Illegal immigration focus of Morocco talks
Tuesday, July 11, 2006; Posted: 2:11 a.m. EDT (06:11 GMT)
RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- With more and more African migrants pounding at Europe's door in recent months -- and up to 40 percent dying on the way -- top officials from across both continents huddled Monday for landmark talks on how to deter them.
Tackling the chronic poverty and violence that fuel illegal immigration to Europe is one of the key challenges facing the foreign ministers and representatives of 58 countries meeting in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.
The group hopes to agree on joint patrols in the Mediterranean or off the West African coast and on expanding language training and education of potential legal immigrants, among dozens of other measures.
More than 10,000 people have arrived in the Canary Islands since the beginning of 2006 -- already more than twice as many as arrived in 2005, according to Jean-Philippe Chauzy, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.
And the migrants have been undaunted by tightened border controls and the treacherous seas that kill an estimated 40 percent of them, according to European Union officials.
The influx fuels widespread concern in a Europe already struggling with unemployment and racial tensions.
The talks Monday and Tuesday are the first to bring together the countries the migrants are leaving, the ones they pass through and those they are aiming for, said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
The migrants' swelling numbers and high death rate are "just a few examples of the consequences of a failing European policy," European Parliament member Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said. "Reinforcement of the external borders alone is simply not sufficient."
Migrants' rights groups agreed.
Europe "thinks about opening and closing borders," said Abdelhilal Belgacem, an activist with the Friends and Family of Clandestine Immigration Victims, based in Khouribga in poverty-stricken central Morocco. "For us, the concern is how to dissuade people from leaving."
Until now, Spain has led European efforts to police the Mediterranean, backed by EU funds and logistical support. Spain is usually the migrants' first European stop, as they reach the Canary Islands after a risk-filled journey or brave the razor-wire frontier around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa.
The European parliament has lately begun urging member states to adopt a common European asylum and immigration policy.
Hennis-Plasschaert said the EU should streamline asylum procedures and introduce a European equivalent of the U.S. "green card," allowing migrants to work legally in destination countries.
Even before the summit, European and African officials were working together to address the migration crisis.
In Belgium on Monday, the European Union said it was sending $3.2 million to help Mauritania patrol its borders and help pay for the repatriation of migrants from elsewhere in Africa caught crossing the North African nation.
The EU has identified Senegal and Mali as the top countries of origin, saying migrants mostly use the coastal nations of Mauritania and Morocco to get to Europe.
The EU aid money also will be used to provide shelter and food for would-be migrants who end up detained along the way or in Europe. The European Commission said the plan was requested by Mauritania and Spain and was drafted with their help.
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