From the article:
Instead of adopting Gentiloni’s proposals, the G7 nations agreed to unspecific aims to support African economies, the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices and good governance in African countries. The discord within the G7 about how to tackle the issue is also mirrored in the EU, where some members want to find more legal pathways for migrants to travel and others want a complete halt to migration. The lack of a coherent strategy to provide more legal avenues for migration continues to push those seeking refuge to travel irregularly, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and injury, according to Hannah Postel, research associate at Washington-based Center for Global Development.
“There really haven’t been any new legal channels for migrants to travel and some European countries, such as Hungary, are turning away asylum seekers, which has led to people travelling on the black market and hiring smugglers and facing difficult conditions to arrive at their final destination,” she says. “So we see it more as a migration policy crisis rather than a migration crisis per se because when you look at the EU migrant population now, then the numbers are quite small in terms of migrants per capita.”
Europe’s inability to accommodate the current influx of people fleeing violence is because of a failure of policies and institutions, not because of unprecedented numbers, Postel adds. According to data from the UN’s migration agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), around 73,189 migrants and refugees arrived on European shores via the sea in the first six months of 2017, down from 211,433 people over the same period last year. While the number of people arriving via sea has declined significantly, deaths over the same period still remain relatively high.