France and Spain called for a rethink on Monday on radical German-Italian plans to set up a European Union transit camp in North Africa for refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Their objections came at the end of a two-day summit in Florence held by interior ministers from the big five EU countries, including the British home secretary, David Blunkett.
Britain first raised more than a year ago the idea of an EU-funded transit camp where asylum-seekers could be processed before they reached the border of the EU. The intention was, in part, to try to combat illegal trafficking that has seen thousands drown in the Mediterranean.
”We do not want to accept camps or centres of any kind,” the French interior minister, Dominique de Villepin, said on Monday at a press conference at the end of the summit. ”It is not for Europe to take this issue forward.”
France, backed by Spain, wants the UN High Commission for Refugees to take responsibility rather than the EU. A French government official said the idea of a transit camp failed to address the root causes of migration, which required development aid, would be legally complex to set up and would be a magnet for human traffickers.
The issue is to go to a meeting of all 24 EU members next week.
Many of the illegal immigrants end up in Italy because of its proximity to North Africa. About 5 000 people are estimated to die each year attemping the crossing. Many of the refugees are from Morocco, Sudan, Pakistan, and the Palestinian Authority.
The issue became headline news in Germany when the crew of a German ship was arrested in Italy for saving 37 African migrants at risk of drowning in a rubber dinghy.
”We cannot leave things as they are now,” the German interior minister, Otto Schily, said on Monday. ”We should offer these immigrants, before they embark on a very risky journey, advice on whether they qualify for protection.” He added: ”No consensus has been reached.”
The likely location for the transit camp is Tunisia.
A Home Office spokesperson said of the Florence summit: ”We welcome these discussions and anything that moves on the debate about tackling illegal immigration to the EU.”
She said: ”We agree there is a pressing need to tackle flows of illegal immigration at source, working with countries of origin and transit. This includes cooperating with countries in north Africa to address the hazardous practice of crossing the Mediterranean into the EU.”
She added: ”This is not about creating ‘Fortress Europe’. EU leaders have consistently reiterated the EU’s tradition of protecting those genuinely in need. But we must deal firmly with those who seek to abuse our immigration procedures, and fight smuggling by organised criminals.”
The ministers did back plans to introduce biometric identification for EU passports from as early as 2006.
The British Home Office is at present sending teams round the country to test preferences for fingerprinting, facial or iris identification. – Guardian Unlimited Â