EU Council chief tells African leaders irregular migrants "should be returned"

The President of European Council Donald Tusk on Wednesday told African partners that irregular migrants "should be returned", as 60 more leaders of the two continents gathered here seeking grassroots solutions to the current migrant crisis.

"To keep the doors open for refugees and legal migrants, irregular migrants should be returned effectively and quickly," Tusk said at the opening ceremony of Valletta summit on migration, which is scheduled on Wednesday and Thursday.

The EU was reported to promise a billion-euro fund to Africa as the bloc is keen to send back more illegal migrants amid heavy pressure on growing massive migrant influx.

By the first week of November, arrivals of migrants and refugees on European shores in 2015 have approached 800,000, nearly four times the total for all of 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Alongside the inflows, thousands of migrants, mainly from Africa's war-torn or remote countries, perished at the Mediterranean sea on their way to Europe. The Valletta summit, was firstly proposed after a single shipwreck tragedy resulting in 700 hundred more deaths in April.

The bargain on EU's intention of returning irregular migrants to Africa is all but certain at the summit. "Voluntary return is always preferable. But when it is not possible, non-voluntary return is a pre-requisite for a well-managed migration policy," Tusk said.

He stressed that it was "essential" to properly return and readmit those not entitled to international protection. "This is an international norm, and a responsibility of states to citizens. " Endit