Macron: Africa must act on migrant plan

French president admits EU plans depend on host countries as tensions grow in Spain and Germany

Emmanuel Macron admitted yesterday that EU plans to open migrant centres in North Africa can only work if the host countries lead the process. Speaking during a visit to Nigeria, the French president said many African countries were concerned that such centres would act as a magnet for greater numbers of migrants. Mr Macron said the idea “can fly, just if some African countries decide to organise it”. No African country has so far agreed to host the centres.

David Chazan,

Justin Huggler

Hannah Strange

EMMANUEL MACRON acknowledged yesterday that EU plans to open migrant processing centres in North Africa can only work if the host countries lead the process. Speaking to the BBC during a visit to Nigeria, the French president said many African countries were concerned that such centres would act as a magnet for greater numbers of migrants.

Mr Macron said the idea “can fly, just if some African countries decide to organise it”. No African country has so far agreed to host the centres, planned as part of a compromise deal on the migration crisis during an EU summit earlier this month.

Mr Macron said migration would pose problems for Europe for decades because of unplanned population growth in African countries. It is a view he has previously expressed, leading to criticism that he is voicing colonial rhetoric.

Meanwhile, Barcelona’s mayor called for help over the arrival of busloads of migrants. Ada Colau issued an urgent call for resources after 500 migrants arrived in the city by bus in 15 days and an NGO ship docked with 60 rescued people turned away by Italy.

Ms Colau welcomed yesterday’s arrival of the Proactiva Open Arms, granted safe harbour in Barcelona after it was denied permission to dock by Italy’s new populist government.

But she accused Spain’s government of turning a blind eye to the growing problem of migration along its own southern shores, where thousands of arrivals in recent weeks have left reception centres overflowing, and forced transfers across the country.

In June, almost 6,800 migrants arrived in Spain by sea, outstripping the total number of arrivals in Greece, Italy and Malta combined.

Pedro Sanchez, the new prime minister, has been accused of making political gestures while failing to address fundamental issues.

Yesterday, his government promised an overhaul of asylum processing and air and sea reinforcements for the Spanish coastguard. But NGOS have warned that, with the Spanish asylum system effectively collapsed, far greater resources are needed.

Conservatives and anti-immigrant groups have meanwhile accused Mr Sanchez of creating a “calling effect” with his offers of safe harbour.

Vox, a small but vocal hard-right party, claimed that just as Germany was “closing its borders to illegal immigration”, Mr Sanchez’s “permissiveness” was causing thousands of migrants to “direct their gaze towards Spain”.

Horst Seehofer, the German interior minister, is to fly to Vienna today for talks to defuse a row over his plans to set up transit camps for migrants on the border between the two countries.

“The migration question will decide whether Europe can survive,” Angela Merkel told German MPS as she defended the planned camps. Mr Seehofer won her backing for the transit centres in a last-minute compromise to avert a German political crisis on Monday, after he threatened to resign and pull his Christian Social Union party out of her coalition government.