A senior European bishop has criticised France and Germany for failing to provide “a fair solution” to the problem of migrants arriving in the European Union.
Italian Bishop Mariano Crociata of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno, the president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), said the major powers of the bloc were not doing enough to welcome, protect, promote and integrate refugees and asylum seekers who crossed into Europe mostly by boat from North Africa.
His comments come in a year which has seen a huge surge in migration across the Mediterranean, with more than 123,800 illegal migrants and asylum seekers arriving by boat in Italy alone compared to about 65,500 by the same time last year.
The UK, in contrast, is this year expected to receive between 65,000 and 85,000 migrants – overwhelmingly young single men from Iran, Iraq and Albania – who have crossed the English Channel illegally in small boats.
The upper figure would represent a doubling of the total number of arrivals in 2022, when 45,000 people paid criminal gangs to ferry them to the British coast.
Speaking to SIR, the Italian news agency, Bishop Crociata said: “The current challenges in managing the flow of migrations must not obfuscate the necessary fraternity in the face of migrants in vulnerable situations, nor weaken the bonds of solidarity among member states of the EU.”
“It is fundamental to establish a structured coordination mechanism between European states that can guarantee fair solutions on migration and asylum, involving the cooperation of third states and the international community,” he said.
Such a mechanism, Crociata said, ought to “improve the European approach in welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees in our societies.
“It would also be a tangible sign of concrete solidarity between the member states of the European Union.”
The remarks of the bishop also come a week ahead of Pope Francis’s September 22-23 overnight trip to Marseille, France, for a conference on the Mediterranean region, during which migration is expected to be a key issue.
They were undoubtedly informed by a decision by the French government to order the number of soldiers at its border with Italy to be doubled from 60 to 120 in an attempt to halt the flow of illegal migrants into the country.
Likewise, Germany has also decided to suspend a voluntary agreement with Italy to take in migrants, accusing Rome of failing to live up to its obligations under the EU’s Dublin Regulation and process asylum applications on Italian soil.
As part of an EU “voluntary solidarity mechanism,” which, launched in June, provides for the relocation of asylum seekers to pledging member-states for one year, Germany had agreed to take in some 3,500 asylum seekers from countries whose borders have been hardest hit by the most recent migrant influx.
Germany has so far accepted over 1,700, however, but is angered that many migrants are in effect being allowed to choose where they go before submitting a request to stay.
Italian officials and critics have said the rules put undue pressure on Italy and other Mediterranean countries on the frontlines of the migrant crisis and are suspected of effectively allowing migrants passage to the countries of their choice.
The surge in migration across the Mediterranean came in spite of the pledges of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to crack down on incoming migrants, even with the imposition of a naval blockade.
Ms Meloni has consistently appealed to other EU member states to do their part in sharing some of the burden of accommodating so many arrivals, only to find herself clashing with EU governments, including France.
Last year Italy and France were locked in a diplomatic spat over Italy’s refusal to allow a French charity vessel carrying 234 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to dock, with the passengers eventually disembarking in France.
Migration is expected to be among the most prominent issues discussed during Pope Francis’s upcoming visit to Marseille.
He will attend the “Mediterranean Meetings,” a summit that will draw some 60 representatives of churches from the five shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and around 60 young people from the same areas to discuss the current political, economic, and environmental challenges of the Mediterranean region.
This will mark the third edition of the meetings, after similar summits were held in Bari and in Florence, each of which discussed the migration issue at length.
Pope Francis in his decade-long reign has made the plight of migrants and refugees a cornerstone of his papacy and has been repeatedly outspoken about the issue during visits to European countries, especially those which are the main points of arrival.
The Pope will be met by French President Emmanuel Macron upon his arrival at the International Airport of Marseille, though the two are not scheduled to hold a private meeting, as is customary, since this is not, as Pope Francis has repeatedly insisted, a formal state visit to France.
Yet even without a formal sit-down, the presence of the Pope as a champion of migrants arriving to attend a meeting in which the care and welcome of migrants and refugees will be a major talking point, is a message in itself.
In his remarks to SIR, Bishop Crociata made an appeal to the EU on behalf of his fellow European prelates to speed up efforts in securing a common position on the migration issue.
“As European bishops, we reiterate our invitation to the European Union and to its member chancelleries to accelerate negotiations on the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, with the hope of seeing concrete results by the end of the European legislature in mid-2024,” he said.