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 Luxembourg, which holds the rotating EU presidency, called
interior ministers from all 28 member states to an extraordinary
meeting on Sept. 14, saying: "The situation of migration phenomena
outside and inside the European Union has recently taken
unprecedented proportions."
Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier called on her EU neighbours to do
more as Germany expects the number of asylum seekers it receives to
quadruple to about 800,000 in 2015.
"If Europe has solidarity and we have also shown solidarity
towards others, then we need to show solidarity now," she told
reporters in Berlin. "Everything must move quickly."
Luxembourg said the meeting would focus on policies on sending some
migrants home and measures to prevent human trafficking.
Seven people died when their boat sank off Libya's coast on Sunday,
the second such fatal accident at sea within days. The Italian
coastguard said some 1,600 migrants had been rescued in the
Mediterranean and brought to Italy over the weekend.
At least 2,500 migrants have died since January, most of them
drowning in the Mediterranean after arduous journeys fleeing war,
oppression or poverty in Syria and other parts of the Middle East
and Africa or beyond.
The horrors faced by migrants were brought to the heart of the
European mainland on Friday when 71 bodies, including those of a
baby girl and three other children were found in an abandoned
refrigeration truck in Austria.
The dead, believed to be refugees from Syria or
possibly Afghanistan, had been packed into the truck with just 1
square metre (10 sq ft) of space per five people, police said on
Sunday, as initial forensic tests indicated they had suffocated.
Hungarian police arrested a fifth suspect, a Bulgarian citizen, in
connection with the deaths. Three Bulgarians and one Afghan had
already been arrested.
BORDERLESS SYSTEM
Criticism of Europe's disparate laws and approaches to dealing with
asylum seekers has mounted.
Some governments have refused to take in refugees and resisted EU
proposals to agree on a common plan. Others are toughening their
asylum policies and border security, sometimes because of rising
anti-immigration and nationalist sentiment.
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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius accused eastern European
states, notably Hungary, which is building a fence against migrants
along its border, of a "scandalous" policy.
"They are extremely harsh. Hungary is part of Europe, which has
values and we do not respect those value by putting up fences,"
Fabius told Europe 1 radio.
But British interior minister Theresa May blamed Europe's borderless
system, known as "Schengen", for fuelling the crisis and demanded
tighter EU rules on free movement.
"When it was first enshrined, free movement meant the freedom to
move to a job, not the freedom to cross borders to look for work or
claim benefits," May said. "We must take some big decisions, face
down powerful interests and reinstate the original principle."
Some European governments are considering amending the Schengen
code, but the European Commission, the EU executive which enforces
it, says there is no need to change the rules, either to improve
security or control migration.
In Italy which as the entry point for many migrants has been at the
forefront of the crisis, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said the rising
death toll would push EU states to confront the problem.
"It will take months, but we will have a single European policy on
asylum, not as many policies as there are countries," he said.
(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer in Rome, William James in
London, Karin Strohecker in Vienna, Paul Carrel in Berlin, Hani
Amara and Ahmed Elumami in Libya, and Marton Dunai in Budapest;
Writing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Alison
Williams)
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