Maybe the sixth time will be the charm for European leaders trying to forge a unified response to the EU’s migration crisis.
Five times before, the presidents and prime ministers of the 28 countries in the European Union have tried to tackle the issue. Yet Europe’s response to the wave of desperate families seeking entry to the EU remains, by most accounts, fragmented and chaotic.
The leaders of the EU countries are meeting Wednesday on the issue for the sixth time — this time in the tiny island nation of Malta.
More aid to Africa, return policies for migrants and a crackdown on smuggling rings are part of the talks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said African countries need to fight poverty and become more transparent to make sure the “youth of the continent has a chance.” This exchange in Malta is important, she said, because Africa’s cooperation is needed to defeat smugglers and traffickers of migrants.
In the meantime, people desperate to escape the violence of the Middle East continue to flock to Europe. And they continue to die in the attempt.
27 rescued off Turkish coast
On Wednesday, hours before the EU meeting was scheduled to convene, at least 18 people died off the western coast of Turkey in two boat incidents.
Fourteen people were found dead by the Turkish coast guard in a half-sunken wooden boat, with 27 people alive on board. The wooden migrant boat sank somewhere near the Turkish towns of Ayvacik and Babakale and had been apparently trying to get to the Greek island of Lesbos just 6 miles (10 kilometers) away, CNN Turk reported.
A second boat was recovered by the Turkish coast guard with 22 migrants on board and four bodies in the water nearby.
Just 147 of a planned 160,000 refugees relocated
Wednesday’s meeting also comes amid clear signals that previous meetings have produced few concrete results.
A meeting in September, for example, was billed as the moment when Europe finally took responsibility for the influx of desperate people arriving on its shores.
In late September, European leaders agreed on a plan to relocate 160,000 migrants from the countries they’re flooding into — mainly Greece and Italy.
Seven weeks later, the plan has barely gotten off the ground, according to new statistics released by the European Commission: Of the 160,000 refugees targeted, the EU has relocated just 147.
Germany may receive 1 million refugees this year
And there are signs of disunity among EU countries. During the summer, Germany suspended the Dublin Regulation, under which refugees must register in the EU country in which they first arrive and can be sent back there from other EU countries if they don’t.
That is to say that Germany went ahead and processed refugee applications for people who reached Germany after traveling across other EU countries.
Now, Germany is reapplying the regulation for all EU countries except Greece, a German Interior Ministry spokesman said Tuesday, according to the DPA press agency.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced criticism for suspending the regulation, with opponents saying her decision had encouraged many more people to come to Germany.
Officially, Germany expects to receive 800,000 refugees this year, four times the number it received in 2014. Some estimates put the figure at more than 1 million.
