Okwudiri Straightman Nwali

Britain will stand up to Brussels 'blackmail' and resist a bid to force the UK into a quota system for migrants which could see tens of thousands sent to Britain  

• Under Dublin Regulation, UK allowed to return migrants to 'point of entry' and it has sent back 12,000 people under the scheme since 2003  
• But Brussels officials now plan to link deportation scheme to refugee quota
• Britain will 'strongly' resist any change, senior cabinet minister warns
• Meanwhile, Austria demands a cap on how many refugees it takes this year
• Thousands of people are travelling through icy weather to reach Europe 

A spokesman for David Cameron, pictured leaving Downing Street today, has insisted no formal proposals have been tabled

The UK will 'strongly' protest changes to EUmigration rules that mean asylum seekers have to make a claim to stay in the first country they arrive in.

Under the so-called Dublin Convention, refugees have to claim asylum in the country they first enter and they can be returned there under EU rules.

But bureaucrats are set to try and push a change on Britain as David Cameron attempts to complete his renegotiation on Britain's membership of the EU next month.

The ultimatum from Brussels is expected to include a new push for Britain to take tens of thousands of migrants as part of a quota system in return for the right to deport people who reach the UK to claim asylum after travelling through several other countries.

It could throw the Prime Minister's renegotiation of Britain's EU membership into turmoil ahead of the referendum. 

Reforms to the Dublin protocols had been due for debate on March and today a No 10 spokesman today insisted no proposal had been put to Britain so far. 

At a briefing with journalists, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: 'Yes, we would be concerned and strongly against any change against on initial country status that we have got right now.'

Britain has resisted signing up to a quota system on the basis it will draw more migrants from a war torn Middle East. Instead, the Government has gone to refugee camps to rescue the most needy. 

But reports from Brussels emerged last night indicating Britain would be told to join a controversial quota scheme to take new arrivals from Greece or Italy or face being stopped from using EU deportation rules to its advantage.

The United Nations has estimated one million people will try and get into Europe this year, either by sailing across the Mediterranean or walking through the Balkans - an area currently suffering from freezing winter weather. 

Eurosceptics last night accused the EU of 'mafia-style blackmail' to force the UK to submit to their refugee relocation plan. More than 12,000 people have been removed from Britain to other EU countries under these rules since 2003 – a figure the Home Office has boasted is 'many more than we have received in return'.

But in proposals to be officially unveiled in March, the Dublin Regulation would be overhauled to include a mandatory mechanism sharing would-be refugees arriving on the frontline between EU member states.

European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker today said he wanted an additional summit added to European leaders' schedule specifically discuss the migration crisis. 

Because the talks on Britain's membership of the EU, Mr Juncker said he was 'rather worried that we won't have enough time to tackle the refugee question in sufficient depth'. 

If the Dublin regulations were changed would mean that, if Britain wanted to be able to deport asylum seekers who have travelled through other EU countries first, it would have to take refugees.

Justine Greening, pictured last week visiting refugees in Lebanon, has said Britain will strongly resist any change to the system of asylum applications in Europe 

Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman, of Conservatives for Britain, last night told the Mail: 'This is a complete disgrace. It's clear we no longer have control of our borders, just the controls the EU allows us if we are lucky.

'The linkage between the two is mafia-style blackmail.'

An EU source said: 'The UK retains the right to choose whether or not they participate in the new system.'

Meanwhile, Austria has put a cap on the number of refugees it wants to accept - 37,500 this year and a total of 127,500 through 2019.

The numbers were announced after a meeting of federal ministers and provincial governors.

Chancellor Werner Faymann said the figures are a 'guideline' while deputy chancellor Reinhard Mitterlehner called it an 'upper limit'. The two officials are from the two parties that make up Austria's coalition government.

Officials said the government will be examining legal options on how it can react if those numbers are exceeded.

Mr Faymann called the decision an 'emergency solution', but said Austria 'cannot accept everyone applying for asylum'.

Asylum applications in the surged in 2015, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund and they are expected to grow further this year 

Migration last year was driven by a huge surge in the number of people fleeing Syria, while numbers from Afghanistan also surged 

Not included are the 90,000 applications from last year, of which many are still being processed.

The European Council president warned yesterday that the EU will face the collapse of its Schengen border-free travel area unless migration policy is sorted out before the March summit. Donald Tusk told MEPs: 'We have no more than two months to get things under control.' 

EU migration commission Dimitris Avramopoulos told a committee of MEPs that the 'Dublin Regulation'must be 'revised very deeply' to include a mechanism to distribute asylum seekers 'quasi-automatically'.

He said: 'The Commission will make a proposal by March of this year. Dublin should not be any more just a mechanism to allocate responsibility, but also a solidarity instrument among member states.

'In particular they need to have distribution key system under which applicants would be quasi-automatically distributed to a member state.

'Dublin must be revised very deeply. When Dublin was adopted the situation and the landscape was very different, things have changed.

'The ones who defend the old Dublin, I wonder whether they really understand the situation today.'

More than 12,000 people have been sent to other EU countries from Britain since 2003. Pictured: Migrants from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan walk this week in very cold weather, through snow in Macedonia to a camp