Facing migration crisis, European leaders to meet in Brussels

Facing migration crisis, European leaders to meet in Brussels

Press quote (New York Times)
Camino Mortera-Martinez
23 April 2015
From 
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/world/europe/european-union-migration.html?_r=0
“The EU hasn’t had a coherent immigration policy since forever, and the situation is getting worse since the Arab Spring,” said Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London. “Now, there has been a wake-up call. But I am skeptical that things will change much. Europeans are less concerned about people who are not European.”

...Ms. Mortera-Martinez, of the Center for European Reform, said that ad hoc measures were unlikely to solve the migration problem, and that a robust overhaul was needed, including updating regulations that require migrants to apply for asylum in the countries in which they arrive. That, she noted, had imposed an unfair burden on the southern European countries like Italy, Malta and Spain that are on the front lines of the migration flow.

She dismissed the argument that expanding European Union search-and-rescue operations would encourage illegal immigration, because those living in desperate circumstances would seek refuge in Europe in any case. “An attempt to create rational policies to deal with desperate people will not work,” Ms. Mortera-Martinez said.

See the CER article 'Dead in the water: Fixing the EU’s failed approach to Mediterranean migrants' here.