By Matthew Holehouse, and Tim Ross
European Union offer of cash and visa deals to African countries who
take back illegal migrants is described as "madness" as David Cameron
prepares for Malta summit
European ministers have devised a dramatic plan to
solve the migration crisis, offering a series of sweeteners in exchange for
sending illegal migrants back to Africa.
They will provide cash and visa deals to persuade
African countries to take back some of the 800,000 people who have flooded across the Mediterranean into Europe this year.
But in return, the proposed deal will give thousands
of African students, doctors and entrepreneurs an open door to move into the
European Union.
Officials are preparing to justify the highly
controversial arrangement by saying only professionals who will contribute to
society will be allowed into the EU.
The plan emerged on the eve of a key letter that David
Cameron will send to the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk,
setting out his demands for reforming Britain’s relationship with EU.
But critics described the proposed migration scheme as
“madness” and warned it would push the British public towards voting for the UK
to leave the EU in the forthcoming referendum.
Mr Cameron has promised to negotiate a better deal for
Britain’s membership of the EU before putting the new terms to a vote in an
“in/out” referendum by the end of 2017.
On Tuesday, he will use a major speech to make his
strongest threat so far that he could recommend an “out” vote if Europe turns a
“deaf ear” to British requests for change.
However, some of Mr Cameron’s own Cabinet ministers
have privately given up hope that he will secure the kind of radical changes to
Britain’s EU membership that they want.
The Prime Minister will seek to press his case for
European reforms in face to face talks at Wednesday’s summit on the migration
crisis, in Valletta, Malta.
But he will first have to decide whether to accept the
controversial new blueprint for addressing the migration crisis by opening the
path to European life for thousands of African people.
While British officials appeared sceptical about the
proposal, Mr Cameron faces an awkward decision on whether to veto the plan and
risk infuriating other European leaders whom he needs to woo in order to secure
his referendum reforms.
Under the plan, a leaked draft of which has been seen
by The Telegraph, students, doctors and entrepreneurs from African states – who
represent the elite of society - will be given language training, visas and job
offers to entice them to travel to Europe.
Officially, the plans are intended to undermine the
multi-billion pound illegal smuggling industry by offering migrants legal
routes to Europe, meaning fewer people risk death at sea.
However, a leaked draft of the text confirms that the
scheme is essentially a carrot to encourage African leaders to take back tens
of thousands of illegal migrants whom European countries want to deport.
The action plan commits leaders to "the creation
of positive synergies between negotiations on visa facilitation and discussions
in other areas such as readmission."
The EU will offer £1.3 billion in aid under what is
being called a “trust fund” for countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and
Kenya to address the “root causes of irregular migration”. The money is to be
used to persuade countries to accept failed asylum seekers.
The plan proposes “promoting legal channels for
migration and mobility from and between African countries”. The recommendations
include helping Africans find work in Europe by connecting labour agencies in
“with a view to facilitating placements and job opportunities”.
Migrants should be given language training before they
travel, while African college qualifications for “one or more professions”
should be recognised by European countries. That could, for example, allow
teachers, doctors or accountants trained in Kenya to find work highly-paid work
in Germany or France.
The blueprint says visa rules should be relaxed,
administration fees abolished and relatives of migrants should be allowed to
join them once they have reached Europe. Tellingly, it suggests the visa
arrangements for the holders of African diplomatic passports should be revised.
Nigel Farage, the UK Independence Party leader, said:
“The EU’s way to stop illegal mass migration from Africa is to make it legal.
This is sheer madness.”
Sir Bill Cash, the Conservative chairman of the
Commons European Scrutiny Committee, said the migration crisis could tilt the
referendum in favour of exit from the European Union.
“The British people are watching,” he said. “I have
previously said there would be a tsunami and we would be swamped – and now we
are told it is to be three million people. We have to keep control of our
borders.”
The plan would not have a direct impact on the UK
because Britain is not a member of the Schengen common migration zone within
the EU, where border checks have been scrapped.
However, thousands of migrants massed at Calais in
northern France and caused chaos earlier in the year, bringing traffic through
the Channel Tunnel to a halt, stowing away inside lorries and cars, with some
making it through illegally to enter the UK.
A British diplomat said: "Issues of legal
migration remains a matter of national competence for the UK and nothing in the
draft text compels the UK to change its long-standing position."
Regaining full control of Britain’s borders through
reforming EU laws on legal migration is one of the top demands for reform among
Eurosceptic MPs and campaigners.
But Downing Street gave no indication that there would
be any major changes to EU rules on “free movement of people”, to the dismay of
Mr Cameron’s Tory colleagues.
Mr Cameron will send a long-awaited letter on his EU
reform demands to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, on Tuesday.
However, Downing Street said it would contain only the “broad outlines of the
Prime Minister’s agenda”.
As disclosed by The Telegraph last month, Mr Cameron’s demands include explicit guarantees that the pound will be
protected and
the Euro is not the official currency of the EU; and an explicit statement that
the UK will not be part of moves towards creating an EU “superstate”.
His package of requests also contains demands for
curbing the welfare entitlements among EU migrants in the UK, and measures to
boost economic competitiveness in the European single market. But the “specific
details” will be negotiated in a series of meetings afterwards, Number 10 said.
In a speech later on Tuesday, Mr Cameron will claim he
is willing to recommend that voters choose to leave the EU if he cannot get the
deal he wants, despite declaring previously that he wants Britain to remain a
member.
He will ask the “In” campaign how it can defend the
status quo and challenge “Out” supporters to say what being outside the EU
would mean for economic security.
He will say: “If Britain’s concerns were to be met
with a deaf ear, which I do not believe will happen, then we will have to think
again about whether this European Union is right for us. As I have said before
– I rule nothing out.”
However, Mr Cameron’s demands left his Tory colleagues
unimpressed. One Cabinet source said: “We are in a powerful position in Europe
and we have got to be ambitious. We should be asking the Europeans for big
reforms. But this is all smoke and mirrors.
“It looks like the PM is not even asking for radical
changes and therefore we are not going to get much back.”
Another Cabinet minister said: “I would like
Parliament to have the option of whether we implement EU directives or not. The
UK Parliament must be sovereign. Our relationship with the EU must be primarily
focused on the single market, and we need significant and radical reform of
freedom of movement.”
Two other Cabinet ministers said Mr Cameron must
restore the sovereignty of Parliament over EU directives.
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