United Nations Deputy
Secretary General Jan Eliasson said Tuesday that Italy's
flagship 'migration compact' proposal to ease the asylum-seeker
crisis by helping sub-Saharan countries of origin and transit is
a "valid" idea that merits "serious consideration".
"In my conversations I have heard it spoken of in positive
terms," Eliasson said in an interview with Italian state
broadcaster RAI.
"I am not familiar with the details, but it certainly
appears to be worth evaluating," he added.
Eliasson, a former naval officer, also praised Italy's navy
and coastguard authorities for their "fantastic" work in
rescuing migrants trying to reach Europe's southern shores.
"We know you have a very important function seeing as the
European Union does not have a strong enough system of border
control," he said.
"This is one of the problems you have generally on
migration," he continued.
"I don't want to interfere in EU internal affairs, but I
would hope for a combination of more ordered traffic from source
countries, with the possibility of entering by legal channels,
and sufficiently incisive control of the external border so as
to be able to preserve the Schengen agreement (on the free
movement of goods and people)," Eliasson said.
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