Brussels will urge European countries to give shelter to more refugees from Africa to ease the pressure on Italy, as record numbers of people attempt the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.

The European Union executive wants all member states – including the UK – to contribute to resettling a total of 37,000 vulnerable people from five north African countries by the end of 2018. Interior ministers meeting in Tallinn on Thursday will be called on by Dmitris Avramopoulos, the EU home affairs commissioner, to make voluntary pledges by the middle of September.

The appeal came as Amnesty International released a damning 31-page reportlinking “failing EU policies” to the the rising death toll in the Mediterranean, and shocking abuses faced by refugees and migrants in Libyan detention centres.

The EU resettlement plan is focused on children, as well as victims of people smugglers and torture, from Libya, Egypt, Niger, Sudan and Ethiopia. Most people making the perilous sea crossing from north Africa are deemed to be economic migrants not eligible for international protection. But the EU announced a relocation plan for vulnerable people as part of a package of emergency measures to help ease pressure on Italy.

“It can be an important safety valve for people with vulnerabilities,” said an EU source.

Frans Timmermans, European commission vice president, has made clear Brexit does not exclude the UK from the 2017-2018 programme, although pledges are voluntary.

The plan, which has a strong emphasis on returning unwanted migrants, emerged as it was revealed that EU countries have paid in less than half of the funds promised to help African governments manage migration.

The Africa “trust fund” was announced with fanfare in 2015 to win African support for the deportation of unwanted migrants in Europe. Brussels has contributed €2.6bn (£2.3bn) from the EU budget, but officials are frustrated that national capitals are not digging deeper into their state coffers.

Only €90m of a promised €202m has so far materialised. The UK has paid in €0.6m of its promised €3m, far less than Italy, which has paid €32m. France, Germany and Spain have put in €3m each, according to the latest data from the European commission.

A record number of migrants are expected to cross the Mediterranean this year: more than 85,000 arrived in the first half of 2017, while 2,150 people have died attempting the journey.



Amnesty said EU governments had shifted their earlier focus from providing search-and-rescue vessels to stopping people escaping Libya by strengthening the ability of the “woefully inadequate” Libyan coastguard to intercept boats and return migrants to Libya, and by largely abandoning the task of saving lives in the central Mediterranean to NGOs.

“This strategy leaves refugees and migrants at serious risk of abuse … in a country where no asylum law or system exist and they face widespread violence and exploitation, including killings, torture, rape, kidnappings, forced labour, and arbitrary and indefinite detention in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions,” the rights group said.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s Europe director, said European states had “turned their backs on a search-and-rescue strategy that was reducing mortality at sea in favour of one that has seen thousands drown and left desperate women, men and children trapped in Libya, exposed to horrific abuses.”

EU policies had led to a three-fold increase in the death rate on the central Mediterranean crossing from 0.89% in the second half of 2015 to 2.7% in 2017, Amnesty said.

“If the second half of this year continues as the first, 2017 looks set to become the deadliest year for the deadliest migration route in the world,” Dalhuisen said.

Migrants told Amnesty that conditions in Libya were atrocious. “I spent three months in prison … You sleep like sardines in the cell, on your side, because there is no space. They beat you if you do not lie down in the right way,” said one man from the Gambia.

“The water for the toilet was also for drinking … I saw three people being tortured while I was in prison. One boy died during torture … They beat prisoners with pipes. I was beaten at night.”