Med-5 group slams EU Migration Pact, wants focus on preventing flows

5 months ago 20

The Med 5 group of five major southern European countries bearing the brunt of irregular migration pressures – Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Spain – has urged the European Commission to step up its efforts to prevent migration flows while criticising the EU bloc’s recent controversial pact on migration and asylum for “lack of ambition”.

At their first meeting since the European Parliament approved the new Migration and Asylum Pact (on 10 April), the Med-5 group wanted to show “solidarity” with the Canary Islands, which are under great migratory pressure from Africa, Euractiv’s partner EFE reported.

“The choice of location for this Med-5 summit is no coincidence. In this case, the place is the message, a message of support for the Canary Islands in their constant efforts to face the challenge of migration and the solidarity they have shown in times of great difficulty”, commented Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska (PSOE/S&D).

Grande-Marlaska was joined at the Med-5 “mini-summit” by Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, Maltese Interior Minister Byron Camilleri, Greek Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis and Cypriot Asylum Service Director Andreas Georgiades.

In the final communiqué, the Med-5 ministers made clear that the EU’s controversial Migration and Asylum Pact does not fully satisfy any of their countries, although they believe it is a positive “lowest common denominator” that will allow “progress in the right direction”, they said.

According to fresh data from FRONTEX, the EU received 41,672 irregular immigrants by sea in the first quarter of this year.

Of these 29,253 arrivals, 13,535 came from the Canary Islands (Spain), 13,716 from the Eastern Mediterranean (Greece and Cyprus), 11,364 from the Central Mediterranean (Italy and Malta) and 3,057 from the Western Mediterranean (Spain, via the Straits of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea).

Malta does not take in those rescued at sea and has been widely accused of ignoring distress calls, delaying rescues, and being involved in illegal pushbacks to Libya, involving the North African country’s wayward Coast Guard.

Faced with this extreme situation, the four ministers and the Cypriot representative urged Brussels to invest more in the prevention of migratory flows in two ways: by releasing more funds for cooperation in the countries of origin of migrants and by extending agreements such as those the EU has with Tunisia and Mauritania, Spain with Senegal and Italy with Libya, among others.

Only through greater cooperation on security and development with African countries will it be possible to reduce the flows and prevent “thousands of people from crossing the sea, putting their lives in the hands of mafias who do not care if they arrive, but only about the money”, as Dimitris Kairidis warned.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)