European Union to pay £35million to 8 African countries in secret deal in a bid to quell migration

UK Daily Mail has disclosed a secret deal between the EU and the
leaders of eight African countries in its bid to stop migration. Under
the agreements, the countries get £35million to facilitate the
prevention of migration to the EU. Apparently, the EU felt its
reputation will be damaged if the deal became know  and urged all
parties to keep it secret. After the cut is how Daily Mail reports it...
"EU chiefs have hatched a secret plot to work with African dictators
to stop migrants reaching Europe, a leaked report has revealed.The
plan would see £35million earmarked for eight African countries
including Sudan which is ruled by accused war criminal President
Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
In return, they would be asked to intercept refugees heading to the
Mediterranean and beyond. But the March meeting of 28
ambassadors, led by Germany, agreed that 'under no
circumstances' should the public learn of the agreement.
An aide of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica
Mogherini even warned that Europe's reputation was at stake if the
details emerged, it was reported.
The minutes of the meeting and other classified documents were
obtained by German publication Der Spiegel and public TV station
ARD.
According to the report, the £35million would be used over three
years to train border police and set up detention camps, mainly in
Sudan.
Other measures include installing cameras, scanners and servers
for registering refugees to the Sudanese regime.
But critics have attacked the plan for relying on a dictatorship
accused of killing tens of thousands of people to now uphold the
human rights of migrants.
Marina Peter, an expert on the Horn of Africa region at the
German relief organisation Bread for the World, told Der Spiegel:
'A regime that destabilised the region and drove hundreds of
thousands of people to flee is now supposed to stem the flow for the
EU.'
Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since a 1989 Islamist and army-
backed coup, has been accused by the Hague-based International
Criminal Court (ICC) of masterminding genocide and other
atrocities in his campaign to crush a revolt in Sudan's western
Darfur region.
Experts estimate at least 200,000 people have been killed, although
the Sudanese government says only 10,000 have died.
A further 2.7 million people are estimated to have been uprooted by
the conflict, which began when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms
against the government.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Bashir in 2009 and 2010, but the
Sudanese President rejects the court's authority and has regularly
flouted the warrants.
Amnesty International has also accused the Sudanese secret service
of torturing members of the opposition, while the United States
claims the regime finances terrorism.
The German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development
has confirmed the 'action plan' but says it has not yet been
implemented.
The German development agency GIZ is expected to coordinate the
project.
Sudan is key transit route for migrants fleeing countries such as
Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and the Central
African Republic.
From there, they make their way to Libya where they attempt to
boards boats across the Mediterranean into Europe.