The European Union's proposed plan to adopt a human face, receive 20 000 migrants and distribute them to European countries in two years is welcome. There is an influx of Europe –bound migrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East who mostly are fleeing from poverty and political turmoil.

While Europe takes this stand, the ‘push’ countries must not be complacent. A country’s most valuable resource is its human population. The ‘push’ countries must work at curbing the factors that make their valuable resource to flee as this is a blight to the credibility of the ‘push’ countries.