EU wants to send more migrants away as irregular arrivals grow

Sweden's Minister for Migration, Maria Malmer Stenergard, Ylva Johansson, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Gunnar Strommer, Sweden's Minister for Justice, at the first informal ministerial meeting during the Swedish EU Presidency. The agenda includes EU migration policy, the fight against organised crime, and Russia's aggression against Ukraine, in Stockholm, Thursday. [Reuters]

European Union ministers on Thursday sought ways to curb irregular immigration and send more people away as arrivals rose from pandemic lows, reviving controversial ideas for border fences and asylum centres outside of Europe.

EU border agency Frontex reported some 330,000 unauthorised arrivals last year, the highest since 2016, with a sharp increase on the Western Balkans route.

"We have a huge increase of irregular arrivals of migrants," Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told talks among the 27 EU migration ministers. "We have a very low return rate and I can see we can make significant progress here."

Denmark, the Netherlands and Latvia were among those to call for more pressure through visas and development aid towards the roughly 20 countries - including Iraq and Senegal - that the EU deems fail to cooperate on taking back their nationals who have...

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