EU is "intensifying efforts" to manage migration

The European Union delegation to the UN in Geneva said on Wednesday it is intensifying its efforts on all fronts to "better manage migration together".

In a statement released in Geneva, the EU said it has spent two years dedicated to tackling, humanely and effectively, migration in Europe which it described as one of the "most challenging phenomena" of current times.

"With the total number of irregular crossings along the main migratory routes having decreased by 63 percent in 2017," the EU said collective efforts to protect the EU's external borders are showing "concrete results".

The statement came the day after the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement that the EU's policy of assisting the Libyan Coast Guard to intercept and return migrants in the Mediterranean Sea was inhuman.

The EU said its efforts entail cooperating with partner countries to tackle "the root causes of irregular migration, improve the protection of migrants and win the fight against smugglers are showing concrete results".

The EU is calling for further concerted action by its 28-member States and partner countries to advance in parallel and to maintain the intensity of its efforts.

The statement cited EU First Vice-President Frans Timmermans saying, "Since 2015, we have made real progress through our joint work to manage migration better in a comprehensive way.

"However, we are not there yet, and this issue will stay with us for some time."