EU TO SPEND 62 BILLION EUROS TO STOP MIGRANTS FLOW FROM AFRICA
BILLIONS of Euros will be sent to Africa by the EU in a bid to stem the flow of migrants desperately trying to enter Europe.
The EU is planning to spend €62billion setting up “compounds” in some North African countries as officials admit migrant numbers have “not decreased in comparison with last year”.
Nations such as Mali, Nigeria and Sudan will be put in charge of handling migrants before they have the opportunity to travel to Europe, according to official EU papers.
In return, Brussels will give them €62billion euros worth of aid and development programmes.
The deal is designed to reduce the number of migrants entering the continent after record levels of migration soared last year as millions of refugees left war-torn Middle Eastern regions and impoverished North African countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been widely criticised after effectively opening her country’s borders to migrants, with critics arguing her decision encouraged more to make perilous journeys to Europe than would otherwise have been the case.
Germany alone saw more than a million new arrivals last year.
There are reportedly 800,000 migrants currently residing in Libya, with officials in the war-ravaged nation allegedly threatening to “open the floodgates” if an EU deal is not reached.
Colonel Mohamed Bourgiba, head of the Gweea detention centre, which holds hundreds of migrants, said: “The state is very weak and there is no money. Most of us here aren’t even getting paid.”
He added: “We will just stop working and open the floodgates. Because at the moment, we are doing all of this for nothing.”
Angela Merkel said tackling the African migrant crisis was a top EU priority.
The German Chancellor said: “Either we defend our external borders and we do it together or we risk falling back into nationalism.
“This is not a challenge for Greece, Germany or Italy, but these are challenges that have to do with the future of Europe.”
