Eritreans make up the bulk of nearly 140,000 migrants who arrived in Italy from Africa by sea in 2015, along with 18,000 Nigerians and 8,000 Sudanese, according to International Organization for Migration figures.
However a senior EU official told reporters Monday that African officials still wanted to redraft proposals for the return and readmission of migrants.
“They want us to insist more on voluntary returns than other kinds,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Amnesty International raised fears that the summit would reinforce the idea of a “Fortress Europe”.
“The EU is looking for an externalisation of its migration problem. This can lead to an outsourcing of human rights abuses and is quite worrying,” Iverna McGowan, Director of the Amnesty International European Institutions Office, told AFP.
But Ozonnia Ojielo, a top UN Development Programme official based in Addis Ababa, told AFP that the two sides were engaging in a mutually respectful dialogue “recognising also that the rights of migrants and refugees should be fully protected.”
He added: “It’s not a language of compulsion. It’s a language of exploring together.”
Invited to the meeting are leaders from more than 30 African countries, including Libya as well as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, the sources of many people fleeing conflict and repression.
Also due to attend are the leaders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria in the drought-stricken Lake Chad basin, where 2.5 million people have been displaced by abject poverty and the Boko Haram Islamist militant movement.
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