LUXEMBOURG: European Union governments agreed on Thursday to step up deportations of illegal immigrants and discussed creating an border guard force among measures to cope with a surge in refugees from Syria’s civil war.

“Increased return rates should act as a deterrent to irregular migration,” interior ministers concluded at a meeting in Luxembourg that included approving “detention” for those who may abscond before expulsion.

They also plan to exert more “leverage” on African and other poor states, including via aid budgets, to make them accept the return of citizens refused entry to Europe.

In the evening, they will be joined by EU foreign ministers and delegations from Balkan states, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon for talks on stemming migrant flows that have plunged the bloc into crisis, dividing members over how to secure the EU external borders and how to share responsibility for housing refugees.

“Returns are always tough,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on arrival. “But ... we can only offer space and support to refugees in need of protection if those who don’t need protection don’t come or are quickly returned.”

In recent years, fewer than 40 percent of people whose asylum claims are rejected have actually then left the EU.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who angered some of her eastern neighbors over the summer by offering a welcome to more Syrians, made clear in a speech on Wednesday that Europe would also do more to deter and expel the hundreds of thousands who reach Europe every year illegally in search of prosperity.

Merkel said Europe needs to rewrite its “obsolete” asylum rules to tackle the migrant crisis as European warships went into action against people smugglers in the Mediterranean.