Eurocrats have vowed to treble spending on immigration defence, pledging £31bn to bring migration under control
Arriving migrants will now be faced with finger print scanners, number plate cameras and sniffer dogs
BRUSSELS has announced plans to treble the amount of cash it spends defending Europe’s external borders.
Eurocrats have pledged £31 billion over the next seven year budgetary period in a bid to bring migration back under control.
Funding will be doled out to frontline member states to help them buy new kit including finger print scanners and number plate cameras, and to train sniffer dogs.
Cash will also be provided from 2021-2027 to speed up deportations and the bloc’s border force will be bolstered by a factor of seven, swelling the number of guards to 10,000.
Brussels’ migration boss warned yesterday that the bloc may not survive a repeat of the 2015 crisis when over a million asylum seekers arrived on the continent.
Dimitris Avramopoulos added that the “division” the issue has sowed between member states has “put in danger the European project” itself.
He said: “Our work is not over and it will not be any time soon. We have to be prepared because we cannot afford another repetition of 2015, neither politically nor financially.
“We cannot continue the political ping-pong on who is finally responsible for shouldering the responsibility of migration.
“Our citizens want to offer help and protection to those who need it, but this hospitality should be shared and should not be abused.
“We are not fortress Europe. We want to build a humane but fair and strict migration and borders policy.”
The announcement came a day after Spain agreed to take in a migrant rescue ship that had been turned away by Italy.
Spain’s new socialist government opened its ports to the Aquarius, which had more than 600 mainly African asylum seekers on board including unaccompanied minors.
Rome’s eurosceptic interior minister Matteo Salvini declared a “victory” and crowed: “We have opened a new front of debate for a new immigration policy at a continental level.”
MOST READ IN POLITICS
He is also due to meet his German counterpart, Horst Seehofer, in Berlin in the near future for talks that are likely to steer the EU towards a much tougher line on migration.
German officials said Mr Seehofer was “fully in tune” with Mr Salvini, who vowed during his election campaign to deport 500,000 illegal immigrants from Italy.