An Italian Coast Guard boat carries rescued migrants as tourists watch near the Sicilian island of Lampedusa,southern Italy.Credit:LaPresse via AP
Migrant arrivals in the European Union are way down from the 2015 peak of more than 1 million,but have steadily crept up from a 2020 low to 255,000 this year to November,with more than half crossing the Mediterranean from Africa,mainly to Italy.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi called the pact a “great success” for Europe and Italy,that meant that EU border countries most exposed to migration would no longer feel alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said agreement was important and would relieve states affected – including Germany.
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Previous efforts to share the responsibility of hosting migrants have foundered because eastern EU members in particular were unwilling to take in people who had arrived in Greece,Italy and other countries.
Under the new system,countries not at the border will have to choose between accepting their share of 30,000 asylum applicants or paying at least €20,000 euros ($32,400) per person into an EU fund.