Ministers from close to 50 states debating migration issues in Prague

Ministers from the Schengen zone, the eastern Partnership region, the Western Balkans, Central Asia and Turkey are taking part in a two-day conference on migration in Prague. On Monday, they adopted a joint declaration stating their readiness to cooperate in addressing the problem and outlined an action plan for the years 2023 to 2027. The action plan covers six areas of cooperation, including preventing and combating illegal migration, promoting return policies, and strengthening labour-related migration and asylum and international protection capacities. EU Commissioner Ylva Johansson said that three times more people are coming to the EU via the Balkan route than last year and ten times more than in 2018.