2024-10-08 17:54:45
<img src="https://img.day.az/2021/11/10/800×550/migrant.jpg" class="article-image" alt="The EU demands tougher fight against illegal migration“/>
EU countries agree on the need to introduce more stringent mechanisms to combat the flow of illegal migrants. The issue will be on the agenda at the EU summit next week.
As Day.Az reports with reference to TASS, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper writes about this, citing sources among EU diplomats.
According to them, discussions are focusing on options such as paying third countries to accept people seeking to enter the EU and sending migrants who have been refused asylum to special centers outside the community to await deportation. However, as the publication’s sources note, at the moment the European authorities are not confident that third countries will cooperate with the EU within the framework of such mechanisms. In addition, it remains unclear how such measures can be introduced without violating international law and EU legislation.
“I think that in general [среди стран ЕС] there is consensus regarding [необходимости] searching for new ways to solve the migration problem. But if you do not cooperate with third countries in this matter, nothing will come of it,” one of the newspaper’s sources comments on the situation.
Thus, the draft of the relevant EU document, which was obtained by the publication, states the need to “develop new ways to prevent and combat illegal migration in accordance with international law.” The text also calls for “intensified engagement with countries of origin [мигрантов] and transit countries on the basis of mutually beneficial partnership agreements.”
Against this background, the publication recalls that the European Union has already concluded similar partnership agreements with Tunisia, Mauritania and Egypt. According to the FT, some EU countries are also advocating for the community to follow the example of Italy, which opened an extraterritorial migration center in Albania. However, as the publication notes, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama made it clear to the European authorities that Tirana does not intend to conclude similar agreements with other EU countries.
In August, the European publication Politico reported that the problem of illegal migration would return to the EU agenda after a terrorist attack at a festival in Germany committed by a Syrian refugee. The publication’s source indicated that several EU countries demanded more decisive measures to combat illegal migration. In particular, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni insisted on this. The newspaper noted that the measures taken by the European Union to combat migration are not enough, and the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which includes the tightening of all relevant community standards, will come into force only in two years.