Ambassador Hisham Badr, assistant foreign minister for multi-party affairs, will chair the meeting of the steering committee of European Union and Horn of Africa Initiative on migration routes, which will be held on April 23 and 24 in Sharm El-Sheikh, foreign ministry spokesperson said Monday. The international meeting will be held with the participation of the 28 member states of the Commission from Africa and Europe, as well as a number of international entities including the United Nations and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Badr pointed out that the meeting will address the challenges arising from the phenomenon of illegal immigration and human trafficking, stressing the urgency to find a solution to tackling certain forms of migration from North Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, the EU has unveiled a 10-point action plan on Monday to stem the tide of migrants crossing the Mediterranean after the latest disastrous loss of life, promising to step up both control and rescue operations. The European Commission said the plan, approved by EU foreign and interior ministers at an emergency meeting in Luxembourg, will be submitted to a summit Thursday as the 28-member bloc tries to halt a growing death toll off its southern shores. Badr asserted that the initiative comes to respond after the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean, in which 700 migrants have drowned attempting to cross into Europe.
