French Government’s Spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Tuesday that in the end of June, Paris and Berlin would make “an ambitious proposal’’ concerning the EU migration policy.
The statement was made amid the situation with the Aquarius vessel, which has been stranded in the Mediterranean with over 600 migrants and asylum seekers on board as Italy and Malta refused to accept the ship.
“This crisis urges us to revise and to reform our European rules concerning the migration policy. In the end of June, France and Germany will make an ambitious proposal,’’ Griveaux wrote on Twitter.
On Sunday, Italy closed its ports to Aquarius, carrying 629 migrants and asylum seekers, saying that Malta was the closest and the safest port to accommodate it.
The Maltese authorities, in their turn, said the issue was beyond their jurisdiction, and only decided to send foodstuff to the ship, but refused to accept it as well.
The Spanish authorities said they were ready to accommodate Aquarius.
France’s Corsica also offered to accept the ship citing the remoteness of the Spanish port, lack of food supplies, and poor weather conditions, however, the French government did not welcome the initiative.
Since 2015, Europe has been experiencing its worst migration crisis in recent history, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing hostilities in the Middle Eastern and North African countries.
According to the International Organisation for Migration latest figures, 33,400 migrants and refugees have entered Europe via the Mediterranean Sea since the beginning of 2018, while the number of migrants who died in the Mediterranean en route to Europe amounted to 758.
In 2017, Mediterranean migrant arrivals reached 171,635, while the number of deaths was 3,116.
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