Donald Tusk

In an 5 April 2015 interview with Politico, Tusk called for “a new containment policy...We have to stop this huge wave of illegal immigration”

In September 2015, Tusk stated that when he “recently visited refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan only heard one message: we are determined to get to Europe...correct our policy of open doors and windows. Now the focus should be on proper protection of our external borders”

Tusk stated “We can no longer allow solidarity to be equivalent to naivety, openness to be equivalent to helplessness, freedom to be equivalent to chaos. And by that, I am of course referring to the situation on our borders.” EPP Congress in Madrid, October 22nd 2015 

The suspect urged on  EU leaders to focus more on border protection. Further, at an informal European Council meeting at the end of February 2016 the suspect put forward conclusions that called for “an end to the wave-through approach”. 

Tusk was deeply unenthusiastic about drawing the EU any further into the smuggler’s net than it already was. Above all a political communicator, he thought the smugglers and migrants needed to hear the unambiguous message that Europe would stop the taxi service: any other course of action meant more boats, more deaths, more internal chaos in the EU. 

Tusk repeatedly sought to build public support for close cooperation with Libya and acted as a diplomatic facilitator of said cooperation:

Ahead of the Malta Summit, Tusk talked to Gentiloni and the Libyan PM Al-Sarraj (-> direct contact!) and “determined that a bilateral cooperation is… in our reach" In that context, Tusk (alongside Hollande and Merkel) “agreed on the need to support Italy in this cooperation. Especially the Memorandum of Understanding. Europe should and will stand by Italy.”

Around the same time, on February 2, 2017, Tusk also stated that “now is the time to close down the route from Libya to Italy”

On February 3, 2017, Tusk said: “The main goal for the Malta summit is to stem the flow of irregular migration from Libya to Europe. This is the only way to stop people dying…at sea. This also the only way to gain control over migration in Europe.”