The European Union has recently weakened protections for migrants under the guise of cooperation, writes Cesar Jaramillo, warning of a downward trend.
Mere hours before 100 African migrants drowned off the coast of Libya on June 29, European Union leaders appeared cautiously optimistic about a key agreement on migration struck at a two-day EU summit in Brussels. But the deal, which calls for the establishment of migrant processing centres in both EU and non-EU states, among other measures, has been harshly criticized for the vagueness and insufficiency of its commitments.
While there were other topics on the agenda at the recent summit, all of them — including Brexit — took a back seat to the migration crisis, which has become the principal threat to an already-strained EU.
The crisis that European leaders are so desperately trying to tackle, however, has little to do with the horrific human suffering that thousands of the most vulnerable people on Earth are enduring. Or with the root causes that have driven so many to risk drowning — toddlers in hand — in the unforgiving waters of the Mediterranean.
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