...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
nations on the Mediterranean who fear possible waves of refugees driven by hunger out of Africa called Saturday for an end to the EU's ``voluntary'' solidarity on
The Interior ministers from Italia, Cyprus, Greece, Malta and Spain wrapped up two days of talks in Venice amid worries that the blockade of Ukraine grain exports due to Russia's invasion could see huge numbers of refugees from Africa flooding southern Europe.
Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told news hounds that robust, common EU policy is needed on migration. ``Solidarity is not a slogan, nor can it be void of substance,'' Nouris said.
Past EU policies in which member countries could offer to receive some of the hundreds of thousands of
Many EU countries didn't step forward. Others, even with they did pledge to receive modest numbers of some of the hundreds of thousands of
``Solidarity in our mind cannot be voluntary,'' Nouris said.
He noted that after several years of Cyprus taking in
The meeting did not address the millions of Ukrainian refugees who recently flooded into northern EU nations like Poland, Hungary and Romania.
How Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...handles large numbers of
In the Sahel, the part of Africa just below the Sahara desert, an estimated 18 million people are facing severe hunger as farmers endure their worst production season in more than a decade.
Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese cited the blocking of grain in Ukraine as just another reason for the EU to develop a ``adequate mechanism of distributing
She also pressed for more repatriation agreements with countries whose people are seeking a better life in Europe but had their asylum bids rejected since they are fleeing poverty, not war or persecution.
Italia has an effective repatriation agreement with Tunisia, but not with most other countries in Africa or in Asia whose citizens take to smugglers' boats to try to reach southern European shores. As a result, even though their asylum applications fail, many
Greece's interior minister expressed support for more legal paths for migration.
``We cannot let smugglers decide who comes to live in Europe,'' minister Notis Mitarachi told news hounds.