A group of European leaders have been meeting in Brussels to try to find unity on deals with the EU’s migration crisis.
Rescue ships have been stranded in the Mediterranean sea over the last couple of weeks as Italy and Malta have stopped them from docking.
Floating at sea with around 230 mainly African asylum seekers on board – refused to dock in Italy and Malta. The lifeline is the second such rescue ship to be rejected in as many weeks.
It’s the backdrop for the special summit of 16 European Union leaders in Brussels – an attempt to unify deeply divided countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says, “Unfortunately, we will not have a complete solution of the migration issue. That is why there will be bilateral and trilateral agreements, how can we help each other.”
And it was the German leader who called for this summit. Her coalition government partners from the southern German region of Bavaria are threatening to turn asylum seekers away at the border unless other EU countries agree to take in more people.
The current plan here in Europe is to set up asylum centres in North African countries with most of the people entering the European Union leaving from the Libyan coastline.
Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat says, “What we need is operational action. There are people at sea right now. We are in a situation where if we don’t take decisions within the coming days, the situation will escalate. What I heard today, what I think we converged on, is a signal that there is probably a willingness to go for some operational charges.”
But no North African countries have agreed to host any centres as yet – Tunisia for instance says it will refuse – and insecurity in Libya is likely to prevent the EU from being able to set them up there.
Only around 41 thousand asylum seekers have entered Europe this year – far off the 1 million who arrived in 2015.
No firm action is to be taken after this special summit but 28 leaders, from all of the EU countries – are coming here to Brussels on Thursday for another summit. Their hope is that they’ll be able to create some kind of new deal on migration.
