EU, Africa still miles apart on migration

Hours of negotiations between European Union and African countries meeting in Libya on migration and development have failed to yield concrete commitments on how the two continents would cooperate to curb illegal migration.

A conference which started in Tripoli on Wednesday, bringing together Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Ministers from the EU and Africa, ended yesterday with a joint declaration in which two sticking points - repatriation and funding - had to be watered down for an agreement to be reached.

The European delegation, made up of technical staff from the Finnish EU presidency, together with German, Portuguese and Maltese representatives, was pushing the Africans towards a firm commitment that they would readmit migrants caught entering Europe. But the African delegates insisted their countries would not accept back migrants unless the EU sets up a migration policy fund for countries of origin.

EU officials close to the negotiations said their African counterparts were insisting on a firm commitment by the EU to channel more money into the cause. But promising a migration fund involved complicated budget procedures and, most of all, could not be promised without prior approval by the member states.

The officials were frustrated particularly by the fact that the African delegation had agreed to the repatriation issue during a preparatory meeting held in Malta three weeks ago.

On this issue, the EU was insisting that African countries acknowledge the importance of the 2000 Cotonou agreement, in which they had accepted to readmit migrants caught in Europe "without further formalities". A reference to the Cotonou agreement, upon which Malta's Foreign Minister Michael Frendo had insisted over the past months, only got a mention in the preamble of the agreed document.

At one point during negotiations, delegates from some African countries, whom one delegate identified as "countries of transit", suggested that the migration fund should be sliced off from the larger EU development fund. This proved to be a divisive issue among the African delegates as it would have meant cutting EU development funds channelled to the Third World.

EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel said later it was out of the question that a slice of the development fund could be used for migration.

A government official from an east African country said the Europeans claimed they did not have the mandate from the EU to pledge more aid. "However, we cannot accept to readmit migrants unless we are helped," the official insisted.

The final version of the declaration reaffirmed the EU's stated commitment to increase its outside development aid to 0.56 per cent of gross national income by 2010 and 0.7 per cent by 2015, allocating at least half of the increase to Africa. It added that the feasibility of setting up an additional migration fund would be "examined".

EU Justice, Security and Freedom Commissioner Franco Frattini told journalists that the possibility of setting up a fund would be explored. "If member states want to give more funds, it would be fantastic," he said.

Addressing the Tripoli conference in the morning, Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg said Malta hoped that the meeting would lead to detailed action being taken "in a timely and coordinated manner" to curb illegal migration. Dr Borg stressed that illegal migration was simply not acceptable to destination countries especially those of a modest size like Malta which faces "socio-economic problems of the most serious magnitude".

"The generous allocation on development aid for the eradication of poverty in countries of origin must be encouraged, but we see no reason why this should not be tied to readmission as an incentive to closer cooperation".

Calling for an effort to curb illegal human trafficking, Dr Borg said destination countries should strive for the better integration of immigrants into their societies.

Air Malta assisted The Times in travel arrangements to Tripoli.