EU states face charge for refusing refugees

The punitive financial pay-off clause is one of the most contentious parts of the European Commission's proposed revision of the so-called Dublin asylum regulation, due to be revealed on Wednesday. 

It represents the EU's most concerted attempt to salvage an asylum system that collapsed under the weight of a million-strong migration to Europe last year, endangering the principle of passport-free travel in the Schengen area.

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"The size of the contribution may change but the idea is to make it appear like a sanction," said one official who has seen the proposal. Another diplomat said in any event the price of refusing to host a refugee would be "hundreds of thousands of euros".

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These financial contributions are in part designed to fix incentives around migrant quotas, which have badly failed and proved almost impossible to implement even once agreed in law. The commission proposal builds on the EU's flagship emergency scheme to relocate 160,000 refugees, which has barely redistributed 1 per cent of its target since it was agreed last year.