EU leaders are likely to agree to the creation of a quarantine system for migrants entering Italy, Malta and Greece. A draft document appears to call for “structured border zones and facilities”.
Such areas would allow for identification, quick registration, and fingerprinting.
New powers would also enable authorities to expel or detain for up to 18 months people deemed to be illegal immigrants crossing the Med from Libya.
A summit meeting on Thursday is likely to grant police and border controllers, such as the EU’s Frontex, enhanced powers to send people back to their own countries. Currently, such action can only be done by national authorities.
Italy, much aggrieved at having to struggle unaided, has called on Europe and the EU to find a European response, saying it was needed by Europe far more than just by Italy.
“It’s Europe that needs to demonstrate the values it believes in and stands for. Europe isn’t a bundle of economic ties, it’s a community of people, a shared destiny, and ideals.
“Italy could go it alone in the Mediterranean. But it’s Europe that cannot afford to let this happen. That’s the political point ... If we ignore these values now, while the Mediterranean burns, and children drown, it is Europe itself that we lose.”
The sharing out of refugees, however, has seen few volunteers. There is fierce resistance in eastern Europe.
In the last ten days, both France and Austria have clamped shut their borders with Italy and turned hundreds away. Denmark’s election gave second place to the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party which is demanding that border controls be reinstituted. The anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant Freedom party in Austria has just had significant regional electoral gains.
Hungary has started to build a four-metre-high wall along its border with Serbia to block migrants.
Médecins Sans Frontières blamed the Mediterranean crisis on the EU.
“This is an orchestrated humanitarian crisis, created by the failure of the EU to put in place adequate and humane policies and practices to deal with this issue,” said Aurélie Ponthieu, MSF migration adviser.
“The deteriorating situation is not due to unmanageable numbers of migrants and refugees. It is a direct result of chronic shortcomings in the EU’s policies in handling the new arrivals. Member states spend their time talking about closing borders, building fences, and issuing threatening ultimatums to each other.”
