| Migrants at a naval base after being rescued by Libyan coast guards in Tripoli, Libya, June 18, 2018. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny/File Photo |
Germany and Austria said on Thursday they will hold talks with Italy next week on how to jointly “shut” the migration route across the Mediterranean from Africa into Europe.
After a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said his government’s plans for new immigration measures at their shared border would not make Austria responsible for people arriving there who had already sought asylum in another European Union country.
Kurz said the two sides agreed Germany’s plans at the border would not harm Austria and that they would instead work together on stemming illegal immigration.
“We agreed … that next week there will be a meeting of the German, Austrian and Italian interior ministers with the goal of taking measures to shut the Mediterranean route into Europe, to make sure that illegal immigration to Europe on this route is stopped,” Kurz told a joint news conference.
Seehofer said the meeting would happen around the time of a European interior ministers’ meeting in the Austrian city of Innsbruck on Thursday and Friday of next week.