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europeonline-magazine.eu/1st-leadcurbing-eu-africa-migration-flows-will-take-years-germany-warnsby-alvise-armellini-dpa_365952.html
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Curbing EU-Africa migration flows will take years, Germany warns
By Alvise Armellini, dpa
28.11.2014
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Rome (dpa) - Germany on Friday called for a "far-sighted" approach on
migration, saying that the European Union had no quick fixes at its
disposal to curb a record influx of asylum seekers from Africa and
elsewhere.
The warning came on the sidelines of EU-Africa talks in Rome, where foreign
and interior ministers from the two continents pledged to cooperate on
development and asylum issues and against human trafficking.
"We cannot solve this problem within a few weeks or even months. It will
take years," Steinmeier said after talks with his Italian counterpart,
Paolo Gentiloni.
Gentiloni said 165,000 migrants had arrived by boat in Italy since January
1, adding that 90 per cent had set off from Libya. Many of them are
believed to have moved on to northern Europe, in search of better welfare
protection or work opportunities.
In all of 2013, Italy only had about 43,000 arrivals.
In a joint op-ed published by Italian and German newspapers, Steinmeier and
Gentiloni spoke of "preventative diplomacy" to address the structural
causes of migration from impoverished and conflict-torn nations in Eastern
Africa, like Sudan or Somalia.
Speaking to reporters, Steinmeier stressed the need to resolve conflicts,
support economic development and strengthen institutions in the migrants‘
own countries, as well as in transit countries like Libya or Egypt.
"Everybody agrees that a policy of putting up barriers ... is not an answer
to this problem," the German minister said. "We need to realize that we
need far-sighted policies," he added.
Both Italy and Germany agreed that action was urgent in Libya, where
authorities are unable to keep migration under control. Law and order have
collapsed in the country following the NATO-backed ouster in 2011 of
dictator Moamer Gaddafi.
Steinmeier said that despite the efforts of the international community,
"we are actually getting away from a political solution," and Gentiloni
said the Libyan crisis would be discussed at a NATO meeting next week in
Brussels.
Italy hosted two rounds of EU-Africa talks, as the holder the EU‘s rotating
presidency. On Friday, it chaired a meeting between the bloc‘s 28 member
states and 10 African nations: Libya, Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya and Tunisia.
A day earlier, the format was enlarged to a total of 58 countries,
including Central and West African nations, Norway and Switzerland. EU
interior and foreign ministers also held separate informal talks on
migration.
Received on Sat Nov 29 2014 - 18:02:39 EST