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EU to Create Quarantine for Migrants for Faster Deportations

  • A migrant reacts after disembarking from the Spanish Civil Guard's ship in the Sicilian harbour of Augusta, Italy, June 23, 2015.

    A migrant reacts after disembarking from the Spanish Civil Guard's ship in the Sicilian harbour of Augusta, Italy, June 23, 2015. | Photo: Reuters

Published 24 June 2015
Opinion

Italian coastguards rescued another 3,700 migrants in Italian waters this week, who are all likely to pass through the proposed quarantine system.

European Union countries are planning to create a new system to quarantine migrants in Greece and Italy in order to make it easier to register, fingerprint, and deport them, as well as incarcerate them if need be, according to documents received by The Guardian Tuesday.

EU leaders are supposed to meet for a special summit Thursday in order to discuss the migrant crisis in the continent, where they will present the proposal to create a migrant quarantine summit. 

RELATED: The Making of the Migration Crisis

It will include, “structured border zones and facilities in the frontline member states [Italy, Greece, Malta], with the active support of member states’ experts to ensure the swift identification, registration and fingerprinting of migrants,” read the draft documents .   

EU leaders have been hard pressed to find solutions to the migrant crisis, which has seen thousands of people trying to reach European shores from Mediterranean waters, fleeing violence, war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. 

Most of the migrants have fallen in the hands of traffickers, pay exorbitant fees for the Mediterranean crossing, and travel on overcrowded boats that are not built for sea travel – the United Nations has called this the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII.  

Earlier this week, Italy reported that its coastguards had rescued some 3,700 migrants in only two days, who were found in Italian waters traveling in an overcrowded fishing boat and five rubber dinghies.   

The influx of people has particularly affected Italy and Greece where most of the migrants arrive, however many of them have also made it into France and Britain, which has put extra pressure on these governments to address the situation.  

So far, EU leaders have chosen to respond with force, proposing military tactics aimed at stopping human traffickers from bringing migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe. The European Commission has also proposed granting new powers to Frontex, the EU's borders agency, to initiate and carry out forced deportations, what is normally in the hands of national authorities only.  

Another proposal, which will be discussed at this week's summit, is to take 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece over the next two years and distribute them across Europe. It is unclear whether this distribution will be decided by Brussels or if countries will volunteer to receive them. The proposed quarantine system is likely to abet this process. 

Refugee and asylum seeker agencies have denounced the EU's forceful tactics and called for the creation of safe, legal routes to Europe, which they say will end the culture of smuggling. 

RELATED: Stories of Migration: Images of Exile and Hope in Refugee Art

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