The European Union has presented a new aid plan estimated at €62bn to curb the influx of African migrants via Libya, building on the deal it reached with Turkey in March.
The European Commission aims to boost partnership with nine countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Jordan, Libya, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said project funding could eventually reach €62bn (£48bn or US$70bn). Controversially the money may include security help for Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan.
More than a million refugees and economic migrants entered the EU via the Mediterranean last year, many of them fleeing chaos and civil war in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
Hundreds also drowned in tragedies at sea, when overcrowded, flimsy boats sank.
The numbers reaching Greek islands from Turkey have dropped sharply since the EU-Turkey deal took effect in March. Migrants with no grounds for EU asylum are being returned to Turkey, which has been promised extra EU aid and visa-free travel in exchange.
Despite that drop, the numbers reaching Italy on the central Mediterranean route have remained similar to last year’s pattern, with more boats leaving Libya in the good weather.
On that route the main countries of origin are: Nigeria (15%), Gambia (10%), Somalia (9%), Ivory Coast, Eritrea and Guinea (8% each) and Senegal (7%), the UN refugee agency UNHCR reports.
