Frontex Border Guard Boost Likely To Cause Migrant Deaths - Int'l Migration Organization

The creation of a standing Frontex border corps of 10,000 is likely to increase the chance of migrant deaths as people will continue coming despite barriers, Violeta Wagner, a senior project manager at the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) told Sputnik on Thursday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th September, 2018) The creation of a standing Frontex border corps of 10,000 is likely to increase the chance of migrant deaths as people will continue coming despite barriers, Violeta Wagner, a senior project manager at the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) told Sputnik on Thursday.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last week that the European Union would send additional 10,000 more border guards to handle illegal migration at the bloc border.

"I am afraid that increasing protection of external borders of the European borders will also lead to ... I don't know to what extent, to a loss of lives and an even greater difficulty for migrants to move. But they will come. If not here, they will come to external borders because we need to solve first of all the root cause of migration rather than protecting external borders," Wagner said on the sidelines of the Migration and International Law conference.

The ICMPD think tank stressed that people would still come despite barriers if they were pressed hard to leave their home countries.

"This is what we see, what also costs so many lives in the sea, because there are no other legal opportunities, there are no legal corridors, the Balkan route is closed and people go through other dangerous routes," Wagner said.

The European Union might want to focus on providing people with legal immigration pathways, the senior project manager said.

"We probably need to think about ... not pushing people into the situation in which they always have to ask for asylum in order to be in the European Union or in other developed countries," Wagner said.

More legal migration possibilities would help have fewer instances of the abuse of the asylum system and the migration system, in general.

As for another EU idea to tackle migration, establishing so-called regional disembarkation platforms, suggested by the bloc at a migration summit in June, it might be difficult to achieve in reality, Wagner argued.

"We know there are no countries ... outside of the European Union who would really now stand up and say, yes, we agreed to be this country where these platforms would be established," Wagner said.

Meanwhile, simply shutting down EU borders might compel Turkey to do the same, the senior project manager said.

"My easy answer is yes, it will be more difficult for Turkey and of course at some point Turkey will be pushed into the situation, they will have to close their borders or to turn migrants back to a dangerous situation because they also have limited capacity," Wagner said.

The ICMPD senior project manager pointed out that Turkey was already taking in more migrants than most EU member states. Wagner pointed out that Turkey was an ICMPD member and the center was working with the country closely on numerous projects.