10-point plan to halt human traffickers

A 10-point plan with emphasis on fighting human traffickers is expected to be approved by EU leaders at an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday.

The weekend tragedy that saw the deaths of at least 700 people when one boat capsized in the Mediterranean forced EU foreign and justice ministers to propose an immediate plan of action at meetings yesterday.

This comes after years of near paralysis among EU countries in dealing with the issue of illegal migrants and the hugely increased numbers seeking refugee and asylum.

After the meeting, Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan and Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald stressed that people needed to be safe in their home countries, which required tackling political conflicts.

The EU will need a mandate from the UN to set up a joint civil-military operation in the seas off north Africa to capture traffickers and destroy vessels — similar to the successful anti-piracy operation off Somalia.

All countries will be under pressure to take more refugees, as Sweden and Germany take a majority. They also pledged to change the Dublin agreement under which the first country a migrant enters is responsible for processing them.

This has placed huge pressure on Mediterranean countries, especially Malta, Italy, Greece, and Spain and despite appeals to change the regime, most EU countries insisted it remains.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini acknowledged that getting EU governments to agree to share the responsibility for settling migrants would not be an easy task.

She said it would involve working with the UNHCR, “but we have some internal reflection to develop this policy, and especially when it comes go giving frontline countries support”.

“The message of ‘send them back’ is another way of killing them,” she warned.

An EU-wide voluntary pilot project will offer resettlement places for refugees, together with a programme to return migrants that did not need protection to their home countries.

The plan also commits to spending more money and extending the area in which the now limited coastguard missions operate to save people at sea and improve their search and rescue efforts.

There will also be increased efforts to prevent migrants from leaving Africa through working with the countries through which they pass including Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Niger.