EU: We’ll take in 50,000 more African migrants
BRUSSELS has unveiled plans to bring 50,000 refugees directly from Africa to help sideline traffickers fuelling the migration crisis.
Eurocrats said opening ‘legal avenues’ would provide them with ‘real alternatives to perilous irregular journeys’.
Under the £439million scheme, proposed yesterday, tens of thousands would be accepted from countries including Niger, Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia and Egypt over the next two years. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said it was about ‘managing one of the most complex, structural phenomena of our times, not a temporary emergency’.
As well as providing protection to refugees, such legal routes could eventually help the EU’s ageing population by providing workers from abroad, officials also claimed.
The European Commission scheme was unveiled alongside measures allowing member states to scrap open border rules for up to three years to deal with threats posed by terrorism. It prompted a Commissioner to warn that further measures to weaken the Schengen border system could be ‘the beginning of the end for Europe’.
The ‘safe passage’ scheme is the latest attempt to deal with the migrant crisis. Under an existing plan around 23,000 refugees – mainly those fleeing war in Syria – have been moved to EU countries. Former Prime Minister David Cameron signed up to the measure.
A deal brokered with Turkey
in 2016 to resettle refugees in Europe has been credited with largely shutting down the route into Europe via Greece. But Brussels yesterday said it wanted an ‘ increased focus’ on Africa to curb crossings using the deadly Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy. Critics however have pointed out that such measures could prove futile in the largely lawless North African state where it is claimed a million migrants are hoping to reach Europe.
Announcing the plans, EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said: ‘We need to open real alternatives to taking perilous irregular journeys.’
He added: ‘Europe is an ageing continent and we will need skills from abroad. It’s time for the EU to be smarter, selective and productive when it comes to legal migration.’ The proposal is likely to draw concerns from eastern member states who have refused to engage in EU plans to address migration flows.
The EU separately announced plans to allow counties to bolster controls in the passport- free Schengen area. Existing rules, introduced in response to the migration crisis, allow border controls to be introduced for six months then prolonged for two years if there is a border threat.
The new rules increase the initial restriction window to a year. However, countries including France and Germany have called for a two-year period to deal with possible terror threats.
Mr Avramopoulos warned that temporary border controls must remain an ‘exceptional measure of last resort’. ‘If all these rumours that Schengen is at stake are justified and Schengen dies, I’m afraid it will be the beginning of the end of Europe,’ he said.
Muslim women in Austria face a £130 fine from Sunday if they wear the burka in public. Those who refuse to take off the veil on arrival at airports will also be denied entry to the country.
‘Opening real alternatives’