"I want to remind you that [the] other 2,800 refugees, on which we agreed in July, should be added to this number [15,000]. Thus, Spain will take about 18,000. In addition, about 17,000, according to our estimates, will sought refuge outside the framework of these programs. So we are talking about 35,000 asylum seekers in Spain," Diaz told reporters before an emergency meeting of the Interior Ministers of the EU countries.
According to the minister, most of the 17,000 people who are expected to apply for asylum in the country in 2015 outside of the EU refugee resettlement quota plan are likely to be from Syria.
The EU interior ministers have gathered in Brussels on Monday to discuss the European Commission-proposed obligatory quota plan to relocate 160,000 refugees throughout the EU nations.
According to the European Commission, some 500,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in the European Union since the beginning of 2015.
