European countries facing North Africa across the Mediterranean divide called on its leaders on Friday to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.
Muslim North Africa, with a population of 80 million, of whom most earn less than US$2,000 a year, is facing an exodus of its own and has become a transit point for tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans seeking a better life in the West.
The leaders of 10 western Mediterranean countries, including France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, are holding an informal and unprecedented summit in Tunisia to discuss immigration, the US-led war on terror and closer economic ties.
PHOTO: EPA
In recent months, dozens of Africans have drowned trying to reach the West on rickety boats, often via Malta or across the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain.
"Europe has needed immigrants and continues to need them but not in conditions of anarchy and indignity," Romano Prodi, president of the EU's executive Commission, told the meeting.
While the two-day forum was officially about boosting ties, behind closed doors Western leaders were expected to press their North African neighbors to tackle clandestine immigration.
An estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants enter the wealthy bloc each year. The issue is gaining importance as the EU prepares to admit 10 new member states in May next year.
"Fortress Europe wants North Africa to keep its citizens at home as well as preventing the region from becoming a transit point," a French diplomat said.
The leaders of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia say there is little they can do on their own and some have requested more financial and technical help from the EU.
Morocco's King Mohammed told the meeting illegal migration had "perverse effects on relations," an apparent reference to tension with Spain over the issue.
He said the issue required "an integrated security approach within the framework of a global cooperation ... with more technological means."
French President Jacques Chirac told summit leaders it was essential to stimulate the economies of the Maghreb region.
European governments agree the issue of migration cannot be solved without easing the poverty of many North Africans.
Chirac urged the leaders to solve their differences, a reference to the Western Sahara territorial dispute that has poisoned relations between Algeria and Morocco for more than 25 years.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema