EU chief panics over bloc ‘sleepwalking into new migration crisis’

More than 45,000 migrants crossed Channel to UK in 2022

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European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber has warned the EU is “sleepwalking into a new migration crisis”, calling on France and Germany to take their share of migrants increasingly crossing the bloc’s borders. EU capitals are pushing for a tougher stance on migration and more support from Brussels on how to deal with a surge in irregular migration.

Speaking to Politico, Mr Weber has put the European Council and the EU Commission on alert, warning the bloc’s capacities have hit a wall.

He said: “We are sleepwalking into a new migration crisis. The reception capacities for migrants via the Balkan and Mediterranean routes are exhausted.

“Since the EU failed to adopt a comprehensive policy after the last migration crisis in 2015, the issue has become taboo. It is now coming back with a vengeance.”

Lashing out at France and Germany over their reluctance to accept more migrants and help put Mediterranean border countries, he added: “We need a code of conduct for NGOs active in search and rescue. Also, countries like France and Germany who financially support this should take more responsibility for solving the massive migration challenge in the south of Europe.”

Some member states are also calling for stricter and higher fences to be built on the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has called for the EU to to finance the €2 billion plan.

Commenting on the proposal, Mr Weber added: “Nobody likes to build fences, but where it is necessary, it must be done.

“The EU Commission must give up its resistance to providing EU funds for this. This has been discussed for a long time … We expect the Commission to move on this.”

A senior EU diplomat also told Politico: “Our view is that we don’t see why what is allowed through [a] national budget would be forbidden through [the] EU budget.

“If you look at legislation, it’s possible to do it.”

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Other member states are also calling for reception centres for migrants to be built in a third country such as Africa.

Denmark’s new immigration and integration minister, Kaare Dybvad Bek, said he is trying to find partners in the EU to implement the plan.

He told local media that he recognises it is hard to imagine such a proposal could receive the bloc’s approval, “but there are also things that were difficult to imagine in the EU five years ago.”

It comes as a boat carrying Europe-bound migrants capsized off Libya, killing at least eight people, while 58 others were still missing, the country’s Red Crescent said Wednesday.

Tawfik al-Shukri, spokesman for the Libyan Red Crescent, said the shipwreck took place Tuesday off the Mediterranean town of Garabulli, around 60 kilometres (37 miles) east of the capital of Tripoli.

The boat was carrying at least 150 migrants, of whom 84 survived and were taken to government-run detention centres for migrants, he said.

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Al-Shukri said the dead who were recovered were all men. He shared images purporting to show workers in Red Crescent uniforms packing black body bags with the Mediterranean Sea in the background.

Libya has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants from Africa and the Middle East trying to make it to Europe. The oil-rich country plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Tuesday’s shipwreck was the latest sea tragedy in the central Mediterranean, a key route for migrants.

In 2023, at least 17 migrants were reported dead and 18 others missing off Libya as of Jan. 21, according to the U.N. International Organisation for Migration. More than 1,100 migrants were intercepted and returned to Libya this year, the IOM said.

Last year, at least 529 migrants were reported dead and 848 others missing off Libya, while over 24,680 were intercepted and returned to the chaos-hit country, according to the IOM.

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