French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Monday called for more control on immigration into the European Union (EU) following an informal dinner meeting in Paris.
If the European Union (EU) wishes to deliver its humanitarian obligations, it must accomplish the task by reinforcing the control on immigration and with a limitation, said Chirac following the two-hour informal meeting with Schroeder.
European leaders are to meet at the summit in Seville, Spain, on June 22 and 23, the immigration policy is expected to be on top of the agenda.
Chirac called for a "much more serious" control on entries into Europe via the Schengen visa, which, based on the agreement named after the city in Luxembourg, allows free circulation of people in most of EU countries.
He also said that laws and immigration and asylum policies should be harmonized among European countries.
"We must fight in a more efficient way against the Mafia systems that organize the illegal immigration in totally inhuman ways into our nations," said Chirac.
On his part, Schroeder said that Germany shares the same view on the immigration issue with France. He added that European countries must be vigilant against the rightist extremism that blames all social illness on immigrants.
"It is a subject that must be treated very seriously and in a very responsible way," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2002)
