Europe migrants: Disputes make EU summit a key test

The migration issue is back again – big time – for EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

How to deal with the many undocumented migrants – mainly Africans – who continue to risk their lives in the Mediterranean, hoping to start new lives in the EU? It will be the main topic at this summit.

The migrant flows include refugees fleeing the Syrian war and other conflicts, urgently seeking asylum.

It is not a crisis on the scale of 2015, when thousands were coming ashore daily on the Greek islands. The European Council – the EU’s strategic leadership – says the numbers illegally entering the EU have dropped 96% since their peak in October 2015.