BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has backed plans by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to increase surveillance of the EU’s external border in the Mediterranean by air and sea in view of the many crossings by migrants. “Yes, we won’t be able to do it any other way,” said the SPD politician on Sunday evening in the ARD “Report from Berlin”. “Otherwise we won’t be able to get the migration situation under control.”
The Federal Ministry of the Interior had announced on Saturday that Faeser wanted to continue consultations with her counterparts from Spain, Italy and France on the situation in the Mediterranean on Monday. Faeser spoke of a difficult situation on the island of Lampedusa and announced that they wanted to launch a joint action plan. Thousands of boat migrants have arrived on the small Mediterranean island in the past few days./seb/DP/nas