French President warns EU over Africa migrant centre plans

French President

In a report by BBC, Macron said that the EU plans to create migrant processing centres in North Africa will not work unless the process is led by African countries.

During his visit to Nigeria, the French President also gave reasons the migrant processing centres creation will not work in Africa.

The idea of migrant processing centres in North Africa "can fly, just if some African governments decide to organise it", he said.

Macron reportedly said many African countries were worried that such centres would act as a pull factor for migrants.

He had earlier told EU leaders that France would not host migrant processing centres as it was not a country where immigrants landed but Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said the centres could be anywhere in the EU.

At the moment, no African country has agreed to host the centres as proposed by the European Union.

Macron’s take on migration to Europe

Macron told BBC that Europe would be dealing with migration from Africa for decades due to the fundamental problem of unplanned population growth in Africa.

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The President also insisted that the EU could not take decisions for African countries.

He also said his top priority was to discourage people from taking "crazy risks" and putting their lives in danger in order to get to Europe from Africa.

EU leaders agree to explore the creation of migrant processing centres

In the last meeting of EU in June 2018, the leaders reached a deal after marathon negotiations in Brussels and agreed on exploring the possibility of "regional disembarkation platforms", designed to thwart people-smuggling gangs by processing migrants outside the EU.

The EU also agreed to set up secure migrant processing centres in EU countries, although no country has yet volunteered to host one;

Strengthening external border controls, with more funding for Turkey and countries in North Africa; and boosting investment in Africa to help the continent achieve a "socio-economic transformation" so people no longer want to leave in pursuit of a better life in Europe.