Europe struggles to make progress in migration quagmire

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe is continuing its decade-old struggle to devise a migration system that would both better protect its borders and avoid tragedies like the sinking off Italy last month which claimed at least 70 lives. European Union interior ministers remained mired Thursday in technical talks that aim to revamp the bloc’s migration and asylum system by spring 2024 at the earliest. Increasingly in Europe, humanitarian tragedies and the plight of people fleeing persecution in countries like Afghanistan and Syria often take second seat to populist rhetoric about overcrowding, loss of national identity and the cost of housing migrants.