EU migrant crisis: Leaders pledge to protect external borders and an extra €1bn to countries in the Middle East
Leaders meeting in Brussels pledged late on Wednesday to give an extra €1bn (£700m) of aid to the Middle East to help stem the flow of migrants into Europe, while also agreeing on the need to strengthen EU external borders.
The aid will be given to countries around Syria, including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, who have taken in millions of refugees since the conflict started.
“The more money we inject into fighting the root causes of flight, the fewer people will be forced to leave their homes,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, whose country expects to receive over one million asylum applications this year.
Talking on the scale of the issue and how the “greatest tide of migrants is yet to come”, European council President Donald Tusk said around four million Syrians had fled to neighbouring countries, so “we should be talking about millions of potential refugees trying to reach Europe from Syria alone, not to mention Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea and other places".
“We need to correct the policy of open doors and windows,” Tusk added.
But Tusk also said the burden could not just be put on Italy and Greece, while the leaders agreed greater assistance for Balkan states, which have witnessed tens of thousands of migrants travelling north through their countries In recent weeks.
Read more: Syrian refugees in new scheme "to arrive in UK soon", says home secretary Theresa May
The leaders also agreed to set up processing centres on frontline countries to help screen new arrivals, called “hotspots”, to help distinguish refugees from economic migrants.
The meeting started with leaders approving a plan to relocate 120,000 migrants across Europe, agreed by interior ministers on Tuesday, which some countries were opposed to, leading to some heated exchanges.
But, at the end of the seven-hour meeting, Tusk struck a positive note, having said: “The measures we have agreed today will not end the crisis. But they are all necessary steps in the right direction.”