Eritrean refugees flown from Italy to Sweden in first EU quota relocation

   Italian interior minister says it is ‘a day of victory for Europe’ as
   20 people depart, the first of 160,000 to be shared around continent

   Eritrean refugees at Rome’s Ciampino airport
   Dimitris Avramopoulos, left, and Angelino Alfano accompany Eritrean
   refugees at Rome’s Ciampino airport. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP

   Staff and agencies

   Friday 9 October 2015 12.22 BST Last modified on Monday 12 October 2015
   10.57 BST
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   This article is 3 months old

   Twenty Eritreans have been flown from Rome to Sweden in the first move
   under a new and bitterly contested system of EU quotas for sharing
   160,000 refugees.

   The European migration commissioner, Dmitris Avramopoulos, and the
   Italian interior minister, Angelino Alfano, escorted the group to the
   airport.

   “Today is a day of victory for Europe,” Alfano told reporters as the
   jet took off. About 100 other asylum seekers will be sent to countries
   including Germany and Holland in the coming weeks, he said.
   Avramopoulos said the relocation was “a tangible example of what we can
   do if we work together”.

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