EU leaders agree to send $1.5 billion to aid groups

In bid to ease migrant crisis, cash will go to help refugees in camps near their homes

BRUSSELS— European Union leaders, faced with a staggering migration crisis and deep divisions over how to tackle it, managed to agree early Thursday to boost border controls to ease the influx and to send € 1 billion ($1.5 billion) to international agencies helping refugees at camps near their home countries.

The leaders also said that task forces of European experts sent to help register and screen migrants in socalled hotspots must be fully operational in Greece and Italy, and perhaps also Bulgaria, by November.

The move is intended to quickly identify migrants eligible for refugee status and relocation into other European countries, and to filter out economic migrants who are unlikely to qualify for asylum in Europe.

“The measures we have agreed (to) today will not end the crisis. But they are all necessary steps in the right direction,” EU Council President Donald Tusk said at the conclusion of the more than seven-hour meeting.

He added that European leaders, who have disagreed acrimoniously with one another over how best to tackle the flow of people into the continent, finally appeared to reach agreement. “Tonight we have a common understanding that we cannot continue like we did before,” he said, adding that the crisis will only deepen.

“It is clear that the greatest tide of refugees and migrants is yet to come,” he said. “Therefore we need to correct the policy of open doors and windows.”

The leaders also pledged to boost support to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan to help them cope with the millions fleeing the fighting in Syria.