generalspeaking

The Graveyard of the Mediterranean

"My understanding is that the facilitators are often phoning up the Italian authorities in advance and saying that boats are on their way. They are not putting as much fuel in the boats as they usually do because they expect them to be picked up."
"A lot of the migrants are interviewed afterwards, and this is what they say, and my professional contacts also say it. We have started to hear about it since Mare Nostrum was launched, when those on the Libyan side became aware that there were more boats being deployed to rescue people."
Graham Leese, special adviser, Frontex, European Union border control force

The problem with refugees is that they become the world's flotsam and jetsam; plentiful yet impossible to ignore because of the anguish of knowing that men, women and children are defenceless against the cruelty resulting from war or national neglect in the security of civilians, or even government attacks against their own, leaving them vulnerable to death unless they flee, to find security elsewhere.

Logically, solving the conditions that led to desperately migrating people would solve the refugee problem.

But solutions are always evasive; the ongoing conflicts in parts of Africa, the dissolution of public order in Libya, the regime of Bashar al-Assad's Shiite government's attacks on Syrian Sunnis protesting the inequality of treatment all serve to convince the vulnerable that they can no longer live in their countries of origin and must set out on long and dangerous voyages of desperation to attempt to find safety for themselves and their families.

Unscrupulous and heartless thugs are always in the background of any such situations, seeing opportunities to make their fortunes off the misfortunes of others. And so people smugglers have a field day, charging as much as they feel the market of desperation will bear for an opportunity to share the misery and uncertainty -- and for some certain death -- of perilous ocean journeys toward hoped-for haven.

When 350 migrants drowned in sight of the Italian island of Lampedusa, their destination last year, the European Union responded by funding Operation Mare Nostrum. The enterprise rescued over 100,000 refugees from the sea, but the monthly cost of the $9-million humanitarian response convinced the EU to discontinue it, augmented by concern that illegal immigration into Europe was being encouraged by their very attempts to save lives.

A replacement service, Operation Triton employs fewer vessels and doesn't venture beyond European waters. The EU's border control force, Frontex's activities are now being singled out as encouraging traffickers through their dedication to "search-and-rescue", which effectively eases the burden on the traffickers' deadly trade.

After over 400 migrants died when their ramshackle, overloaded boat capsized off the cost of Libya last week, the United Nations urged European countries to increase the rescue operations, a move that Britain opposes, pointing out that the humanitarian work by the EU represents a "pull factor" tempting more migrants to risk their lives in hopes of finding haven.

"The UN's idea that one is obliged morally to take in people coming across in boats is a dangerous one because you are encouraging the very process that you are seeking to stop. Some of these people are desperate, but a good proportion are economic migrants, and either way, you shouldn't be encouraging people to risk their lives in a boat", emphasized Graham Leese.

The solution to any such miserable situations is always evasive. And Italy and Greece are struggling to cope with an unending influx of migrants from Africa to the Palestinian Territories.

Labels: Africa, Italy, Libya, Palestinian Territories, Refugees, Syria

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, April 18, 2015