Tag Archives: migrants

Migrants Tragedy in the Mediterranean: 600 Deaths That Were Preventable

Last month’s tragedy of the Adriana that capsized and sank off the coast of Greece, leading to the shocking death of 600 passengers, in large part women and children, finally has an explanation. It can no longer be shelved in the convenient category (convenient for European political leaders) where the only culprits are the crazed smugglers who jam migrants in floating wrecks in order to maximize their returns. We now have evidence beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Greek government is responsible for all those deaths, having failed to rescue them.  

Reuters, two days ago, had already raised doubts, reporting that six witnesses had said the Greek Coast Guards contributed to the tragedy, by throwing a rope that capsized the migrants’ boat. Their statements predictably clashed with the public statements given by the Greek coastguard and government, denying that any rope had been thrown.

But today we finally have the whole picture, carefully put together by a New York Times investigation. And it amounts to a devastating case against the Greek authorities, drawing from satellite imagery, sealed court documents, more than 20 interviews with survivors and officials and recordings of radio signals transmitted in the final hours of the tragedy.  

The conclusion? In the words of the Times journalists, Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Karam Shoumali, “the scale of death was preventable”. Note the term “scale of death”, it is a carefully chosen term that takes into consideration the special circumstances and the overloading of the Adriana.

It is the case, to be sure, that many deaths could have been expected even in a normal rescue operation, given the massive number of passengers carried by the Adriana, compounded by the absolute disregard displayed by the Egyptian smugglers for the safety of women and children assigned in the middle deck and tragically trapped in it when the ship capsized. They reportedly even beat back with belts any Pakistani migrant that tried escaping from the bottom hold to reach the deck – the only place where anyone had a chance to escape. 

In the end, only 104 people were reportedly rescued while bodies still keep turning up.

But what comes out very clearly from the New York Times recounting of events is that the Greek government never treated the situation as a rescue: For the Greek authorities, it was a standard law enforcement operation. They never sent a navy hospital ship or rescue specialists; instead, they came with a team that included four masked armed men from a coast guard special operations unit.

For now, the Greek Ministry of Maritime Affairs told the New York Times it would not respond to detailed questions because the shipwreck was under criminal investigation, with a number of people, including the smugglers, arrested. 

Last week in Brussels, the Greek Prime Minister once again repeated what the Greek authorities have said from the start: namely, that the Adriana was sailing to Italy, and that the migrants did not want to be rescued. But satellite imagery and tracking data obtained by the New York Times show definitively that the Adriana was drifting in a loop for its last six and a half hours and wasn’t headed for Italy. 

By Day 4, according to testimonies and interviews, six people in the hold of the ship, including at least one child, had died.

The next day, June 13, the captain sent a distress call to the Italian authorities in the expectation that the Italians would rescue them.

As the New York Times recounts it, the Italians immediately alerted Frontex, the European Union border agency, and a reconnaissance plane was sent out by midday. Reportedly, two German journalists touring the Frontex command center at that time noticed “images of a rusty blue fishing ship” in trouble on the screen. Frontex rushed the Adriana coordinates to the Greek authorities since it was in Greece’s search-and-rescue area. A helicopter was sent within two hours. 

All the Greeks did by evening (7 pm) was to ask two nearby commercial tankers to bring the migrants water, food and diesel to continue their journey.

Read the rest of the story on Impakter, click here

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Murderers in the Mediterranean: How to Stop Them

Just published on Impakter:

Two days ago, 117 people died in the Mediterranean. People talk of massacres whenever migrants drown. And then forget about it, overwhelmed by the relentless news cycle of our digital age. Perhaps if we called a spade a spade, people wouldn’t forget: Murderers at work in the Mediterranean is a better description of what happened.

Consider the facts.  They had been 120 when they escaped from Libya in hope of a better life in Europe. Then, after about eleven hours of navigation, their overloaded rubber dinghy deflated and capsized. They tried to swim for hours, but most couldn’t make it. There were ten women among them, one was pregnant. And there were two children, one of which was a two-month baby. Most of them came from Nigeria, Cameroon, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Sudan. Three survived to tell the story and were brought by helicopter to the Italian island of Lampedusa.

All the others could have been saved but weren’t.

With modern satellite technology, any boat crossing the Mediterranean can be spotted. For years, the Italian navy did a magnificent job of spotting them and saving lives, earning people’s gratitude and admiration across the world.

In the Photo: An over-crowded boat of refugees and migrants is rescued in the Mediterranean by the Italian Navy as part of the Mare Nostrum operation. Source:  © Massimo Sestini for the Italian Navy

But with far-right populist leader Matteo Salvini in charge (he is Italy’s Interior Minister), all that has changed. Of course, we have no proof that the Italians watched as people drowned. Only one thing is certain: These people fought for hours in freezing waters before going under.

Salvini has made his policy crystal clear: He has closed Italian ports and accuses NGOs of playing the game of human traffickers, saying:  “As long as European ports will remain open…sea traffickers will continue to do business and kill people.”

This causes an excruciating moral dilemma. People are killed anyway, closing ports and looking the other way is no solution. There are ways to stop “sea traffickers”. For example, one could work out agreements with governments on the southern coast of the Mediterranean – especially with Libya and Turkey – to gain control and police the areas where the traffickers actually operate – and not in the open sea, when it’s too late. But Salvini is doing none of this. 

MAP showing where the rubber dinghy with 120 people aboard sank. Source: Mail Online

For now, the situation is in an ugly stall. Countries (like Italy) that should welcome refugees are not doing so. And putting themselves in the unwanted role of murderers at sea.

For example, exactly two days after 117 people were left to die, one of the ships of the NGO Sea Watch saved 47 migrants including 8 unaccompanied children. These were migrants in similar circumstances, clinging to a sinking dinghy. They were found by Sea Watch in international waters north of Zuwarah in Libya. Who will take them in?

A few days earlier, in another angle of the Mediterranean, in the western sea of Alboan, another 53 people had died in similar circumstance, with only one survivor – a fact documented by UNHCR.

This brings the total for this month to 170 deaths from drowning. A lot of deaths in just a few days.

The overall number of people who died crossing the Mediterranean in 2018 was, according to UNHCR, 2,262. Too much, even if we are far from the peak of 2015 when German Chancellor Angela Merkel famously opened the doors of Germany to a “million refugees”. UNHCR’s data speaks volumes:

Source: UNHCR

UNHCR tweeted dismay at the latest tragedy:

“We cannot turn a blind eye to the high numbers of people dying on Europe’s doorstep.”

@cochetelhttps://t.co/wJ7yVHbxH6

— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) January 20, 2019

The President of Italy Sergio Mattarella was also moved to issue a press release expressing his “profound sorrow for the death of over one hundred people, including women, men and children”.

The only one who remained silent was Salvini.

Yet, his policy of closing borders is putting him at odds with international law, in particular, the principle of “non refoulement” ( a French term, in deference to the fact that French has been traditionally the language of international diplomacy) – as explained in this UNHCR video:

The rest , including UNHCR’s excellent video about the non refoulement principle, is on Impakter. To read, click here.

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Europe’s Migration Problem: Why it is hard to solve

At the recent European Council meeting, the highest level venue in the European Union with all 28 leaders in attendance (including the UK), it looked like the EU was about to break down over its migration problem.

No doubt to Trump’s delight. He’s been actively fighting the European Union which he has always seen as a threat to MAGA. On Twitter, he has regularly attacked Germany, most recently with fake data, claiming that migrants are the source for a rise in crime (that hasn’t happened – crime rates are at the lowest level ever as Der Spiegel was quick to note). Also, according to a recent Washington Post reconstruction of events, Trump even tried to convince Macron to take France out of the EU for a “substantial bilateral trade deal”.

It is in this context of America’s abrupt withdrawal of support to Europe and its institutions that the Europe’s migration problem must be placed. Fueled by European populist parties aligned on Trumpian anti-immigration and euro-skeptic policies, there is violent disagreement within the EU on how to address the problem.

Italy has always been, along with Greece and Spain, on the forefront of the migrant invasion, and for decades it has addressed the migrant challenge alone, with no help from Europe. With the new government in place, this has changed.

The vice-premier and interior minister, populist strongman Matteo Salvini, has made it clear to all EU members, declaring that Italy would “no longer be Europe’s refugee camp”. Migrant rescue ships run by NGOs are no longer allowed to dock in Italian ports:

This led to a spat with France two weeks ago, but eventually France and Germany (after a conciliatory call from Angela Merkel) agreed with Italy that there was a need to share the burden.

Salvini’s populist friends in Eastern Europe have also made it very clear that they won’t play the game. Austria and the Visegrad group of countries (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia) led by Orban, Hungary’s autocratic Prime Minister – have steadfastly refused to cooperate with EU members and will not accept any migrants sent their way.

That was the situation before the European Council meeting: gridlock.

Angela Merkel was panic-stricken: Her own interior minister, Horst Seehofer of the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU), a major ally in the government coalition, sounded like his Italian friend Salvini, determined to turn away migrants at the border. This is understandable: the CSU faces elections in October and is aligning itself on anti-immigration lines in an attempt to draw votes away from the anti-migrants, rightist-populist Alternative for Germany, a rising rival, currently the third party in Germany.

Either Merkel would find a solution at the European Council, or Seehofer would dissolve the coalition and she would probably have to resign as Chancellor.

In the end, after two days of harrowing discussions (27-28 June), the breakdown didn’t happen, there was a “minimal” agreement that probably saved Merkel’s political career.

No doubt Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, played a role in the relatively positive result. But, as he says, this is “not a success yet”, much will depend on what happens next…

Read the rest on Impakter, click here. And let me know what you think! Are slamming doors shut really the only way to solve the migration problem?

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MIGRANTS FROM AFRICA: THE BATTLE FOR FRANCE!

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Image by .mat via Flickr

You can check out this post on my original site: click HERE
Of the 20,000 illegal immigrants that have invaded Italy since January, most are Tunisians and most want to go to France: they speak French, they have family there and they are (mostly) young men who want to work. In Italy, for them there’s no work (the recession is still on-going). And of course they don’t feel at home, they don’t speak Italian.

But France won’t have it. Unbelievable! What has happened to the country of “freedom” and “equality”? Where has the French cultural heritage and revolutionary motto of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” gone to? Not to mention the deep-seated cultural linkage with Tunisia, a one-time colony of France that has had its values shaped by France’s liberal heritage…

True, the French were slow to respond to Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution“. Does anyone still call it that? Since popular uprisings, starting from Tunisia and spreading to Egypt, have eventually overwhelmed the whole of the Middle East, the tendency now is to talk of the “Arab Spring”.

Well, the calendar says it’s springtime but the French will have none of it. They are determined to stay in winter and they’ve tightly shut their doors against what Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi likes to call the “immigrant tsunami”. They’ve already sent back to Italy some 1700 illegal immigrants that had managed to cross into France since the beginning of the year, presumably from the Ventimiglia bordertown. At this point, I’m pretty sure that if the immigrants are smart,  they’re flooding into France from other places because French border police patrols have turned the whole area between Nice and Ventimiglia into a well-guarded military zone.

And now other European countries are following France in this bunker mentality: Germany and Belgium! Expect more countries soon as everyone takes the stance that the illegal immigrant emergency is Italy’s problem, and Italy’s alone…Actually not quite. Today Germany declared that they are more willing than the Italians – “ten times more willing!” – to receive immigrants and they have taken in…100 Africans who had taken refuge in Malta. One hundred as compared to the 20,000 (more likely 22,000) now milling about in Italy? And they pretend they are “more willing”? I can’t believe this: what is Europe and the European spirit of cooperation coming to? Actually, it is clear that there never was any, and Ms. Merkel who is one tough lady couldn’t care less about Europe (as she’s amply shown when Greece got into deficit). All she thinks of is Germany first – without realizing that by weakening Europe she is in the end weakening Germany too. But I’m getting carried away: that would be the subject matter of another post…

As of now, the fact is that Fortress Europe has been breached on its southern border. 20,000 immigrants in 3 months is clearly more than any single European country can handle, even a big one like Italy.  But it seems that the rest of Europe prefers to jettison Italy rather than try to help it solve the problem. Do you think I’m exaggerating? I’m not. The Italians have justifiably complained now for months that they are alone in bearing the brunt of the invasion. And so they are. Europe won’t hear about it and in Brussels the European Commission has gone mum on the subject. The Commission has yet to develop a common policy to address the issue of immigration, and that’s a policy that should have been developed BEFORE we ever got into the mess we are now in.

What can Italy do? Not much. So far, it’s done everything it can to wiggle out of this uncomfortable situation. First it has had to solve its own internal problems (I’ve blogged about this before, see here). Nobody in Italy wanted refugee holding camps near their own hometown, and some still don’t. Such as Alemanno, the Mayor of Rome who claims Rome has had its “fill of problems” and can’t take anymore – not a very Christian position, and certainly not in line with the Catholic Church.

Second, Italy turned to Tunisia, the major source of the problem, to see what could be done.The first politicians to go there were the Foreign Affairs Minister Frattini and the Interior Minister Maroni. Remarkably, the latter belongs to the anti-immigrant Lega Nord or Northern League but he is a very practical individual – not someone given to wearing ideological goggles. While most of the work was likely done by Maroni, Prime Minister Berlusconi took a last trip early this week to try and gather the laurels for himself. Regardless of who managed it, some positive results were in fact achieved.

In exchange for Italian investment support to Tunisia (the exact terms of the agreement are not available as I write, but possibly some €150 million were offered) and an agreement not to expel the first 20,000 immigrants that have landed, Maroni obtained from Tunisia that all additional immigrants that might be coming in Italy would be returned home and that new migrant sailings would be stopped. In return, Maroni issued temporary travel permits (up to 3 months) that in principle allow the immigrants to travel within the visa-free Shengen Area that covers 25 countries in continental Europe – including France and Switzerland, thus opening a wide swath of frontier between the three countries. As of today and keeping to its side of the agreement, Tunisia has started again to patrol its borders and is said to have stopped a boat from sailing off to Italy.

Problem solved? Not at all. Paris is furious and sent yesterday its Interior Minister Claude Guéant to Rome. Germany and Belgium are equally furious and several officials have said so publicly. The day before coming to Italy, Guéant issued an order to his prefects that no one was allowed in France without a proper passport (something illegal immigrants don’t have) and demonstrated income for self-support (at least €62/day – something immigrants dream of having !). On top of that, they can be expelled if they “disturb the public peace” – something very easy to provoke and a perfect basis for expulsion. To make matters even more complicated, there is a 1997 Italo-French treaty, the so-called “Chambéry agreement” signed a few weeks before Schengen and thus effectively putting a lid on Schengen. This agreement enables France to return to Italy any and all immigrants as it sees fit provided it can prove they came from Italy – thereby negating the very spirit of the Schengen treaty which was supposed to provide European citizens with the kind of freedom across state borders that Americans enjoy without even noticing it.

Indeed, the Italian Interior Minister Maroni was quick to point out that France’s move is equivalent to a suspension of Schengen. To his accusation, the Belgians and Germans were equally quick to point out that it is Italy who has “broken” Schengen – because it wasn’t able to “defend” its frontiers and “manage” the wave of illegal immigration (remember: 22,000 in 3 months – that’s 7,000/month. Who can “manage” such numbers when these are people without papers or money?) I really believe that France has turned anti-European, and with it, so has Germany and Belgium.

Everybody would like to see the Italians resolve the immigration problem for them. And if they don’t, that’s because the Italians are hopeless, and Berlusconi is a buffoon, right? Wrong! I’m really angry because what’s behind all this anti-European stance is nothing but self-interest and parochial politics. President Sarkozy is worrying about getting re-elected in 2012: he is playing to the extreme right, trying to win back votes from Marine Le Pen‘s party (she went to Lampedusa a few weeks ago and has created a storm over the immigrant issue). Ditto for Ms. Merkel who’s just lost regional elections and is in a very precarious position. If they can get votes at the expense of Europe, what do they care?

Oh my Europe, where have you gone?

Okay, today France and Italy have supposedly resolved their “diplomatic disagreement”. Maroni and Guéant have agreed to jointly patrol the waters to stop migrants from Africa. But how France will deal with the temporary permits issued by Italy to immigrants is a bit befuddled in the news. Both countries said they would “deal” with this problem. But how?

I have a suspicion – and I only hope I’m wrong. Would you believe that what is facing illegal immigrants, rather than liberté, égalité and fraternité,  is  “la mort” – death? If you don’t believe me, look at the French Revolution motto I put up at the top of my post. It very clearly says: “la mort“! All right, I’m kidding: it’s not actual death. But it is the social equivalent: people won’t be allowed to stay on, full stop. And that’s what Sarkozy’s France means – regardless of the stance he has taken on Lybia and the kudos gained for being the first to protect civilian lives in Benghazi with air strikes and the first to recognize the Lybian opposition’s government. In other words, the doors are shut!

And of course, Germany is not far behind. Just watch their anger against Italy unfold and expand!

Of the 20,000 illegal immigrants that have invaded Italy since January, most are Tunisians and most want to go to France: they speak French, they have family there and they are (mostly) young men who want to work. In Italy, for them there’s no work (the recession is still on-going). And of course they don’t feel at home, they don’t speak Italian.

But France won’t have it. Unbelievable! What has happened to the country of “freedom” and “equality”? Where has the French cultural heritage and revolutionary motto of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” gone to? Not to mention the deep-seated cultural linkage with Tunisia, a one-time colony of France that has had its values shaped by France’s liberal heritage…

True, the French were slow to respond to Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolution“. Does anyone still call it that? Since popular uprisings, starting from Tunisia and spreading to Egypt, have eventually overwhelmed the whole of the Middle East, the tendency now is to talk of the “Arab Spring”.

Well, the calendar says it’s springtime but the French will have none of it. They are determined to stay in winter and they’ve tightly shut their doors against what Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi likes to call the “immigrant tsunami”. They’ve already sent back to Italy some 1700 illegal immigrants that had managed to cross into France since the beginning of the year, presumably from the Ventimiglia bordertown. At this point, I’m pretty sure that if the immigrants are smart,  they’re flooding into France from other places because French border police patrols have turned the whole area between Nice and Ventimiglia into a well-guarded military zone.

And now other European countries are following France in this bunker mentality: Germany and Belgium! Expect more countries soon as everyone takes the stance that the illegal immigrant emergency is Italy’s problem, and Italy’s alone…Actually not quite. Today Germany declared that they are more willing than the Italians – “ten times more willing!” – to receive immigrants and they have taken in…100 Africans who had taken refuge in Malta. One hundred as compared to the 20,000 (more likely 22,000) now milling about in Italy? And they pretend they are “more willing”? I can’t believe this: what is Europe and the European spirit of cooperation coming to? Actually, it is clear that there never was any, and Ms. Merkel who is one tough lady couldn’t care less about Europe (as she’s amply shown when Greece got into deficit). All she thinks of is Germany first – without realizing that by weakening Europe she is in the end weakening Germany too. But I’m getting carried away: that would be the subject matter of another post…

As of now, the fact is that Fortress Europe has been breached on its southern border. 20,000 immigrants in 3 months is clearly more than any single European country can handle, even a big one like Italy.  But it seems that the rest of Europe prefers to jettison Italy rather than try to help it solve the problem. Do you think I’m exaggerating? I’m not. The Italians have justifiably complained now for months that they are alone in bearing the brunt of the invasion. And so they are. Europe won’t hear about it and in Brussels the European Commission has gone mum on the subject. The Commission has yet to develop a common policy to address the issue of immigration, and that’s a policy that should have been developed BEFORE we ever got into the mess we are now in.

What can Italy do? Not much. So far, it’s done everything it can to wiggle out of this uncomfortable situation. First it has had to solve its own internal problems (I’ve blogged about this before, see here). Nobody in Italy wanted refugee holding camps near their own hometown, and some still don’t. Such as Alemanno, the Mayor of Rome who claims Rome has had its “fill of problems” and can’t take anymore – not a very Christian position, and certainly not in line with the Catholic Church.

Second, Italy turned to Tunisia, the major source of the problem, to see what could be done.The first politicians to go there were the Foreign Affairs Minister Frattini and the Interior Minister Maroni. Remarkably, the latter belongs to the anti-immigrant Lega Nord or Northern League but he is a very practical individual – not someone given to wearing ideological goggles. While most of the work was likely done by Maroni, Prime Minister Berlusconi took a last trip early this week to try and gather the laurels for himself. Regardless of who managed it, some positive results were in fact achieved.

In exchange for Italian investment support to Tunisia (the exact terms of the agreement are not available as I write, but possibly some €150 million were offered) and an agreement not to expel the first 20,000 immigrants that have landed, Maroni obtained from Tunisia that all additional immigrants that might be coming in Italy would be returned home and that new migrant sailings would be stopped. In return, Maroni issued temporary travel permits (up to 3 months) that in principle allow the immigrants to travel within the visa-free Shengen Area that covers 25 countries in continental Europe – including France and Switzerland, thus opening a wide swath of frontier between the three countries. As of today and keeping to its side of the agreement, Tunisia has started again to patrol its borders and is said to have stopped a boat from sailing off to Italy.

Problem solved? Not at all. Paris is furious and sent yesterday its Interior Minister Claude Guéant to Rome. Germany and Belgium are equally furious and several officials have said so publicly. The day before coming to Italy, Guéant issued an order to his prefects that no one was allowed in France without a proper passport (something illegal immigrants don’t have) and demonstrated income for self-support (at least €62/day – something immigrants dream of having !). On top of that, they can be expelled if they “disturb the public peace” – something very easy to provoke and a perfect basis for expulsion. To make matters even more complicated, there is a 1997 Italo-French treaty, the so-called “Chambéry agreement” signed a few weeks before Schengen and thus effectively putting a lid on Schengen. This agreement enables France to return to Italy any and all immigrants as it sees fit provided it can prove they came from Italy – thereby negating the very spirit of the Schengen treaty which was supposed to provide European citizens with the kind of freedom across state borders that Americans enjoy without even noticing it.

Indeed, the Italian Interior Minister Maroni was quick to point out that France’s move is equivalent to a suspension of Schengen. To his accusation, the Belgians and Germans were equally quick to point out that it is Italy who has “broken” Schengen – because it wasn’t able to “defend” its frontiers and “manage” the wave of illegal immigration (remember: 22,000 in 3 months – that’s 7,000/month. Who can “manage” such numbers when these are people without papers or money?) I really believe that France has turned anti-European, and with it, so has Germany and Belgium.

Everybody would like to see the Italians resolve the immigration problem for them. And if they don’t, that’s because the Italians are hopeless, and Berlusconi is a buffoon, right? Wrong! I’m really angry because what’s behind all this anti-European stance is nothing but self-interest and parochial politics. President Sarkozy is worrying about getting re-elected in 2012: he is playing to the extreme right, trying to win back votes from Marine Le Pen‘s party (she went to Lampedusa a few weeks ago and has created a storm over the immigrant issue). Ditto for Ms. Merkel who’s just lost regional elections and is in a very precarious position. If they can get votes at the expense of Europe, what do they care?

Oh my Europe, where have you gone?

Okay, today France and Italy have supposedly resolved their “diplomatic disagreement”. Maroni and Guéant have agreed to jointly patrol the waters to stop migrants from Africa. But how France will deal with the temporary permits issued by Italy to immigrants is a bit befuddled in the news. Both countries said they would “deal” with this problem. But how?

I have a suspicion – and I only hope I’m wrong. Would you believe that what is facing illegal immigrants, rather than liberté, égalité and fraternité,  is  “la mort” – death? If you don’t believe me, look at the French Revolution motto I put up at the top of my post. It very clearly says: “la mort“! All right, I’m kidding: it’s not actual death. But it is the social equivalent: people won’t be allowed to stay on, full stop. And that’s what Sarkozy’s France means – regardless of the stance he has taken on Lybia and the kudos gained for being the first to protect civilian lives in Benghazi with air strikes and the first to recognize the Lybian opposition’s government. In other words, the doors are shut!

And of course, Germany is not far behind. Just watch their anger against Italy unfold and expand!

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