German Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging auto industry managers to give refugees opportunities as her country faces the task of integrating a wave of newcomers. Hungary's foreign minister says the European Union should take over the financing of refugee camps for Syrians in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq and, if necessary, support the construction of more camps there. Szijjarto also reiterated Hungary's pledge to provide "police officers, soldiers and money" to help set up a joint EU force to block migrants from entering fellow EU member Greece, from where they often continue north toward richer EU countries like Germany. European Union lawmakers have backed an EU plan to distribute 120,000 refugees among member countries in a fast-track measure aimed at relieving migration pressure on Greece, Italy and Hungary. The move in the European Parliament on Thursday means that EU interior ministers meeting in Brussels next Tuesday will be able to approve the plan if they can overcome opposition from a group of Eastern European nations. Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans thanked the parliament and said the refugee emergency challenges Europe "on a political level, on a humanitarian level and I would even say on a moral level." The German government says the head of the country's immigration authority is stepping down for personal reasons, a move that comes as the country is struggling to cope with a flood of refugees and other migrants. Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen says Denmark would on "a voluntary basis" be willing to take 1,000 refugees "in the light of the extraordinary situation" but won't take part in any mandatory European Union quota to relocate the tens of thousands of migrants pouring into Europe. Thousands of migrants are pouring into Croatia, setting up a new path toward Western Europe after Hungary used tear gas and water cannons to keep them out of its territory.
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