PRESS RELEASE
Brussels
8 October 2019
EU interior are meeting today (Tuesday) in Luxembourg for a Justice and Home Affairs Council to discuss migration, including working out an automatic system to determine which countries will welcome migrants rescued in the Mediterranean.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, the European Green Party co-chair Monica Frassoni said:
“We urge Interior Ministers meeting today to find a fair and workable solution that can bring Europe together around a common position on migration. Just today, more than a dozen bodies were recovered after a migrant boat attempting to reach Lampedusa capsized in the Mediterranean. This needless death at sea is deeply troubling and must stop immediately.
“The EU now has a chance to regain control of this desperate failure to save innocent human lives at sea by establishing a fair distribution of migrants across Europe and its own European sea rescue mission. For too long, it has relied on militia in a lawless Libya or allowed NGOs to step in where it has fallen humiliatingly short. The EU must show that it can overcome its differences and work together to establish safe and legal channels of migration in the interests of fundamental rights and human dignity.”
END
Paul Nolan
E paul.nolan@europeangreens.eu
M +32 475 94 69 81
T +32 2 626 07 26
European Green Party
Rue Wiertz 31, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
www.europeangreens.eu
