On April 18th closer to the Italian island of Lampedusa along
Straits of Sicily migrant boat from Libya carrying 900 people capsized of them
28 could be rescued so far making it the deadliest case of migrant drowning. It
is the worst maritime disaster since World War II in the Mediterranean Sea. The
alarming scale of migrant death in the Mediterranean Sea shook the Western
World from the deep slumber of egotism and cynicism.
According to the reports of the Interior ministry of Italy,
after the latest tragedy 23,556 entered Italy by sea since January 1st
and the numbers were 20,300 for the year 2014. While the numbers are more or
less equal the death toll this year is 10 times more.
Hapless citizens from Syria, Eritrea, Libya and Somalia unable
to bear the torture, war and deprivation are moving in large numbers to Europe.
In what is considered as the largest wave of migration since the World War II
thousands of the migrants are trying to enter the safer shores of Europe
illegally through the sea route. In spite of worst climatic conditions, daring
the rigors of the sea journey desperate people board the dilapidated and
wrecked boats in search of green pastures.
Syria has been ravaged by the unabated civil war since 2011
forcing the citizens to move to the neighbouring countries which are brimming
with refugee population. In Libya the warring factions overthrew the Colonel
Muammar Gaddafi’s regime and pushed the government into anarchy. Wild rampage
by the Islamic extremists is forcing people to migrate to safer shelters. The
precarious situation compounded by a war forced the United Nations Refugee
Agency (UNHCR) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the two
largest refugee advocates to drastically downsizing their operations in Libya.
With no support from their government and International Agencies people are
approaching smugglers (illegal human traffickers). Eritrea, ranked 180th in the World
freedom Index ranking, is facing the bloodiest authoritarian regimes. People
fleeing from Eritrea constitute the second largest group of migrants to Europe
after Syrians. Eritreans migrating to neighbouring Egypt and Sudan are deported
back to their military regime. While deaths have been increasing exponentially
it is not deterring migrants to embark on a risky sea journey. The dire
circumstances at home are forcing these people to migrate to far off lands but
the disastrous and illogical EU’s policy on asylum had put lives of thousands
of migrants in peril.
Humanitarian agencies slammed the EU which claims to be haven
of democracy and liberalism for rejecting the people who are fleeing
dictatorship and underdevelopment. They points out to two major factors that
led to death of asylum seekers in the Mediterranean. One, Italy initially ran
an ambitious rescue and search mission, Mare Nostrum that saved lives of
150,000 migrants till October 2013. Since the EU and other European countries
failed to offer any monetary support Italy suspended the programme. UK believed
that Mare Nostrum acted as a pull factor, encouraging more migrants to enter
Europe and lobbied the EU for its termination. Subsequently Operation Triton
was commissioned by the EU’s border agency Frontex. It runs on a frugal budget,
less than one–thirds of the Mare Nostrum and merely patrols 30 miles from the
shores. Secondly, the illegal human traffickers are cramming more number of
people into boats which are barely navigable due to scarcity of boats.
Italy and Greece are the gateways to Europe for several
thousands of asylum–seekers and most UN conventions say refugees are the
responsibility of the country whose doors they knock but there are instances
where allies too share the burden. But the EU’s timid approach to the
humanitarian crisis is embroiled by the European leaders whose are
conscientious of the public opinion that favour anti-immigration policies.
European countries are shying away from sharing the burden of the asylum
seekers. Some countries are shutting these migrants inside detention centres,
preventing them to work outside and making lives miserable so that people seek
refuge elsewhere. Various agencies and intellectuals across the World lambasted
the EU for shirking their responsibilities for short term budgetary reasons and
for forgetting the incidents of past. Wherein Spaniards sought the refugee of
French by the end of the economic crisis in 1930 and similarly French were
offered protection by the British during the worst Nazi executions in 1940.
Following the huge uproar of human rights activists, the EU
officials convened a summit on April 23rd to engineer a plan for
tackling the Mediterranean crisis. According to a confidential report of the
summit accessed by the Guardian, the callous attitude of the EU is mirrored.
The emergency summit crisis package the EU would allow resettlement of 5000
migrants across Europe and others will be repatriated. Further the 150,000
migrants who survived the arduous sea journey and reached Italy last year will
be sent back under rapid-return programme coordinated by its border agency,
Frontex. Despite international pressure the EU is unlikely to expand its search
and rescue operations along Mediterranean Sea but would strengthen its existing
operations in the 30 mile area from the shores. But the immediate outcome of
the summit would be to identify, capture and destroy the vessels used by
traffickers. It was decided to mobilise all its resources to reduce loss of
lives in the Mediterranean, curtail illegal migration and to fight traffickers.
As per the UN shipping migrants towards Europe from Libya is a $170 m industry.
It was decided to extend emergency aid to its frontline states of Italy, Malta
and Greece besides providing support to Tunisia, Mali, Sudan, Egypt and Niger
to monitor and control the land borders to prevent potential migrants from
reaching the shores of Mediterranean. The British which earlier took a firm
stand on immediate withdrawal of Mare Nostrum is now slowly easing its stand as
elections just weeks away and the public envisaged the tragedy in Mediterranean
as a humanitarian crisis rather than an immigration issue.
In the past both America and Australia dealt the migrant crisis
by landing refugees in their islands. America placed refugees in its Guantanamo
Base on Cuba while Australia directed them to the island state of Nauru and to
Manus Island in Papua New Guinea but never allowed them to enter their own
land. Europe lacks a convenient island nation to resettle these migrants. In
the past around 1 million Vietnamese refugees were rehabilitated under a
co-ordinated plan across the World. Later the merchant ships who aided in
rescue efforts were compensated. Subsequently deal was struck with Vietnam for
the orderly repatriation of the undeserving. Unfortunately during the current
crisis, Europe failed to show any commitment or ambition for sorting out this
issue. Hence expecting any help from the rest of the world seems far-fetched.
The EU as an entity is a strong confederation of nation
states but there is a lack of solidarity between the nations in the North and
South. Apart from Germany and Sweden all other nations are averse to the idea
of accommodating refugees. Even European leaders neither have appetite for a
generous gesture nor do they have a collective immigration policy. EU doesn’t
have any policies that govern burden-sharing nor do they have set standards for
the treatment offered to third world countries. Each country has its own
immigration policy and they are averse to idea of surrendering control over
immigration issues. But so far the stance of the EU has been disappointing and
exuded lack of humanity and compassion.
The flow of migrants is going to be long term since the chaos
and uncertainty in the Middle East is less likely to settle down. The chronic
underdevelopment and political instability is expected to last longer in the
North Africa. Hence piece meal strategies of the EU might in long term can
cause greater harm. It is time for the EU to move pragmatically and evolve a profound
strategy to make the world a better place to live.
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