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Added on the 05/05/2023 22:12:59 - Copyright : France 24 EN
EU states on Wednesday sought a deal on the final part of an overhaul for rules on how they handle asylum seekers and irregular migrants, ahead of a push to make it law by elections next year. Ambassadors from the 27 countries held talks in Brussels after Italy and Germany appeared to have ironed out a last-minute row over charities rescuing migrants stranded in the Mediterranean. FRANCE 24's International Affairs Editor Philip Turle tells us more.
A new diplomatic row loomed Monday over the Aquarius as its operators announced the migrant rescue ship was heading to France, only for the French government to say it should dock at the nearest safe port instead. The ship, the only charity-operated rescue boat working in the central Mediterranean, has been repeatedly turned away by Italy and been forced to stop in Malta and Spain after missions in recent months. On Monday SOS Méditerranée, the charity which runs it, said its “only option” after picking up 58 migrants in its latest rescue was to head to the southern French port of Marseille where the NGO is headquartered.“We alerted other countries but we find it hard to imagine that France would refuse, given the humanitarian situation,” said Francis Vallat, the head of SOS Méditerranée’s French operations.But the French government appeared reluctant to welcome the boat—which has become a bitter symbol of European divisions over migration—to dock.
Following a surge in people arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa by boat, experts say a better response is needed to the ongoing migration crisis.
France must apologise to end a dispute over over what Rome considers insulting remarks, including some over its handling of immigration, Italy's foreign minister said on Friday, while also signalling the spat might be short-lived. The minister, Antonio Tajani, called off a visit to Paris at the last minute on Thursday after French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Italy's right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had been "unable to solve the migration problems on which she was elected". FRANCE 24's European Affairs Editor Armen Georgian tells us more.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has cancelled his trip to Paris after a French minister said Premier Giorgia Meloni “is incapable of resolving the migration problems for which she was elected."
It's one emergency the EU didn’t need. Already dealing with a war on its doorstep, an energy crisis and rising inflation, the handling of the Ocean Viking – a ship carrying migrants rescued in the Mediterranean – starkly showed the limits of European solidarity. The EU Commission has put forward a plan of action, as well as proposing a new Pact on Migration and Asylum. The latter involves a solidarity mechanism that could be legally binding on EU member states in certain situations. But would more European solidarity simply encourage more migrants to come to Europe? That's a key bone of contention in our debate between two MEPs.
A bus carrying migrants rescued off the coast of Libya arrives at a vacation centre on the Giens peninsula in Hyères, a town about 20 kilometers east of Toulon in southern France. IMAGES
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