Mediterranean countries push for EU solidarity on migration

By KEVIN SCHEMBRI ORLAND
Associated Press

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — Less than a week after a deadly migrant shipwreck off Italy, five European Union countries on the Mediterranean Sea are pushing back against their northern neighbors for not accepting asylum-seekers under a voluntary relocation scheme. The ministers responsible for migration policy in Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain met Saturday in Malta’s capital. The countries started working together as the MED 5 in 2021 to confront the challenges of illegal migration. Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum Notis Mitarachi told reporters that just 1% of the migrants who arrived in those front-line nations along the EU’s southern border last year were taken in by other EU members under the relocation program.