Brussels
It is “shameful” that the European Union has still not found a solution for the care of asylum seekers five years after the migration crisis, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, whose country holds the EU Presidency, said Tuesday.
Seehofer was speaking at a video meeting of EU interior ministers as almost 200 migrants rescued by humanitarian aid boat Ocean Viking disembarked in Sicily after nine days stuck in the Mediterranean Sea.
“Each boat requires painstaking efforts to achieve a distribution (of migrants) among member states,” said Seehofer. “And each time, only a small number (of the member states) is ready to do so.
“In the long term, we cannot leave Italy, Malta, Greece or Spain alone to deal with this issue,” he added, lamenting that “very many member states refuse to get involved.
“This is a situation that is not worthy of the EU.” Germany, France, Italy and Malta agreed last September on a temporary mechanism, based on a voluntary basis, for the distribution of migrants rescued at sea.—APP
