MADRID, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said on Saturday that he expects the European Union to "considerably" lower the number of refugees Spain should take in by September this year.
September 2015 saw the European Commission ask Spain to house 17,000 refugees from the conflicts in Syria and Iraq who were being housed in Greece, Syria and Italy.
So far just 1,488 of those 17,000 have reached Spain, with the country blaming bureaucratic delays and security needs for the slowness of the process.
Although Zoido said he hoped the country would be able to welcome a further 1,449 refugees before the end of the year, he said it would be impossible to receive 17,000 while speaking in an interview reproduced in the Spanish media.
"Back in the day we said it could be up to 17,000 refugees, but that number has lowered significantly," said Zoido, saying that the number was likely to be revised to "around 7,000 or 7,500".
"It is not because Spain has lowered the number, but because the European Union has lowered it," he explained.
Zoido added that Spain would "make an effort to be able to attend to the number of relocations that the EU finally fix for us, but under no circumstance will it reach 17,000".
The past two years has seen criticism of the Spanish government's efforts to take in refugees by the EU, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and opposition politicians, with Socialist Party Leader,Pedro Sanchez in 2016 saying the delays were "embarrassing" Spain.
Meanwhile, on Feb. 18, an estimated 160,000 people marched through the streets of Barcelona, demanding that the country stepped up its efforts to take in and rehouse refugees.
