EU leaders attend immigration summit
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
23.04.2015 17:23
Leaders from European Union countries have been called for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the immigration crisis in the Mediterranean sea.
Donald Tusk called the extraordinary meeting in Brussles to discuss the escalating immigrant crisis. Photo: Flickr.com/European Council President
“The situation in the Mediterranean is dramatic. It cannot continue like this. We cannot accept that hundreds of people die when trying to cross the sea to Europe. This is why I have decided to call an extraordinary European Council this Thursday. And this is also why I travelled to the region three weeks ago,” said Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, prior to the meeting.
One of those who travelled to Brussels for the meeting was Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz. She told the Sejm lower house of Polish parliament on Thursday that “what happened recently in the Mediterranean, and the fact that it has becomes a huge graveyard, cannot be ignored.”
“One should not expect that the EU is indifferent to this. We have to react very strongly. On issues where we can help – even seal the [EU] borders – some decisions will be taken at the summit today,” the Polish PM added.
Concrete offers
Some nations already made concrete offers for assistance ahead of the summit.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged the availability of the HMS Bulwark assault ship, three helicopters, and two patrol vessels to aid EU operations in the Mediterranean sea to the south of the EU.
Some 220 immigrants rescued by the crew of the Italian Guardia di Finanza ship 'Denaro' in the Mediterranean Sea arrive in the port of Catania, Sicily. Photo: EPA/ORIETTA SCARDINO
Cameron offered the UK’s aid “under the right conditions. That must include that the people we pick up and the people we deal with, are taken to the nearest safe country – most likely Italy. And [these immigrants] don’t have immediate recourse to claim asylum in the UK.”
Over the last 10 days, over 1,000 people have died, “and we are only at the start of the good season,” Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesperson for the International Organisation on Migration in Catania, was quoted by the Guardian as saying.
On Thursday, an interfaith funeral ceremony for 24 unnamed victims was held in Malta. The unnamed African were part of the 800 who drowned last week in the Mediterranean. (rg)