Migrants told not to risk their lives coming to European Union countries

EU Council president Donald Tusk told illegal economic migrants not to risk their lives or money on a perilous trip to Europe “for nothing” but said unilateral actions by European Union states to deal with the crisis must stop.

Tusk was on a trip through Balkan states to try to drum up support for cohesion on how to deal with hundreds of thousands of migrants — a crisis that threatens to tear the bloc apart — before an EU summit on Monday.

From Greece, which has been a primary gateway of migrants flooding into Europe for more than a year, Tusk said anyone who was not a refugee should stay away.

“I want to appeal to all potential illegal economic migrants, wherever you are from — Do not come to Europe. Do not believe the smugglers. Do not risk your lives and your money. It is all for nothing,” Tusk said.

Up to 30,000 refugees and migrants have been stranded in Greece from progressive border closures further up the ‘Balkan corridor’, the route taken to get into wealthier central and northern Europe.

“At Monday’s summit, Greece will demand that burden sharing be equitable among all countries in the bloc, and sanctions for those that do not,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said after meeting Tusk. “We ask that unilateral actions stop in Europe,” said Tspiras in a view echoed by Tusk.

EU officials have said European governments, and particularly Germany, are looking to Turkey to reduce the number of migrant arrivals in Greece to below 1,000 a day at most as an initial condition for discussing taking some Syrian refugees directly from Turkey .

Tsipras said Greece would continue to do whatever it could to ensure no migrant or refugee was left helpless. But he added Greece could not bear the burden by itself.

“We will not allow Greece or any other country to be turned into a warehouse of souls,” Tsipras said. “We are at a crucial moment for the future of Europe.”

Meanwhile French president Francois Hollande has said he hopes Britain will vote to stay in the EU in the June 23 referendum. Mr Hollande was speaking at a press conference with David Cameron at the conclusion of a one-day Anglo-French summit in Amiens. That summit was overshadowed by comments from French finance minister Emmanuel Macron, who suggested migrant camps could be moved from Calais to the UK if Britain votes to leave the EU.

Macron indicated that British withdrawal from the EU could lead to Paris ending a 2003 treaty which allows UK border guards to be stationed in Calais, where thousands of migrants live in makeshift encampments awaiting their opportunity to cross the Channel.

Mr Macron also suggested France would “roll out the red carpet” for bankers wanting to “repatriate” from the City of London to Paris if Britain quit the EU.

He cautioned that any country leaving the 28-nation EU could not expect to retain the same terms of trade with its former partners.

Mr Hollande left no doubt that he wants a remain vote in the referendum. “I hope the UK remains in Europe,” said the French president. “It is in the interest of the UK, it is in the interest of Europe, but the people are always sovereign.”

Mr Cameron announced a £17 million (€22m) investment in enhanced security in Calais, as well as an initiative to move migrants from the port to facilities elsewhere in France.

Mr Cameron said the UK and France had agreed to jointly invest €1.9 billion to develop the next generation of unmanned combat air systems which will be “the most advanced of its kind in Europe, securing high-end engineering jobs and expertise in both the UK and France”.

Mr Cameron told the conference that Britain is “stronger, safer and better off within a reformed European Union”.

He said: “We should be clear how our partnership within the European Union makes a tangible difference to the scale and the breadth of what we can achieve together.

“It was through the European Union that we imposed sanctions against Russia when it illegally invaded Crimea almost two years ago.

“It was through the collective economic muscle of the EU that our sanctions brought Iran to the negotiating table and put a nuclear bomb beyond their reach.

“It is through co-operation and intelligence-sharing with our European partners that we best fight cross-border crime and terrorism, giving us strength in numbers in what is a dangerous world.

“We both firmly believe that our membership of the European Union allows us to amplify our strength, projecting greater power internationally, increasing the security of our citizens, and boosting the competitiveness of our economies.

“We are both strong, proud nations, clear about our influence in the world, and clear that our membership of the European Union enhances that role rather than detracting from it.

“We are stronger, safer and better off within a reformed European Union.”