The EU and African leaders in Malta, in the summit meeting has come to an agreement to set up $ 2 billion aid fund for Africa to deal with the migrant crisis besetting the EU countries.
Malta, which is a Mediterranean island nation about 90 kilometers or 56 miles south of Sicily is the smallest member of the European Union. But this country is also one of the target for people escaping from Syria.
Besieged by a massive influx of migrants from African countries since the second world war, the EU has to respond by putting together an emergency fund. This agreement was reached by the EU and African leaders at the best strategy to address the root cause of the crisis as an aid to Africa.
The Malta summit is the sixth venue that the EU leaders tackled the contentious migrant issue. The fund maybe small but this is EUs strategy of giving alternatives rather than “risking their lives” as declared by the EU Council President Donald Tusk. There are five major goals that the fund will be used and these would include addressing the root causes of migration, enhancing cooperation on legal migration and mobility, reinforcing protection of displaced persons, preventing human smuggling and trafficking, and the return of migrants to Africa.
The EU migrant issue is very urgent. Even hours before the EU leaders summit there were at least 18 people who died off the western coast of Turkey. There is no stopping to their plight of dangerous journeys as they escape from violence, poverty, insecurity and oppression in North and West Africa and the Middle East.
The EU fund is a new build up in addition to the present yearly donation of 20 billion euros to Africa by the EU and its 28 member-countries. However, the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that setting up “this fund was an important first step”. The EUs action may not be as fast as it should be as many lives have already been wasted and lost. But in the Malta summit, the EU has sown a seed to resolving the EU migrant crisis.
