Migration crisis: EU ministers to meet in two weeks to find solution

Source: Frances Perraudin – The Guardian, 30/08/2015

Interior and justice ministers to hold talks in Brussels to find
measures to cope with challenge of escalating migration
EU interior and justice ministers are to meet in a fortnight in an
effort to find concrete measures to cope with the escalating migration
crisis.


The ministers will meet on 14 September in Brussels after a statement
from the home affairs ministers of Germany, France and Britain said
they had "asked the Luxembourg presidency to organise a special
meeting of justice and interior ministers within the next two weeks,
so as to find concrete steps" to deal with the situation.


The three "underlined the necessity to take immediate action to deal
with the challenge from the migrant influx".


The call came after Germany`s Thomas de Maizière, Britain`s Theresa
May and France`s Bernard Cazeneuve spoke about the crisis on the
sidelines of a meeting in Paris on Saturday on transport security
after passengers thwarted an attack on a high-speed train from
Amsterdam to Paris.


In August, May visited Calais to inspect new security measures aimed
at preventing migrants from reaching England via the Channel tunnel.
Up to 5,000 displaced people are estimated to be in the French port,
with at least nine known to have died trying to make the journey into
Britain since June.


Unprecedented numbers of migrants are reaching EU borders, surpassing
100,000 in July alone and reaching more than 340,000 this year so far.
Italy and Greece are struggling to cope, while Macedonia has declared
a state of emergency.


The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, said on Sunday he believed
the crisis would push the EU to adopt uniform rules for refugees in
place of the current patchwork of laws and approaches. "It will take
months, but we will have a single European policy on asylum, not as
many policies as there are countries," he told the Corriere della
Sera.


The French, British and German statement specifically called for
reception centres to be set up urgently in Italy and Greece to
register new arrivals, and for a common EU list of "safe countries of
origin" to be established, which would theoretically allow asylum
applications to be fast-tracked for specific nationalities.


Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year,
has been pushing for such a list, arguing that it would free up
resources to help those fleeing war and persecution.


May said in an editorial in the Sunday Times that the migrant crisis
had been exacerbated by a broken European migration system, which she
said demonstrated the need for a renegotiation of the terms of
Britain`s EU membership.


She said countries across Europe were realising that the Schengen
agreement – which created Europe`s borderless area – had exacerbated
the crisis, which would be a "wake-up call" to European leaders that
they needed to consider "the consequences of uncontrolled
migration".


"The events of this summer have shown that the most tragic
consequences of a broken European migration system have been borne by
those at risk of exploitation," May wrote. "And the greatest
beneficiaries have been the callous gangs who sell false dreams and
trade on the free borders within the EU."


May said suggesting that migration could not be controlled within the
EU – which gives freedom of movement to member state nationals – was
defeatist and wrong and flew in the face of the evidence.


"Reducing net EU migration need not mean undermining the principle of
free movement. When it was first enshrined, free movement meant the
freedom to move to a job, not the freedom to cross borders to look for
work or claim benefits."


The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said May was treating
immigration and asylum as the same issue. "We have long called on her
to do more to help Syrian refugees, but the government won`t because
they are included in the net migration target," she said. "Increasing
the rhetoric doesn`t help anyone, what we need is sensible and
practical policies instead."


She accused May of being dishonest by pretending she still had a
migration target of tens of thousands. "The reality is that net
migration is over three times the target she set and has risen since
she took office – so all she is doing is undermining trust in the
whole system," Cooper said.


Immigration minister James Brokenshire says EU migrants, students and
reliance on skills from abroad are knocking the UK off its targets.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show migration to
Britain has hit a record high, reaching 330,000 in the year to March.
The rise comes despite a pledge made by David Cameron in 2011 to bring
down immigration to the tens of thousands.


May argued that the biggest single factor preventing the government
from meeting its immigration target was net migration from the
EU.


"While net migration from outside the EU is 10% lower than it was in
2010, net migration from within the EU has more than doubled," May
said. "That is why this government`s renegotiation of Britain`s
relationship with the EU is so important."


May argued that only European migrants with a job lined up should be
allowed into the UK. "Net migration at that volume is simply
unsustainable," she wrote. "It puts pressure on infrastructure, such
as housing and transport, and public services, such as schools and
hospitals."


Four in 10 of the migrants who came to the UK last year came with no
job waiting for them, said May, and this "search for a better life"
has had huge economic costs for the countries they`ve left
behind.


"A third of Portugal`s qualified nurses have migrated; 20% of the
Czech Republic`s medical graduates leave as soon as they qualify;
nearly 500 doctors are leaving Bulgaria every year."


Cameron will continue his attempt to renegotiate the terms of the UK`s
membership of the EU on Friday, visiting Lisbon for talks with the
Portuguese prime minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, before traveling to
Madrid where he will meet the Spanish prime minister, Mariano
Rajoy.


Downing Street said: "The prime minister has been clear on the four
areas where the UK is seeking reform of the European Union. Technical
talks on these issues are now under way and while these talks take
place he will continue to hold discussions with his counterparts –
including in Portugal and Spain this Friday – in order to secure
reforms that address the concerns of the British people."