France hosts summit with leaders from Europe and Africa to discuss how to stem an influx of refugees to the continent.
Leaders at the Paris summit will focus on the central Mediterranean route [Thibault Camus/Reuters]
Seven African and European leaders are meeting in the French capital, Paris, to discuss ways to stem the flow of migrants and refugees into Europe from northern Africa.
French President Emmanuel Macron has invited his counterparts from Niger and Chad as well as the head of the Libyan UN-backed government Fayez al-Sarraj, whose countries lie on the main transit route for people fleeing violence and poverty in parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Europe still faces a refugee crisis
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Spanish and Italian Prime Ministers Mariano Rajoy and Paulo Gentiloni, and Europe’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini will join Monday’s talks.
Some 125,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean by boat this year, according to UN figures, with the vast majority arriving in Italy before travelling on to other EU members. An estimated 2,400 have died en route.
Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Paris, said the focus of the meeting was on the central Mediterranean route.
“What Macron says is that he wants to see more border controls in Africa, more patrolling of the waters off the coast of Libya and more development aid for Africa,” Butler said.
“His argument is that fewer people would be fleeing poverty if those countries were stabilised and had more opportunities.”
In July, Macron also proposed – without consulting his allies – the creation of so-called “hot spots” in Africa where asylum seekers fleeing persecution or war could lodge a request to travel to the European Union.
The comment prompted confusion, and his office later downplayed the remark.
Dramatic fall in arrivals
The meeting might also provide insight into why arrivals have plummeted in recent weeks from Libya, the main route into Europe since a separate pathway from Turkey into Greece was shut down in 2016.
The numbers arriving in Italy have fallen by around 50 percent in July and August compared with last year.
OPINION: Who is really responsible for deadly refugee journeys?
Possible reasons include improved action by the Libyan coastguard, tougher border controls in transit countries inland, as well as Libyan militias joining efforts to stop boats leaving.
Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou will tell his European counterparts that the number of migrants passing through the transit town of Agadez in his country has fallen by 80 percent thanks to government efforts, a source in his team told AFP news agency.
Libya has also sought to restrict the work of NGOs operating rescue boats in the Mediterranean that pick up migrants stranded on inflatable dinghies or other unseaworthy crafts.
READ MORE: German NGO halts refugee rescue operations off Libya
Italy has also sought to impose a code of conduct on the NGOs, which face accusations from some critics that their operations have encouraged migrants to attempt the crossing with the knowledge that they will be picked up in an emergency.
EU withdraws funding for refugee aid agencies
The code has been signed by five of seven NGOs with rescue ships – only the French organisation Doctors Without Borders and Germany’s Sea-Watch have refused as a matter of principle, saying they wait to maintain their independence.
The code is set to be approved by all the countries attending Monday’s meeting, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.
Commenting on the drop in arrivals, Al Jazeera’s Butler noted, however, that “there is another side to the story”.
“There are reports from migrants who talk about being turned back at borders by armed militant groups, without actually identifying them,” she said.
“There have also been reports in British media that perhaps some Italian officials have been paying people’s smugglers to keep the migrants back in Libya and not send them over.
“The Italian government has denied that claim, but it does raise the question how those figures have so dramatically tumbled.”
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
EU, African leaders back new plan over migrant crisis
New pact seeks to establish pre-asylum hubs in Africa to process requests instead of in destination countries in Europe.
The African leaders at the summit said fighting poverty must be a central part of any strategy [AFP]
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Spain have agreed to help Chad and Niger with border controls to help stem the flow of migrants and refugees into Europe from northern Africa.
They made the pledge on Monday at a summit in the French capital, Paris, aimed at reducing the numbers of people undertaking a dangerous journey along the so-called central Mediterranean route.
During the meeting, which was also attended by the head of Libya’s UN-backed government and the presidents of Chad and Niger, they also said they would accept asylum claims from refugees who apply for protection while in Africa instead of their destination countries.
The leaders signed a roadmap on the proposal, though there were as yet few details on how it could work. A joint mission will be sent to Niger and Chad soon, they said in a statement after the mini-summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the summit, called it the most effective and far-reaching meeting in months.
“We must all act together – from the source countries to Europe and passing by the transit countries, especially Libya – to be efficient,” he told reporters. “It’s a challenge as much for the EU as for the African Union.”
In a joint statement, the four leaders acknowledged the need to initiate a process in Chad and Niger that would lead to the resettlement of “particularly vulnerable migrants” in Europe.
Europe still faces a refugee crisis
They announced the plan to carry out “protection missions” in the African nations in cooperation with the United Nations’ refugee and migration agencies.
The process would allow refugees and migrants to immigrate legally to Europe, if they are on an eligibility list provided by the UN refugee agency and registered with authorities in Niger and Chad.
The pre-asylum centres would receive European financing, according to a top French diplomat. The official, in keeping with French presidential policy, requested anonymity and would not provide details on the precise locations and procedures for the missions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European countries must clearly define which asylum seekers have legitimate humanitarian needs and who is fleeing poverty.
She called it “very, very important” that the possibility of resettlement is coupled “with an end to illegal migration”.
Merkel also said Europe also needs to “urgently” rethink its asylum system, which requires migrants to seek refugee status in the first country they reach. The requirement has put a huge burden on Greece and Italy, where waves of rickety boats carrying people have arrived in recent years.
The African leaders at the summit said fighting poverty must be a central part of any strategy, adding that human smugglers must be given legal ways of making money.
Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufous aid poverty is what drives people to head to Europe and into trafficking, and that it is important “to find alternatives for the smugglers to leave criminal activity”, such as commerce or farming.
“We are all committed to reducing the damage, the death of Africans in the desert, the death of Africans crossing the Mediterranean,” Chad President Idriss Deby said.
“The fundamental problem will always remain development. We need resources,” he added.
Helping Libya was also a key part of Monday’s meetings, and Fayez al-Serraj, the head of Libya’s UN-backed government, asked for more support to fight people trafficking and in monitoring his country’s southern border.
‘Fearmongering’
EU withdraws funding for refugee aid agencies
The seven leaders also discussed security cooperation before the Europeans held separate talks focused on European Union matters.
Meanwhile, the interior ministers from Libya, Chad, Niger and Mali, who were meeting with Italy’s interior minister in Rome on Monday, said the Paris summit’s agenda “can constitute the beginning of a new relationship between Europe and Africa”.
The ministers also renewed a pledge to back peace accords among Libya’s southern tribes and to stress the importance of backing Libya in the creation of a border guard force.
But groups that help migrants and refugees criticised attempts to stop migration at its source.
“We’re extending the European border farther and farther away,” Eva Ottavy, of the French charity Cimade, told AFP news agenc.
On Monday, the Oxfam and ActionAid charities criticised Europe’s leaders for what they called “fearmongering” over the migrant crisis.
They “continue to present migration as a threat rather than recognising its benefits”, the groups said in a joint statement.
“They are playing into the hands of populist fearmongers who falsely claim that Europe is unable to cope with the arrival of people to its shores and who demonise search-and-rescue missions that save lives in the Mediterranean,” it went on.
“Their short-term approach ignores the fact that Europe needs migrants,” the statement said, adding: “Italy alone will need an estimated 1.6 million regular migrants over the next decade to sustain its welfare and pension schemes.”
They called on the EU to “stop outsourcing border controls to Libya, trapping more and more people in a living hell” and urged governments not to make aid conditional on border management.
Some 125,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean by boat this year, according to UN figures, with the vast majority arriving in Italy before travelling on to other EU members. An estimated 2,400 have died en route.
The numbers arriving in Italy have fallen by around 50 percent in July and August compared with last year.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies