EU nations split over asylum; 112 migrants die in shipwreck
European Union countries remained deeply divided Tuesday over how to reform EU rules for managing the influx of refugees and migrants, as UN agencies reported that an estimated 112 people died over the weekend when a smuggler’s boat sank as it tried to reach Europe.
The estimated toll made the shipwreck off Tunisia the deadliest this year in the dangerous route from North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
EU migration ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, were pessimistic that new proposals to update the bloc’s asylum system would be accepted by many of the 28 member states.
Well over one million people, mostly Syrians fleeing war at home, entered Europe in 2015, overwhelming Greece and Italy and surprising Germany, which took in hundreds of thousands of refugees. Their arrival strained relations among EU neighbours and fueled anti-migrant sentiment, especially in central and eastern Europe.
EU leaders have insisted that the deadlock over how to handle migrants and refugees must be broken this month.
In his first policy address, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte declared Europe’s immigration policy a “failure” and demanded that it be renegotiated. Italy has been the primary entry point for thousands of migrants to Europe via the Mediterranean this year.
Conte insisted the rest of the EU must take on a greater burden of accepting refugees, as well as negotiating with migrants’ home countries to return those who don’t qualify for asylum.
Germany’s deputy interior minister, Stephan Mayer, said “there are still considerable deficits” in the proposals to overhaul EU immigration, while Dutch Migration Minister Mark Harbers said there are “a lot of member states that still have points of discussion.”
“First we have to fix the front door, fix the back door,” Belgian Migration Minister Theo Francken told reporters. “Then we can find a compromise on who’s doing what. When we don’t have a solution for the massive influx of illegal aliens in our Europe, Europe will end, and we will never get out of this crisis.”