[ad_1]
Italy Calls for Increased Financial Aid to Africa to Stem Migration to Europe
By Gabriela Baczynska
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will this week ask European Union counterparts to give Africa more money and create “European humanitarian corridors” to curb irregular immigration, a document has revealed.
The paper, seen by Reuters, sets out Rome’s position for a summit of EU-27 leaders in Brussels from Thursday to Friday to discuss rising arrivals from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
It called for a “more tangible commitment” from Europe, “underpinned by significant financial resources” to work on everything from border controls to fighting human trafficking with countries along migration routes.
It also sought a new “Pact for Africa” to support investment, education, training, businesses and jobs in the world’s poorest continent.
The summit was convened after Austria and the Netherlands raised complaints about increasing irregular arrivals.
The bloc’s border agency, Frontex, reported 330,000 irregular border crossings last year, the highest since 2016, when global mobility resumed in the wake of the COVID pandemic.
The number is still a far cry from 2015, when more than 1 million people crossed the Mediterranean, risking their lives in unsafe dinghies and overwhelming the bloc.
COMPANY
EU countries fought bitterly over how to care for those to come, and migration has been a highly sensitive issue ever since.
Higher immigration numbers have now revived ideas that had been considered illegal for years, from EU funding for border fences to processing asylum claims in centers outside the continent.
Last December, Austria cited migration concerns when it blocked Bulgaria and Romania from joining Europe’s open travel zone called Schengen.
Meloni took her plan to EU capitals, including Berlin, ahead of the summit, but significantly omitted Paris after falling out with France over migration.
At their meeting in Brussels, EU leaders will also discuss search and rescue operations by NGOs at sea, after Meloni had already tried to restrict such activities through a national decree.
The Italian newspaper said “activities that are not carefully coordinated could create an additional burden for coastal states” and suggested the creation of “European humanitarian corridors” to bring people safely and legally to the EU.
EU countries remain bitterly divided over how to care for those who are granted asylum.
Italy’s paper called for mandatory resettlements, an idea that would require each EU state to take in some people to support arrival countries like Italy and the most popular destination countries like Germany.
But that is anathema to EU members like Hungary and Poland, where conservative governments representing what they describe as traditional Christian values refuse to take in any of the newcomers.
However, Poland has taken in several million Ukrainians this month since Russia invaded its EU neighbor a year ago.
(Additional reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague, Krisztina Than in Budapest, writing by Gabriela Baczynska, editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
[ad_2]
Don’t miss interesting posts on Famousbio
