https://za.news.yahoo.com/eu-africa-summit-agrees-plan-stop-migration-tragedies-170823487.html
EU-Africa summit agrees plan to stop migration tragediesBy John Thys | AFP
- 8 minutes ago EU and African leaders trying to stop migrants from
crossing the Mediterranean in perilous conditions unveiled a raft of
measures on Thursday designed to boost development and crack down on human
trafficking.
A huge summit bringing together some 80 leaders from the two continents
touched on security, business and climate change, with sideline talks on
the violence-hit Central African Republic.
There were so many delegates in town that the summit caused two days of
traffic snarls in Brussels.
After tragic scenes of migrants storming fences in Spain and drownings off
the Italian island of Lampedusa, delegates drew up a detailed plan to boost
legal immigration while trying to dissuade Africans from trying to reach
Europe illegally.
"If we concentrate on improving the skills of our people, investing in
them, they will not have to come through Lampedusa," said Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma, head of the African Union Commission.
"They'll come through the airports and the ports and they will be welcome,"
she said.
In the plan, the first of its kind, the two blocs commit to putting their
resources together to normalise migration, with a focus on development and
education on the one hand, and tightening borders and fighting traffickers
on the other.
A joint statement said the EU and AU would "upscale efforts in combating
trafficking in human beings" and "fight irregular migration".
Immigration charities estimate between 17,000 and 20,000 migrants have died
at sea while trying to reach Europe in the past 20 years, but fighting the
phenomenon from both Africa and Europe has proved difficult.
Delegates failed to reach an agreement on migration at the last Africa-EU
summit in 2010 -- an unusual affair hosted in Moamer Kadhafi's Libya --
with Africans reluctant to impose tighter controls at their shores.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the agreement was a "real
breakthrough, a very important declaration".
In one of the worst ever Mediterranean migrant tragedies, a boat overloaded
with refugees, mostly from strife-torn Somalia and Eritrea, caught fire and
capsized last October off the island of Lampedusa.
Some 366 people lost their lives, prompting calls for an overhaul of
European migration and asylum policies.
Received on Thu Apr 03 2014 - 13:26:52 EDT