EU faces NEW migrant crisis: Brussels scrambles to stop huge inflow of refugees from Egypt
BRUSSELS bureaucrats are scrambling to avert a fresh migrant crisis amid fears that a massive influx of asylum seekers from Egypt is imminent.
He said Brussels should strike a similar agreement to the one it has with Turkey, where all migrants arriving in Greece are immediately sent back across the Aegean Sea.
And he threatened to pull the plug on aid funding to the impoverished North African country if it refuses to play ball and help the EU dig itself out of its migration hole.
Egypt receives billions of pounds in loans from the International Monetary Fund and is also a recipient of EU foreign aid.
Calling for a “comprehensive” migrant agreement with Egyptian leaders, he said: “This is the path we must take.”
And he said the accorde, brokered by German chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish president Recep Erdogan, proved that Europe could coordinate on curbing migration without “abandoning its principles.”
Mr Schulz’s comments, made in German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung today, come just two days after a boat crammed with hundreds of Egyptian refugees sank on Wednesday.
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Egyptian rescue workers bring bodies ashore at Port Rashid after the boat carrying migrants sank
Ahmed Darwish, an Egyptian survivor, said: “The boat is meant to hold 200, and they put 400 in it. And this is what caused the catastrophe.”
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Crowds watch as bodies are brought ashore at Port Rashid, Egypt
It was one of a number of ships smuggling people across the Mediterranean, with the Egyptian navy having stopped five boats carrying a total of 900 people in the past two weeks alone.
Authorities have arrested four suspected people traffickers over the sinking, which comes just months after the EU border agency Frontex warned that growing numbers of Europe-bound migrants were using Egypt as a departure point for the dangerous voyage.
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Survivors from the boat which was carrying hundreds of migrants
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Survivors from the boat, at Rashid Police Station in Beheira, Egypt
“The Egyptian route is used mainly by migrants coming from Eastern African countries – Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan – and some coming from the Middle East.”
There is growing concern over people coming from Egypt, and Flavio di Giacomo, an IoM spokesman in Rome, said: “The Egyptian route is used mainly by migrants coming from Eastern African countries – Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan – and some coming from the Middle East.