French threat to EU asylum camps in North Africa

EU leaders clashed today over a plan to set up camps in North Africa to process immigrants and asylum seekers to help stop the flow of illegal migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.

Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino proposed five pilot projects to set up processing centres in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, officials said.

But French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said he was totally against the idea.

One EU official said an agreement had been reached to launch the pilot projects, but it was unclear if the plan could go ahead without France’s backing.

“We are not taking part in this plan,” de Villepin said. ”It will be very destabilising for these countries.” He said “further study” was needed on the divisive pilot plan.

EU officials said there was agreement from the European Commission to go ahead with the pilot projects, however details of the plan were vague.

The idea of setting up camps outside of the 25 nation bloc to weed out illegal immigrants was pushed by German Interior Minister Otto Schily, who presented his ideas during the meeting.

He told the EU ministers they “could not wait” and needed to act fast to prevent further deaths of migrants trying to get to Europe, across the Mediterranean.

Ruud Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told the EU ministers he was in favour of the pilot projects in principle.

“I am happy to discuss the idea. We have to create a workable approach with international monitoring.

The debate over the camps dominated two days of talks in the Dutch resort of Scheveningen on how EU nations can cooperate to come up with common policies on immigration and asylum.

Germany, backed by Italy, floated the idea in wake of a wave of landings by hundreds of illegals on the Italian coast this summer.

Several African countries, including Libya and Kenya, have been touted as host countries for the suggested camps, while Ukraine has been mentioned as a possible host country to handle refugees fleeing the conflict in Chechnya.

The issue has divided EU nations.

While Britain and Austria have voiced support for the idea, France, Spain and Sweden are hesitant to accept the idea.

A similar proposal made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair last year was rejected by many EU nations fearing the plans went too far and could risk the rights of asylum seekers.