EU ministers clash over illegal migrants

The International Herald Tribune continues to report on the illegal immigration issue and how European justice ministers clashed today over how to solve the crisis in the Mediterranean. Dan Bilefsky reports on how EU member states are arguing over who should provide the finances:

..More than 23,000 migrants have flooded into the Canary Islands of Spain so far this year, and more than 6,000 have reached Malta since 2002 - the per-capita equivalent of a million new people arriving in Germany. Addressing the officials at the start of a two-day meeting in Tampere, Finland, Spain's justice minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, appealed to the European Union to provide money and reinforcements for joint EU patrols of the Mediterranean sea and Africa's Atlantic coast. So far, the 25 countries of the EU have contributed two patrol boats, one airplane and a handful of experts.

"We want money, resources, means, determination and the consciousness that this is a reality which is going to accompany us along the first third of the 21st century," López Aguilar said. But his call for a collective approach to the migration crisis - echoed by Malta, Greece and Italy - was drowned out by sniping from other member states...