French President Emmanuel Macron, center, meets with Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou and Chad's President Idriss Deby Itno at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Aug. 28. (Thibault Camus/AFP/Getty Images)

More than 1.5 million migrants have surged into Europe since 2015. Now European leaders and their African counterparts are working to stop the next mass migration before it starts.

In Paris on Monday, the leaders of France, Germany, Italy and Spain met with the presidents of Niger and Chad — as well as Fayez Serraj, the head of Libya’s unity government. They agreed on a policy of registering “vulnerable” migrants at reception centers in Africa before they can seek asylum in Europe.

The war in Syria and conflict and poverty across Africa have caused a surge in migration over the past several years, prompting migrants and asylum seekers to pour into Europe, including along the deadly central Mediterranean route. To curb the flow, European leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have long called for increased screening in Africa. In return, they have promised their African partners significant developmental aid.

[In once-welcoming Italy, the tide turns against migrants]

Monday’s summit was a victory of sorts for European leaders, who pushed for guarantees on tightened African border checks, increased Libyan patrols in the Mediterranean, and a crackdown on aid groups that carry out water rescues, which governments say enable traffickers to continue dangerous smuggling practices.

The Washington Post's Sudarsan Raghavan explains what migrants attempting to travel to Europe face when the Libyan Coast Guard takes them in. (Jason Aldag,Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

But migration advocates were quick to reiterate the problems with what they consider a deeply flawed bargain.

The developmental aid Europe has promised, they say, can amount to funneling money to repressive regimes.

“It’s out of sight, out of mind,” said Sophia Wirsching, a migration consultant for Bread for the World, a Protestant aid organization in Germany. “Europe is attempting to shift its duty to countries that are not capable or willing to take on the responsibility for refugees.”

[Smugglers are abandoning migrants in the middle of a desert the size of Texas]

The migration issue continues to inflame domestic politics across the continent — and perhaps nowhere more so than Germany.

There, finding ways to address forced migration beyond Europe’s borders has taken on new urgency several weeks before a federal election that is serving as a referendum on Merkel and her decision two years ago not to close Germany’s borders to about a million migrants fleeing the Syrian war.

Polls show the long-serving, center-right leader with a comfortable advantage as she works to assure voters that the rapid influx of asylum seekers was a one-time deal.

Earlier in the summer, Macron proposed a network of “hot spots” in Libya, where migrants would be evaluated for asylum before making the journey. Those deemed to be economic migrants would be turned back. The notion was harpooned by Human Rights Watch and prominent European humanitarian groups.

But some political analysts insist that implementing refu­gee processing on the African side of the Mediterranean is a necessary step.

“You can be critical of hot spots because it’s not entirely clear how they would work, but the reality is, the idea is not all that different from what we decided with Turkey last year,” said Pierre Vimont, a former French ambassador to the European Union, referring to the deal between the E.U. and Turkey to stem the flow of migrants into Greece.

[Migrants face abuses in Libya even before they risk death at sea]

Monday’s summit also addressed a proposed code of conduct for aid groups, some of which have been accused of performing rescues that enable smugglers to continue dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean.

Many aid groups reject those charges.

“Basically, the accusations we’ve heard about NGOs, that we are somehow helping the traffickers, are vastly ill-conceived,” said Bruno Jochum, director general of Doctors Without Borders.

“It’s part of a general strategy to stop the coming flow at whatever cost,” he said. “Today, European states are accommodating themselves and pushing people back into situations of generalized mistreatment.”

Read more

‘They are not treated like humans’: Inside Libya’s thriving migrant trade

More than 6,000 migrants rescued in Mediterranean amid surge on dangerous sea route

Overwhelmed by immigrants, Italy threatens to bar the door to rescue ships

Meet the Libyan coast guard: Few ships, no lights, little hope of stopping migrants

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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