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Maltas home affairs chief Carmelo Abela said the issue of sending back failed asylum seekers had been catapulted to the top of member states agendas because of a lack of faith in the EU Commission.

The extraordinary admission came as interior ministers from across the bloc gathered in Brussels today to discuss bold plans to finally bring the migrant crisis under control.

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It demonstrates an increasing friction between the member states and eurocrats over the issue of migration, with many national governments looking to take the issue back into their own hands amid voter outrage.

Top EU figures are set to discuss a massive increase in returns to send a message to would-be immigrants not to travel to Europe unless they are in genuine need of international protection.

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Mr Abela told reporters: The return policy will be discussed because it wasnt trusted on the Commission to come up with the proposal.

Just over a third of all failed asylum seekers in Europe are currently sent back to their country of origin, a low rate which ministers say is failing to act as a deterrent to irregular migration.

Member states are responsible for processing asylum requests and for physically sending back those deemed not to have a case for international protection.

However, the EU intervenes heavily in the return process through its border agency Frontex and via a 2010 directive, not applicable in the UK, which governs the rights of failed refugees.

And now eurocrats want to dismantle large parts of the controversial law, which they say makes it too easy for irregular migrants to indefinitely stall deportation orders.

The return policy will be discussed because it wasnt trusted on the Commission to come up with the proposal

Maltese interior minister Carmelo Abela

They want to alter EU policy to allow member states to detain migrants seekers awaiting deportation, so they cannot abscond, and to target specific nationalities which are seen to be abusing the asylum process.

Ahead of the meeting migration commissioner Dimitris Avramompoulos said: An effective return policy starts within the European Union. But we don't need new legislation or new rules. We need a better implementation of existing rules, in a coordinated way by all Member States.

Ultimately our aim is to reduce the number of irregular arrivals by making it clear to those migrants who are not in need of protection and who do not have a right to stay in the EU that they should not undertake a perilous journey to arrive in Europe illegally.

Some countries on the frontline of the migrant crisis think the measures still do not go far enough, and want to adopt a new action plan to further crack down on irregular migration.

But Estonias interior minister Andres Anvelt backed eurocrats changes and said he believed national governments were close to agreeing unanimity on a way forward.

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A migrant taunts Hungarian riot police as they fire tear gas and water cannon on the Serbian side of the border, near Roszke

He said: I fully support the new renewed action plan of the Commission. Sending back the people who dont have the legal right to be in Europe is the key action tor educe the refugee crisis.

It will send loud and clear a message to all those who want to become illegal immigrants. All together we have to speed up our returning mechanism as soon as possible.

We are very close to that. Some countries they are thinking of a new action plan. I think we have a very good return policy but we are not fulfilling it as much as possible as countries can do.

European countries issued 530,000 deportation orders to irregular migrants and failed asylum seekers in 2015, during a year in which more than a million people arrived on the continent.

But just 194,000 of those deemed to have no right to stay - a pitiful 36 per cent - were ever actually send back to their home countries, with the rest finding ways to stay in the EU.

See original here:
EU states to seize control of migrant return policy from eurocrats - Express.co.uk

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Today we report from France where masked gangs are regularly breaking in to trucks and lorries heading for the UK, which have stopped at a motorway service station near Dunkirk and Calais.

The long overdue destruction of the Calais Jungle camp last year was hailed as a means of ending the migrant crisis but this newspapers investigation makes it clear that the hordes who are intent on coming to Britain have dispersed to an extent but have not really gone away.

The French authorities have not made sufficient efforts to end the epidemic of human trafficking which is leading to violence on a daily basis.

The desperation of the migrants who are intent on coming to Britain by any means is matched by the unscrupulousness and viciousness of the gangs of people smugglers.

Wearing hoods they lurk at the side of the road waiting for trucks to leave the motorway.

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This will be the third summer plagued by chaos on the roads outside Calais.

Migrants are returning to the areas in ever increasing numbers. While France has a part to play Britain must also do more to ensure that weak borders are not an invitation to desperate migrants and wicked traffickers.

Only if the borders are strong will they be deterred.

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The European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker says that Brussels will approach the negotiation for Britains withdrawal from the EU (which he persists in calling a failure and a tragedy) in a friendly way.

But that bill for 50billion? That still has to be paid he insists even though he doesnt want anyone to think its some sort of punishment.

Well, if thats what he calls friendly then one wouldnt care to see him when he was being actively hostile. This ludicrous, made-up figure of 50billion has been bounced around for months.

Britain has absolutely no obligation to stump up this kind of payment and would be perfectly in its rights to demand payment from Brussels instead to reflect our vast contribution to the EUs assets and coffers.

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Remember to put your clocks, timers, etc, forward one hour this weekend.

We have so many gadgets these days that this twice-yearly task has become quite a business.

You will feel as though you get an hours less sleep but with the weather promising to be spring-like an early start may not be such a bad thing.

See more here:
A third summer of chaos threatens outside Calais - Express.co.uk

Pope Francis delivers a speech at the Moria detention centre in Mytilene last year (Photo: Getty)

During his general audience, Pope Francis urged pilgrims to welcome refugees

Pope Francis has described Europes refugee and migrant crisis as the biggest tragedy since the Second World War.

Francis urged tourists and pilgrims in St Peters Square during his weekly public audience on Wednesday not to forget the problem but instead welcome and help refugees. He also encouraged efforts to integrate them in society.

He said integration should keep in mind the reciprocal rights and duties of those who welcome and those who are welcomed.

Francis repeatedly urged Europe to do more to help the hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and economic migrants who had arrived in recent years.

On Friday, Francis will have the opportunity to urge Europe to improve ways to handle the migrant crisis when he addresses leaders of the European Union nations on the eve of a summit in Rome.

Read the original here:
Pope Francis says migrant crisis is 'biggest tragedy' since Second World War - Catholic Herald Online

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Pope says migrant crisis is 'biggest tragedy' since WWII WJTV FILE PHOTO - In this April 16, 2016 file photo, Pope Francis meets migrants at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. The pope, in his annual message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016, denounced the ... Pope calls the migrant crisis the 'biggest tragedy' since WWII as he urges Europe to do more to helpDaily Mail Migrant crisis biggest tragedy since WWII - popeANSAmed Pope Francis: Europe Migrant Crisis Is 'Greatest Tragedy Since World War II'Breitbart News CNN -Twitter all 134 news articles »

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Pope says migrant crisis is 'biggest tragedy' since WWII - WJTV

Migrants from other parts of the continent are being blamed for the lack of jobs available to South Africans and the rise in crime throughout the country.

Generally, theres a narrative that is always attached to us, as Africans or as Blacks when other people demonstrate theyre not welcoming the foreigners, its not said theyre xenophobic. As you know, theres an ongoing problem in Europe wherein the refugees that are coming, countries say they cannot come in, they dont want them but nobody says theyre xenophobic. Its like when there is something wrong with Africans, its corruption, if its done NOT by us, its collusion.

-South African President Jacob Zuma

Africans are being attacked in the streets, their homes and businesses burned to the ground. Many believe these attacks are not xenophobia, but an Afrophobia discrimination synonymous with apartheid, reserved for other Africans.

CGTNs Yolisa Njamela reports.

Countries all over the African continent played a huge rule in South Africas successful fight against apartheid. Are those countries still considered allies in the fight against xenophobia and discrimination, or unwelcome troublemakers?

I want to insist that the majority of immigrants in South Africa have no criminal intentions. There are those few who may have criminal intentions, who engage in criminal acts. As the department of Home Affairs charged with the responsibility of managing international migration, we wish to see a South Africa in which those who commit crime and corruption are not profiled according to nationality but are dealt with as criminals by the agencies of the state mandated to deal with that area. It cannot be the responsibility of vigilantes, it cannot be the responsibility of anybody taking the law into their own hands.

Malusi Gigaba, South African Minister Home Affairs

For more on the situation in South Africa:

The Heat: Migrant Crisis in South Africa Pt 1

The Heat: Migrant Crisis in South Africa Pt 2

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The Heat: Migrant Crisis in South Africa - CGTN America (blog)