http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/03/03/eu-economic-migrants-dont-come-europe/81258290/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories
EU to economic migrants: Don't come to Europe
Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY 8:50 a.m. EST March 3, 2016
European Council President Donald Tusk told would-be illegal economic
migrants Thursday not to come to Europe, while Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras called for sanctions to be imposed on EU states that
refuse to take in their share of people.
Tusk has been visiting different countries to try and reach consensus
on how to deal with the continent’s ongoing migration crisis.
Speaking in Greece, the main entry point for migrants to Europe, he
told potential illegal economic migrants, “Do not come to Europe. Do
not believe the smugglers. Do not risk your lives and your money. It
is all for nothing.”
Tusk said tackling the crisis in the most affected EU countries,
particularly in Greece which hosts 25,000 migrants, is of the “utmost
urgency.”
Tsipras promised to provide “dignified” living conditions to migrants,
but said his country could not shoulder the burden alone after meeting
with Tusk in Athens ahead of an EU leaders’ summit next week.
"Greece will demand that all countries respect the European treaty and
that there will be sanctions for those that do not," Tsipras said. “We
ask that unilateral actions stop in Europe. We will not allow Greece
or any other country to be turned into a warehouse of souls."
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron was meeting with French
President Francois Hollande in the northern French city of Amiens on
Thursday. Thousands of migrants are camped in the northern port town
of Calais, many of them hoping to cross the Channel to reach Britain.
France's European Affairs Minister Harlem Désir told Radio France
International on Thursday that Britain would give France around 20
million euros ($22 million) on top of the 60 million euros ($65
million) it has already provided to help police migrants in Calais.
Emmanuel Macron, France’s economy minister, told the Financial Times
that thousands of migrants at the camp in Calais — known as “the
Jungle” — could relocate to Britain and that bankers could head from
London to France in the case of a so-called “Brexit"— Britain’s exit
from the EU.
Macron told the newspaper that a deal that allows Britain to conduct
border controls in France and the ability of British financial
services firms to operate across the EU would be affected if the U.K.
leaves the bloc. Cameron has called a referendum on the issue on June
23.
More than a million people came to Europe from countries including
Syria, Iraq, Eritrea and Afghanistan last year and at least 133,000
have arrived on the continent so far in 2016.
Received on Fri Mar 04 2016 - 22:06:16 EST