Migrants’ sea deaths focusing European minds

EU heads of state gather in Brussels on Thursday for an emergency summit on migration prompted by the deaths of more than 900 people in the Mediterranean this week.

The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding on the southern fringes of the European Union may have pushed the issue of migration up the European political agenda, but finding a long-term, cohesive solution is likely to prove more difficult.

Forging an EU response to migration is tricky. The issue straddles a number of European policy areas, though it falls mainly under the authority of justice and home affairs ministers. Crucially, national member states still retain significant power over visa, immigration and asylum matters.

The summit is the latest attempt by leaders to forge a consensus on migration. Greece, Italy and Malta are said to be working on a common position ahead of the meeting.

The past few days have seen calls for strong action from the EU. On Wednesday, Italy’s defence minister pressed the EU to consider military action to target the human traffickers transporting people across the Mediterranean.

Francois Crépeau, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, has called on the world’s most developed countries – including those in the European Union – to accept one million Syrian refugees over the next five years.

Neither suggestion is likely to gain serious traction at the summit.

In a letter sent to EU leaders ahead of the summit, EU Council president Donald Tusk said that the objective of the summit was to see what the EU "can do to bring immediate relief".

However, these immediate measures, Tusk wrote, would only be a first step in developing a more systemic and geographically comprehensive EU approach to migration in the near future.

Multiple solutions

Despite the difficulties in forming a collective approach to migration and asylum policy, virtually all parties are united in their belief that the solution to the wave of mass migration currently sweeping across the Middle East and North

Africa

demands a multifaceted approach. So any solutions emerging from the summit are likely to encompass a number of key strands.

First, leaders are expected to sanction more funding and resources for search-and- rescue missions in a bid to deal with the spiralling death toll in the Mediterranean.

A new report by Amnesty International underlines what is now widely accepted: that last year's decision to scale down search and rescue efforts after the end of the Italian Mare Nostrum project has led to a dramatic increase in the number of migrants losing their lives at sea, rather than serving as a deterrent for migrants to travel.

No quotas

Second, the resettlement of asylum-seekers is likely to be discussed, though suggestions of a quota system for member states or a temporary visa system for migrants are unlikely to be endorsed.

The EU's commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, told Italian newspaper La Stampa on Wednesday that the EU "cannot impose quotas" on the number of migrants accepted by countries, but would launch a pilot voluntary relocation project, with 5,000 asylum-seekers expected to be targeted.

Third, much of Thursday’s debate is likely to focus on tackling the root cause of migration through some form of co-operation with authorities in countries of origin. The idea of establishing refugee processing centres at the point of departure has been mooted for some time, though whether third countries would sanction this is unclear.

Any form of military involvement, even to target human trafficking operations and criminal operations, is unlikely to gain support, given the history of recent Western involvement in North Africa and the Middle East.

Mission to Libya

Even the recent push from EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini to consider sending civilian or military missions to Libya if a government of national unity was formed received a cool response from member states.

Speaking to the Italian parliament this week, prime minister Matteo Renzi expressed hope that the recent harrowing events could prompt a "change of tack" from Europe.

“This time, the world did not look the other way,” Renzi said, referring to the global response to last weekend’s tragedy.

Echoing the sentiment of many commentators, Renzi appealed to the moral conscience and founding principles of the European Union.

“We are asking for this to be a priority for an EU that wants to be something other than an assembly of member countries in an economic club, something other than a club of learned technicians,” he said.

Whether the recent tragic events in the Mediterranean will be enough to galvanise European political support – and win over anti-immigration feeling in some EU countries – will be the key question in the months ahead.