Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain want to boost repatriations of irregular migrants "promptly." These Med 5 countries also called on Brussels for more funding to deal with migration while noting that most of the current EU budget was spent on accommodating Ukrainian war refugees.
Migration and interior ministers from Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain – the Med 5 countries – agreed on taking a hard-line stance on migrant crossings over the weekend.
The ministers met in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Friday (October 06) and Saturday to discuss how the five Mediterranean countries can come to a compromise agreement on stemming irregular migration flows.
Malta's Interior Minister Byron Camillieri said that it was vital to "send a clear message (to illegally entering migrants that they) have no right to stay and will return promptly to (their) countries of origin."
He added that 70% of migrants who arrived in Malta had been returned to their countries. Camillieri added that all the migrants to Malta had departed from Libya but stressed that 70% originally came from Asian countries.
Cypriot Interior Minister Konstantinos Ioannou also said that in his country, repatriations recently had exceeded arrivals.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi meanwhile stressed during the meeting that it was "important to encourage (such) repatriation" initiatives.
Calls for better cooperation with countries of origin
The ministers also stressed that if Europe was not proactive in taking a firm stance on migration, the bloc could likely see a continuing growth in extremism.
Greek Migration and Asylum minister Dimitris Kairidis, who hosted this sixth meeting of the Med 5, said that the EU was "caught between the hateful shouters on the right and the naive people on the left who believe that any effort to guard borders violates human rights."
Following those comments, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas called for a strengthening in the cooperation of the EU with the migrants' countries of origin, including financial incentives for returns.
"If you cooperate with Europe, you gain; if you don't, you lose," he said, adding that agreements are already underway with Tunisia, Egypt and several western African countries.
The EU should also revisit its 2016 deal with Turkey, Schinas said, citing the deal in which the bloc provided Turkey with six billion euros to help host Syrian refugees in the country.
Schinas also stressed that at the same time, the EU must crack down on traffickers and continue to "destroy their business model."
More funding and resources needed
The Med 5 ministers concluded at their meeting that more resources are needed to curb irregular migration, while also calling for an additional two billion euros to that end.
They also said most of the EU migrantion-related budget currently was spent on hosting Ukrainian war refugees and also on preventing migrant arrivals at the border with Belarus.
Meanwhile, Greece's Kairidis also warned that Israel's recent conflict with Gaza could unleash a fresh wave of migration, as most of the recent migrant crossings into his country reportedly were from Gaza.
With AP