Poland’s prime minister on Monday called for a “new Marshall Plan” for Africa to help stem the tide of illegal migration into Europe.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (right) and German parliamentary Speaker Wolfgang Schäuble (left) take part in a debate at the Warsaw campus of the College of Europe on Monday. Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk

Mateusz Morawiecki was speaking at an academic debate in Warsaw that was also attended by German parliamentary Speaker Wolfgang Schäuble.

Morawiecki said that “something along the lines of a new Marshall Plan” needed to be devised for Africa, an initiative modelled after the United States’ programme of massive economic aid to post-World War II Europe.

Such assistance would be a good way to deal with the problem of migrants arriving in Europe from Africa, Morawiecki said during the debate at an institute of postgraduate European studies in the Polish capital.

He added that the external borders of the European Union had to be strengthened and that funds needed to be allocated for programmes in North Africa to prevent people from being smuggled into Europe.

"We should ask ourselves how many immigrants from Africa we can accept. A million? 10 million? 100 million?" Morawiecki said, as quoted by public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency. He noted that Africa was home to around 1.1 billion people.

He also told those gathered at the Warsaw campus of the College of Europe that Poland was ready to increase its contribution to the European Investment Bank’s Economic Resilience Initiative (ERI), an aid fund for Libya and Syria, the IAR news agency reported.

"If Brussels wants us to increase this contribution still further, I am ready to do that immediately," he declared, according to IAR.

Germany’s Schäuble said during the debate that open borders were a big achievement of the EU and one that needed to be maintained. He added, however, that migration was one of the biggest challenges for Europe in a globalising world, IAR reported.

Beata Kempa, Poland’s minister for humanitarian aid, said in May that Poland was spending more on humanitarian aid every year.

Last year Poland allocated PLN 181 million for humanitarian aid and almost PLN 590 million for development projects, according to Kempa. The resulting total of over PLN 770 million (EUR 180 million, USD 212 million) was some PLN 357 million more than in 2016, she said.

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Source: IAR