Leaders address migration, even as more perish by sea

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders Friday drew up new plans to screen migrants in North Africa for eligibility to enter Europe, saying they set aside major differences over stemming the flow of people seeking sanctuary or better lives. But the show of unity did little to hide the fact that the hardest work still lies ahead.

Even as the leaders met in Brussels for a second day, Libya’s coast guard said about 100 people were missing and feared dead after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean.

The leaders agreed on a “new approach” to manage those rescued at sea, just as bickering over who should take responsibility for them undermines unity and threatens cross-border business and travel in Europe.

Italy, Greece and Spain bear responsibility for accepting most of the migrants and have felt abandoned by their EU partners. Italy, with a new anti-European government, has refused to take charge of people rescued at sea in recent weeks, sparking a diplomatic row with France and Malta. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partner is demanding she take a tougher line on migrants, undermining her leadership.

The new plan is to receive people from rescue ships in EU nations that agree to share responsibility for handing migration with the EU’s main point-of-entry countries like Spain, Italy and Greece. They also will receive them in centers in North Africa and possibly the Balkans.

“A complete approach was adopted,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters after a night of haggling and delays to address demands from Italy that its views be incorporated in the final summit statement.

Even new Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, whose populist government has rocked the EU’s political landscape, said: “On the whole, we can say we are satisfied.”

“Italy is no longer alone, as we requested,” he said.

That said, the Czech Republic and Austria have no intention of basing migrant centers on their territory.

The “disembarkation platforms” are a logical extension of the EU’s migrant deal with Turkey. The government in Ankara was paid more than 3 billion euros in refugee aid to stop people leaving for the Greek islands. The bottom line is that numbers have dropped by about 96 percent, compared with 2015 when well over 1 million people entered Europe, most of them fleeing conflict in Syria and Iraq.

Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Niger and Tunisia are touted as possible locations, even though details of the plans are sketchy. Morocco already has refused, and none of those listed has volunteered to take part. The EU’s executive Commission now must draft something more concrete in coordination with the U.N.’s refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration, which would prefer to operate in European migration centers only.

How much the plans will cost remains a mystery, but it won’t be cheap.

UNHCR spokesman Charlie Yaxley said the refugee agency is “still awaiting the legal analysis” of the new plan but would certainly welcome greater EU collaboration on handling asylum claims.

He noted that for the fifth year in a row, the “grim milestone” of 1,000 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean has been passed already, just halfway through 2018.

The UNHCR said about 40,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea this year, almost six times fewer than over the same period in 2016. Many who entered in 2015 and 2016 were fleeing conflict and thus eligible for asylum. Most arriving now seek better lives and probably would not qualify, which means that more people face the prospect of being sent back.