EU Needs Active Policies in Africa to Tackle Migration Problem – Lawmaker

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Europe is facing an immense inflow of migrants who are fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries across Northern Africa and the Middle East.

"Management of migration flows needs active policies in Africa, through agreements with the countries of origin, wherever a viable State exists, or through a concrete European effort to foster social, political and institutional stabilization, as is the case with Libya."

Earlier in May, the European Commission unveiled a plan to take in 20,000 refugees and distribute them throughout the European Union. The European Union is also considering a military operation against human traffickers, as documents revealed by Wikileaks on Monday prove. Papers published on the website detail plans to carry out military actions to destroy vessels used to transport migrants and refugees from Libya.

The senator underlined that the Mediterranean today is the main challenge for the European Union, which can be overcome by unilateral and joint efforts by all the European states.

"More needs to be done. The Commission's new Agenda on Migration might be an important step."

Currently, the Commission is expected to debate an even greater redistribution of 40,000 migrants from Asia and Africa, now residing in Italy and Greece.

The quota proposal, however, faced strong opposition from a number of European states, including Britain, France, Spain, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia and the Czech Republic.