EU leaders today agreed a "European pact on immigration and asylum" which activists and analysts said marked a further toughening of the continent's migration policies.
They pledged to expel illegal migrants and beef up border controls, while vowing to work to attract more highly-skilled migrants.
The pact says the 27-nation bloc needed immigration but warned that it "does not have the resources to decently receive all the migrants hoping to find a better life here".
EU states also say they want to cooperate better together and with migrants' countries of origin to fight illegal migration and help foster development there.
They agreed not to carry out mass regularisations of illegal migrants but rather proceed on a case-by-case basis.
"The pact clearly heralds a more conservative approach to immigration," said Elizabeth Collett, political analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think-tank.
"It looks at immigration policies through the prism of 'control first', making this more explicit than in the past."
In the pact, EU leaders reiterated pledges to agree a common asylum policy, but said this might be achieved only in 2012, rather than by the original 2010 target.
"We have some strong reservations regarding the direction that the debate has taken," said Bjarte Vandvik, secretary general of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.
"We feel that the pact may be tipping the balance further towards the security approach -- which to date has not provided the solutions to Europe's migration challenges -- and away from the necessary actions to ensure human rights safeguards."
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said it welcomed the fact that the EU had vowed to ensure that people in need of international protection were able to find this protection throughout the EU.
EU ministers agreed earlier this year that illegal immigrants could be detained for up to 18 months and face a 5-year re-entry ban.
The European Commission estimates there are up to eight million illegal migrants in the bloc. Hundreds die each year trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands or its southern mainland coast from Africa on rickety small boats.
Latin American leaders and senior African officials have criticised new European Union rules against illegal immigration, accusing the wealthy bloc of failing to treat migrants with dignity and of breaking pledges to cooperate.
Reuters