The European Union should step up funding for the United Nation’s migration agency to return migrants stranded in Libya to their home countries further south in Africa, the bloc’s current president says.
The proposal by Malta, a frontline state for migrants, was presented to the other 27 members of the bloc earlier in February, and seen by media on Tuesday.
Some 1.6 million refugees and migrants reached Europe via the Mediterranean in 2014-2016.
Italy,as well as Malta, bears much of the immediate burden of dealing with African migrants who leave the lawless Libya on unfit boats.
Malta’s proposal comes ahead of a summit of the bloc’s 28 national leaders next week who will look at putting into practice agreements on new steps to stem African immigration.
The U.N.’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates that there are between 700,000 and one million migrants in Libya.
It aims to help 7,000 people stranded there to go back home this year, more than doubling its return programme from 2016.
The EU has already promised more funding to that end last December.
But the Maltese plan calls for “significant increase in the number of migrants accepting voluntary returns to their country of origin beyond the current target of 5,000.”
Earlier this month at a meeting in Malta, the bloc promised support to the UN-backed government in Libya to help to bring about stability, as well as to curb migration from the coast.(Reuters/NAN)
