EU proposal on migrants condemned

EU leaders are planning to agree a system of detaining migrants, forcibly returning them and destroying vessels to deter them crossing the Mediterranean. 

The plans, due to be signed off at the summit in Brussels tomorrow, have been denounced by Mèdecins Sans Frontières as “orchestrating a humanitarian crisis”.

Part of the original plan in response to 1,300 deaths in the Mediterranean this year was to have member states take 40,000 Syrians and Eritreans from camps in Italy and Greece over two years and take 20,000 from UN camps who have been displaced or fled war.

However, many countries are refusing to help. Ireland is one of the few that has agreed to raise the number it takes from UN camps from 280 to 580 this year and next.

It has an opt-out from taking people who have already entered the EU but Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald says she will consider opting in but does not support the request being mandatory.

The original proposal from the Commission was for countries to take between them 24,000 Syrians and Eritreans from Italy and 16,000 from Greece who arrive after the proposal is adopted, would be eligible for asylum and have the host country process their applications.

They proposed allocating numbers according to a key that included a country’s wealth and population and how many they host already.

Britain and Denmark will not opt in while many of the central and eastern countries object. Hungary is building a four-metre high wall on its 174km border with Serbia to keep out mainly Kosovars.

The draft conclusions for the summit, seen by the Irish Examiner, no longer make it mandatory for countries to take a share of the asylum seekers, instead agreeing the figures of 40,000 and 20,000 and have countries decide if and how many to take.

They plan to resurrect a ‘safe country of origin list’ whose citizens would be automatically returned and to use Frontex, the border patrol agency, to forcibly return migrants.

They also want to increase co-operation with countries like Turkey and Iraq to prevent people crossing into the EU.

Mèdecins Sans Frontières has been involved in rescuing migrants at sea and in Greece and Italy. It denounced the measures and the lack of a policy to allow people fleeing war to safely apply for asylum.

Aurelie Ponthieu said: “The deteriorating situation is not due to unmanageable numbers of migrants and refugees. It is a direct result of chronic shortcomings in the EU’s policies in handling the new arrivals.

“Member states spend their time talking about closing borders, building fences, and issuing threatening ultimatums to each other.

"That will not stop people coming, and will just undermine any collaborative efforts to assist people in need.”