23 November 2006

Liam tells EU and Africa better cooperation needed on immigration

Liam Byrne MP yesterday told EU and African nations that they need to work together better to tackle illegal immigration.

The Home Office minister and MP for Hodge Hill was speaking at the first ever pan-Africa-EU conference in Libya to talk about aid and immigration.

Liam flew to Libya with the Italian interior minister and met Home Secretaries from Germany and Spain, along with EU Commissioner Fratini for talks on tighter links between international development plans and immigration policies.

He later met Libyan security ministers to talk about joint work tackling extremism.

Liam said:

'Getting Europe and Africa to talk about immigration is a big step forward. It’s about time we started talking about migration and development together.

'Working together simply means we've got a better chance of getting problems sorted faster'.