Sant calls for EU policy on legal migration

The European Union urgently needs a policy on legal migration, Labour MEP Alfred Sant said.

“While the inflows of irregular migrants cause concern, some member states actually need migrants to replenish their labour force,” Sant told the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “It's a truism that problems caused by irregular mass migration can only be solved conclusively by improvements that give grounds for hope, in the countries from where migrants originate.

Referring to the EU’s latest approval of a plan to set up a naval force to combat human traffickers operating from Libya, Sant called on Europe’s political actors to place solidarity on their political and embrace a fairer allocation system.

“Some migrants are asylum seekers,” Sant said, warning that a resolution of the problem that caused them to leave their homelands frequently requires military action by the international community that most often is outside the EU's remit.

Sant added that irregular migrants are also people who aspire to improve their economic situation as they have limited to zero opportunities back home.

“Past development aid failed to improve sufficiently the economic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa.” Sant said. “We need to understand why this has happened and to convert that understanding into an action programme committed to generate economic growth and jobs.”