EU must urgently step-up support to overstretched border regions and towns
12 Jun 2014 03:49 PM
The President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) told the
European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, that the
growing influx of immigrants into the EU was placing uncontrollable pressure on
cities and towns that border non-EU countries. President Valcárcel said
that it was time that the EU took urgent action through "effective control
of external borders, improved cooperation with the countries of origin and
transit, and political and economic solidarity with the regions and towns
experiencing the greatest impact from migration ". Referring specifically
to the Spanish towns of Ceuta and Melilla which border Morocco whom have had to
significantly tighten up security to deal with the recent surge of migrants
trying to pass over the border, President Valcárcel also recalled a
report he had published on Irregular immigration on the
European Union's southern border.Valcárcel tells EU Home Affairs
Commissioner
Having visited the Spanish towns
of Ceuta and Melilla in April, the CoR president explained that local and
regional authorities were increasingly overstretched having to deal with the
growing numbers trying to enter the EU through the two enclaves. He stressed
that more needed to be done and greater investment provided with estimates
indicating that more than 2,000 immigrants had entered Melilla alone since the
beginning of the year. The President called on the Commissioner to make better
use of existing EU instruments such as the Rapid Border Intervention Teams
(RABIT) and EUROSUR to help authorities manage the flows.
Valcárcel said that there
was growing urgency to improve cooperation with immigrants home countries,
providing additional support to combat organised crime, extortion and illegal
human trafficking. The EU, he argued, must help, "promote transparent,
democratic political practices which offer immigrants a better future in their
places of origin".
Although President
Valcárcel said the EUR 10 million granted to Spain from the EU’s
emergency fund to tackle the problem was a step in the right direction, the
whole of the EU needed to show far greater political and economic solidarity
with the regions and towns located on the borders which were having to deal
with the problem. "The borders of Ceuta and Melilla are not only the
borders of Spain, but also of the EU", the President pointed out.
"The phenomenon of immigration is a European problem which requires
greater cooperation and the adoption of urgent, tangible measures by the
EU". President Valcárcel reiterated his offer for the Commissioner
to visit Ceuta and Melilla to learn more about the challenge being faced and
discuss what concrete action was needed to relieve the
problem.