Malta will be getting a total of 189 refugees as part of a plan to relocate 160,000 refugees around the EU through a system of mandatory quotas.

Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela confirmed that Malta will get 71 out of 66,000 refugees over the next year in phase one of the plan agreed today and 58 out of 54,000 in phase two of the plan.

It will also be getting another 60 refugees out of 40,000 as part of the plan which had been previously agreed.

European home affairs ministers today approved a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees around the EU through a system of mandatory quotas.

The agreement was reached this afternoon during an extraordinary meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Brussels.

The final decision was made under the qualified majority voting system after a number of eastern European countries maintained their fierce opposition to any mandatory relocation of refugees.

In the end, the large majority of countries voted in favour, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary voted against the proposals while Finland abstained.

Today's summit was called after ministers failed to reach a consensus during a first meeting on September 14 on ambitious proposals put forward by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to introduce the system of mandatory quotas for the relocation of 120,000 refugees.

The European Council has already formally adopted the previous relocation of 40,000 refugees, proposed last May, albeit on a voluntary basis.