EU states at sea over how to tackle illegal migrants

BRUSSELS, Sep 20 (Reuters) A wave of illegal migrants arriving in the European Union on rickety boats has highlighted the diverging immigration policies of the bloc's 25 states and their inability to agree on how to deal with the problem.

More than 23,000 Africans have washed ashore on Spain's Canary Islands this year, about five times the number in the whole of 2005.

Thousands are believed to have died on the journey.

Brussels has repeatedly urged member countries to work together to tackle the problem and the EU presidency wants to extract pledges they will do so at a meeting of interior ministers in Finland, starting on Thursday.

Spain, Malta and Italy have asked for help, stressing that in a border-free EU many migrants will cross the countries of entry to reach other EU states.

But their partners have so far contributed only two boats, one aircraft and a handful of experts to much-trumpeted joint sea patrols to stop Africans reaching the Canaries. A second aircraft has yet to arrive.

''When politicians go to the media it's easy to make declarations on how important solidarity is,'' said Gil Arias, Deputy Director of the fledging EU border agency Frontex which is coordinating the patrols.

''At the end of the day the solidarity is this, what member states offer us for the Canaries,'' Arias told Reuters.

BLAME GAME Spain's calls for solidarity have been batted back by critics who say it was partly to blame for the situation.

During a visit to Brussels this month, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy lambasted Madrid for legalising hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants in a plan Spain contends actually helped regulate immigration.

''You cannot tell Europe 'I will decide on my own when I regularise 500,000 illegal migrants' and then say 'come and help me' when you need to deal with the consequences,'' said the conservative frontrunner in the French presidential campaign.

EU states have rejected pressure by the EU's executive Commission to adopt joint rules on legal migration. Rights groups and analysts do not expect such a move any time soon.

''They all have very different perceptions of their needs and very different migration regimes,'' Elizabeth Collett of the European Policy Centre said recently of the EU states who regard the issue as being closely linked to national sovereignty.

''On illegal migration, it's much easier to get a consensus: stop it. And when you cannot stop it, put the blame on Brussels.

We've seen a clear example recently,'' a senior EU official said, referring to visits by Spanish ministers to seek EU help.

EU states have set up meetings aimed at possibly coordinating surveillance of maritime borders. Spain is to host a meeting of the EU's Mediterranean nations shortly, before EU leaders tackle the issue at a regular summit in October.

EU president Finland will urge interior ministers this week to share the costs of housing and, possibly, returning illegal migrants reaching any EU border, while the Commission is set to call for states to give more funds to the EU border agency.

But agreement on the fundamental issues appears far off.

''Let us be frank, in this matter few of us think as Europeans,'' Maltese Interior Minister Tonio Borg complained recently.

Reuters BDP GC0906