Facing Europe’s migrant crisis, France plans setting up asylum “hotspots”
This handout picture released on May 25, 2016 by the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) shows the shipwreck of an overcrowded boat of migrants off the Libyan coast today. At least seven migrants have drowned after the heavily overcrowded boat they were sailing on overturned, the Italian navy said. The navy said 500 people had been pulled to safety and seven bodies recovered, but rescue operations were continuing and the death toll could rise.
The navy's Bettica patrol boat spotted "a boat in precarious conditions off the coast of Libya with numerous migrants aboard," it said in a statement. / AFP PHOTO / MARINA MILITARE AND AFP PHOTO / STR / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / MARINA MILITARE" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
These centers would be ready this summer, French President Emmanuel Macron said. In order to “stem the flow of migrants to Europe” French President Emmanuel Macron plans to set up “hotspots” in Libya that would allow the processing of asylum seekers, BBC reported.
Macron also said that between 800 thousand and a million people are currently in camps in Libya, waiting for a decision on whether they will be allowed into Europe as refugees or not. “The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum. We’ll go to them,” he said on Thursday at a naturalization ceremony in the central city of Orléans.
