Italy: EU should replicate Turkey migrant deal with African nations

The agreement to curb migrant flows from Turkey to the European Union should be replicated with African nations, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said Saturday.

The EU has offered Ankara 3 billion euros (3.4 billion dollars) to accept the repatriation of migrants who land in Greece. In return, the EU has pledged to take in Syrians still in Turkey.

"Albeit agreed in an emergency situation and hence perfectible," the agreement "should not remain a one-off case," Renzi wrote in a letter to EU leaders dated Friday, published a day later on his government's website.

If that were not to happen, "we would be witnessing an imbalance in terms of resources and political capital employed in one geographical area compared to other areas that are no less important when tackling the issue of migration," the Italian premier said.

Renzi's letter presented a separate four-page "Migration Compact" in which the Italian government opened up to EU debate several ideas. The paper suggested that the EU could offer African nations money, as well as entry quotas for workers, students and researchers, in return for them tightening border controls with the help of on-the-ground EU police missions, all "in line with international standards."