Excerpt:
Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Friday called for the European Union to set up centres to process migrants’ asylum claims in their home countries, a proposal backed by French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We should create European centres in the countries of departure,” Conte said at a joint press conference with Macron in Paris, referring to African nations that have seen an exodus towards Europe in recent years.
His comments were echoed by Macron, who told reporters he supported the idea of “branches of our asylum agencies to tackle this question on the other side” of the Mediterranean.
The French president urged greater solidarity with Rome over the migrant crisis, calling for “profound reforms” of EU asylum rules known as the Dublin regulation.