% in irregular crossings from July 2024 to July 2025.