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More than 40,000 people have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East, largely landing in either Greece or Italy, already this year, while 1,089 have died trying. Auditors concluded that the EU must do more to quickly process and care for those that do survive the journey.

Since May 2015, the EU has implemented a so-called hotspot approach to help countries on the frontline of the refugee and migrant crisis cope with the extraordinary numbers of people arriving on their shores.

This saw centres set up to quickly register and move on migrants from the main points of arrival and over 1.5bn in EU funding pledged to Greece and Italy, although less than half of this has been delivered so far.

But auditors found that, despite considerable EU support, it took too long for the centres to be set up, and they remain unable to either handle or properly care for the number of people arriving at them.

They identified issues of overcrowding, a failure to provide basic necessities like water and an inability to care for high numbers of children arriving alone

Hans Gustaf Wessberg, one of the two members of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the report, said the issue needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

At the time of the audit in July 2016, auditors found the hotspots in Italy could accommodate 1,600 people, which auditors said was clearly not enough to cover arrivals of 2,000 or more per day.

Italian authorities have conceded that, for the first seven months of 2016, some 70% of migrants arrived in Italy outside of the hotspot facilities. Two more centres, and a separate strategy in line with the hotspot approach but not requiring physical facilities, have been planned but are yet to be put in place.

Meanwhile in Greece, since March last year, an agreement between the EU and Turkey has meant migrants can no longer leave the Greek islands to lodge their asylum applications. This must instead be done at the hotspot centres, where previously migrants would spend only a few days.

Now migrants typically stay at the hotspot centres for months. Auditors said centres are seriously overcrowded as a result: all five hotspots can accommodate a total of 7,450 people, but the migrant population on the countrys islands had hit 16,250 by early November last year.

Auditors also noted that NGOs and others had criticised the quality of food and lack of blankets, medical care and water. Privacy, they continued, was also in short supply, with no separate areas for men, women, families or minors.

As of September 2016, around 2,500 children were living alone on Greeces islands, with none being cared for in accordance with international standards, auditors added.

Many unaccompanied minors have been held for long periods at the hotspots in inappropriate conditions, despite the law requiring they be prioritised, the report noted.

European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said the EUs executive pointed out that the report also highlighted that the hotspot approach had helped improve the management of migration flows in very challenging and constantly changing circumstances.

But, she continued, the commission also welcomes its conclusion that there is still more to be done something the commission itself has been stressing for some time.

She said the commission stands ready to provide additional support to Greece and Italy, which are ultimately responsible for their own border control and asylum processing, in line with the reports recommendations.

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Auditors highlight failings of EU response to migration crisis - Public Finance International

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Warsaws right-wing Government is looking into the possibility of setting up camps to detain migrants and refugees at its borders following a similar move by its southern neighbour.

Hungarys hardline president Viktor Orban has attracted intense criticism over his decision to set up such camps, with charities and aid groups have described as inhumane and illegal.

A number of senior EU figures have also openly criticised Hungary, whose relationship with the bloc has become strained over the issue of migration, with Jean-Claude Juncker famously calling Mr Orban a dictator.

And Poland has recently been locked in its own vicious battle with Brussels over the re-election of EU Council president Donald Tusk and threats by Western countries like France to withdraw its funding.

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Now Warsaw risks opening up a fresh flashpoint with eurocrats by significantly hardening its stance on immigration, despite having received just 25,000 asylum applications in 2015-16.

Under its plans people arriving in Poland would be placed into camps made up of shipping containers, and surrounded by barbed wire, until their asylum applications were processed.

Ministers say the proposal will only come into force if a second migration crisis occurs, such as in the event of Turkey reneging on its current migrant deal with the bloc.

Interior minister Mariusz Baszczak said: The thing is to be ready for such a situation in the form of places in which those waiting for deportation would be kept who may try to break the law.

Thats all it entails. Besides, there are similar container camps in France and in Germany.

You cant open too many battle fronts at once, and the Commission has already too many with Poland

German expert Raphael Bossong

He added that the plan would allow border guards to lock up asylum seekers for up to a month while their applications are processed, something which will prevent efforts to illegally move to Western Europe.

The move is likely to go down well with ordinary voters - 74 per cent of Poles are anti-migration according to a recent poll - but will provoke dismay amongst human rights groups.

Marta Grczyska, from the Helsinki Foundation, told Politico the planned policy was concerning and could cause a systematic violation of rights of asylum seekers.

The EU has previously been highly critical of Hungarys migration policies but softened its stance slightly last month after Budapest insisted it would press ahead with the plan to open camps on its border regardless.

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Aid workers help migrants up the shore after making the crossing from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos on November 16, 2015 in Sikaminias, Greece

Brussels migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos said that instead of trying to ban the move the bloc would work with Hungarian officials to ensure human rights and living standards were maintained within the camps.

And analysts have predicted that the EU may feel compelled to allow the latest move by Poland to pass, given that it is already fighting the country on several other fronts.

Raphael Bossong from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said: You cant open too many battle fronts at once, and the Commission has already too many with Poland.

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Poland risks new rift with EU as it looks to mimic Hungary's controversial migrant camps - Express.co.uk

BBC News

Italy migrant crisis: Charities 'colluding' with smugglers BBC News An Italian prosecutor says he has evidence some of the charities saving migrants in the Mediterranean Sea are colluding with people-smugglers. Carmelo Zuccaro told La Stampa (in Italian) phone calls were being made from Libya to rescue vessels. Italy has 'proof' of collusion in migrant crisisGulf Times Italy and Migrant Crisis: NGOs colluding with Smugglers and Arab slavery of black Africans in LibyaModern Tokyo Times Refugee death toll passes 1000 in record 2017 as charities attacked for conducting Mediterranean rescuesThe Independent The Local Italy -Jordan Times -Prothom Alo (English) all 68 news articles »

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Italy migrant crisis: Charities 'colluding' with smugglers - BBC News

Europe desperately needs short-term solutions to the migrant crisis, Italy's prime minister warned Thursday, saying a failure to act would further destabilize the region.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said long-term efforts by Europe and the West to address root causes eventually could pay off, but without more urgent action, Europe will be engulfed by what he described as "waves of chaos" from across the Mediterranean Sea.

Watch: Global Security Dominates Trump-Gentiloni Meeting in Washington

"Too many Europeans have been living under the illusion that they could separate their destiny from the Mediterranean and from the crises originating from this region," Gentiloni told an audience in Washington ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. "This was a mistake."

"The task that governments have in Europe is to defeat smugglers and traffickers and manage the migration flow now, in the next months," he said.

Gentiloni said he planned to push Trump to keep the United States focused on the crisis, both during their Thursday meeting at the White House and during the Group of Seven summit of industrialized countries in Italy in May.

Attention to Libya

The Italian leader said his country's top priority continued to be Libya, the source or transit point for 97 percent of the migrants arriving on Italy's shores.

"Stabilizing Libya is fundamental," Gentiloni said. He cautioned that the North African country could turn into a "new theater for competition of external powers, both regional and global, which is a risk."

The prime minister called U.S. leadership in such an effort essential, and also called on other players, like Russia, to help pressure the various bickering factions to support the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord.

He warned that a failure by the parties to come together could create openings for the Islamic State terror group, which has seen its forces in Libya reduced substantially following a sustained U.S.-led air campaign.

Gentiloni also urged the U.S. and other world powers to "please keep Africa on top of our agenda," saying various conflicts and crises in sub-Saharan Africa had helped fuel the migrant crisis.

"We can't consider Africa as the second Chinese continent," the Italian prime mister said, noting Beijing's increasing role in providing aid and spurring development. "We should do perhaps our part more strongly."

Link:
Italian PM: 'Chaos' of Migrant Crisis Threatens to Engulf Europe - Voice of America

Over the past few years, conflicts in Syria, South Sudan, and Afghanistan have created the largest international refugee crisis since World War II. Now, according to a top government official, another massive migrant crisis is looming in a far more populous country: Nigeria.

Almost five million people are at risk of starvation in the West African nation amid a years-long Islamist insurgency. But insufficient funding means that emergency food aid to the vulnerable northeast may be cut just as the lean season approaches, endangering millions.

The world could see a mass exodus from a country of 180 million people if support is not given, and fast, said Ayoade Alakija, Nigerias chief humanitarian coordinator, in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Since 2009, Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group based in the countrys northeast state of Borno, has waged a campaign in the region to establish an Islamic state. The insurgency has disrupted farming and displaced more than two million residents in the northeast.

In February, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the U.N would need $4.4 billion by the end of March to avert famine in Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia.With the exception of Somalia, the food security in these nations result from man-made food crises, said Guterres.

The funding has not materialized. The U.N. World Food Program, which coordinates with countries to provide emergency food aid, has only received 15 percent of the money it needs. (And it could get even less, if President Donald Trumps proposed budget were to be passed; it takes a machete to U.S. contributions for the United Nations.)

Without sufficient financing, the World Food Program will have to reduce its vital support, Peter Lundberg, a deputy U.N. humanitarian coordinator based in Borno, wrote last week in Le Monde. The WFP needs $242 million $1.3 million a day for the next six months to help feed 1.8 million people in the northeastern state, Lundberg wrote. Without further funding, food assistance to Borno will be cut.

That could create a migrant crisis in west Africa of unprecedented size. In the past four years, 200,000 Nigerians have fled into neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. With just under five million people already facing severe malnutrition inside the country, a sudden cut to emergency rations could drive even more people from Nigeria in search of relief.

Its not inevitable, though, aid agencies say.

We want people to understand this will work if its funded. We can avert the famine, a World Food Program spokesperson told Reuters on Monday.

STEFAN HEUNIS/AFP/Getty Images

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Get Ready for Another Famine-Fueled Migrant Crisis In Nigeria ... - Foreign Policy (blog)