EU to tackle immigration with education schemes

Louis Michel, the commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, has announced an initial package of €3.6 million to help education and training programmes in west African states in an attempt to reduce the huge migration flows to Europe from the region.

The money will come from the current European Development Fund while an additional €55 million has been earmarked for the region to tackle immigration issues in the next term of funding which begins next year.

The announcement came following a meeting last night (6 September) between Michel and Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega and Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos.

Michel is also soon to announce a tour of west Africa to discuss development and the re-admission of thousands of illegal migrants that Spain and other EU countries want to send back.

Spain has been critical of the EU approach to an unprecedented problem which has seen 2,500 people arrive on the Canary Islands since last week and 22,000 people arrive since the start of the year.

In response to the crisis Spain, Italy and France have begun preparing an action-plan to be submitted to EU leaders at a summit in Finland next month.

The European Parliament’s civil liberties committee voted this week in favour of a report which calls for more "concrete action" from the EU on immigration. The committee will next week question Franco Frattini, European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, on the Commission’s response.

UK Green MEP Jean Lambert, the author of the report, said there was a need for realistic negotiations with African states on how they might help stem the flow and more funding for the Red Cross, which operates on the ground in helping newly arrived immigrants to the Canaries. She also called for better ways of informing would-be immigrants about the conditions and problems they face when they try to come to Europe to stay.

The pressure on Spain shows no sign of abating with the president of the Canary Islands making an appeal for more help from the EU and Spain.

"The wind of tragedy is blowing toward the Canary Islands," Adan Martin, the president, told an emergency session of the regional parliament.

There is no more funding available for Spain for the rest of the year to deal with the crisis, though from next January a new tranche of funding, mounting to €6 billion, will become available until 2013 to deal with immigration and border issues. A mission by the EU border agency Frontex involving equipment from other EU member states for use in patrols off the west African coast has been criticised for coming too late and with too little resources. Just two boats and one aircraft have been donated by Italy and Portugal for the mission while a Finnish aircraft has yet to be deployed.

Frattini has defended the Frontex mission saying it was a new operation only in its initial stages. He has urged member states to offer more resources for operations tackling immigration. But he also sought to put some of the blame for the immigration on Spain, citing the amnesty Madrid announced last year that gave legal status to thousands of illegal immigrants.

There was better news for the EU elsewhere. Progress was made on trying to get Libya to agree to join EU patrols in the Mediterranean Sea in return for help with desert patrols, thereby paving the way for a second Frontex mission to begin, aimed at stemming the flow of migrants to Malta, Greece and Italy. A ministerial meeting to take place involving Libya this week has been postponed until after an informal meeting later this month of EU justice ministers which will discuss desert patrols.

Louis Michel, the commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, has announced an initial package of €3.6 million to help education and training programmes in west African states in an attempt to reduce the huge migration flows to Europe from the region.