Migrants rescued at sea should be taken to centers in north Africa where their claims for asylum in European Union countries can be studied, German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere proposed Thursday. “People who are rescued in the Mediterranean should be brought back to safe accommodation facilities in northern Africa,” de Maiziere told reporters. De Maiziere did not mention a specific country in north Africa but EU officials have been discussing efforts to curb the migrant flow with Libya, the main transit point for African migrants heading to Europe. Several EU countries, including Austria and Hungary, have been pushing for EU deals with north African countries to send back rejected asylum-seekers as a way of dealing with Europes worst migration crisis since 1945. Hungary's populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban recently said the EU should build “a large refugee city” on the Libyan coast to process migrant asylum claims.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 13, 2016 11:03 UTC