Hopes for refugee crisis plan fall into chasm between G7 and Trump
Source: The Guardian
Hopes for refugee crisis plan fall into chasm between G7 and Trump
Disagreements with US are so fundamental that Sicily summit
might not be able to issue communique
Patrick Wintour in Taormina
Friday 26 May 2017 14.29 BST
Fundamental disagreements between the US president, Donald Trump, and other G7 leaders at the joint summit in Sicily have become so vast that they may be forced to issue a brief leaders statement rather than a fully-fledged communique, dashing Italian hopes of engineering a big step forward on migration and famine.
A carefully laid plan prepared by the Italian hosts for a comprehensive package on the migration crisis has been blocked. Its replacement removes any commitments on the US to take refugees.
Italy had chosen Taormina in Sicily as the venue to host the G7 precisely as a symbol of the worlds concern over the plight of refugees coming from Africa. It had hoped the meeting would end with a bold statement that the world, and not just individual nations, had a responsibility for the refugee crisis. Italy is on course to take 200,000 refugees this year, and more than 1,300 have drowned this year in the perilous crossing from Libya to Italy.
The disagreements have spread to climate change, trade and food security, revealing the chasm between Trump and his fellow leaders at the summit.
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Amid reports that the US was refusing to sign up to a communique if it implied an American commitment to take in more refugees, Tusk said: We have to keep this position that the migration crisis is a global issue, and not only local or regional, and I hope we will convince our new colleagues around the table that what we need today is solidarity at the global level.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/26/trump-set-to-clash-with-other-g7-leaders-over-refugees-and-climate