Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 15:19:03 +0100
Italy’s decision to end Mare Nostrum will put the lives of thousands of
migrants and refugees at risk
Last month, 500 migrants were deliberately killed at sea. The traffickers
laughed as their customers flailed and drowned before their eyes
Monday 27 October 2014
The whole region is in disarray, the Arab Spring having brought only chaos,
disaster and war, but there is still money to be made along the
Mediterranean’s war-torn coast.
What desire do the Yazidis of Iraq and the Palestinians of Gaza share with
millions of Syrians and practically the entire remaining populations of
Somalia and Eritrea? The desire to get out. To leave the destruction,
poverty, fanaticism and war as far behind as possible. Heading almost
anywhere, as long as it is north.
So for those who can provide the service – the people-traffickers of Libya
in particular – business is booming as never before. Their customers pay at
least $2,000 (£1,250) for the passage, and often much more. It’s a business
worth $1bn a year, according to a recent estimate. A complex and well-oiled
network transports the would-be migrants from the tunnels of Gaza, the
suburbs of Tripoli and the many other places from which they emerge after
long, gruelling journeys to the port of Zuwara, a couple of hours’ drive
west from Tripoli on the road to the Tunisian border.
Zuwara has been a centre of the trade for many years. When I visited it a
few years back, the docks rang to the sound of hammers as crude wooden boats
were bashed into shape. There was no need for the boats to be other than
crude: they were only meant for a single one-way voyage, if that. Mercedes
cars and shops stacked with high-end liquor and chocolates hinted at the
wealth of the local residents.
Muammar Gaddafi used the flow of migrants from his coasts across the
Mediterranean as a bargaining chip in his long, drawn-out negotiations with
Italy, Libya’s former colonial master. In 2008, Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi agreed to pay $5bn in war reparations over 25 years. In return,
Colonel Gaddafi agreed to control the numbers leaving for Europe.
His efforts were not impressive: in that year 30,000 sea-borne migrants made
it to Italy. But in the past year more than five times that number has
arrived – 160,000 people. That enormous figure is in a sense to Italy’s
credit. One year ago, as readers may recall, the sinking of one of the leaky
tubs killed 366. The world was briefly appalled and the Italian government
launched the operation Mare Nostrum (Our Seas) to prevent more such
tragedies, using naval and coastguard boats to scour the sea for boats in
similar peril. Of this year’s arrivals, 90,000 were rescued by the
Italians.
But this magnificent effort, sanctified by a visit by Pope Francis to
Lampedusa, the island south of Sicily where many of the migrants wash up, is
about to be terminated, according to the Interior Minister Angelo Alfano.
One can understand why. It is unsustainable. It is immensely costly. Italy
struggled to process the far smaller numbers arriving in earlier years and
is now inundated, incubating social problems of every sort. The very fact
that the Italians have been busy looking for boats in trouble – thus making
the transit slightly less risky than in the past – may have been a factor in
the explosion of numbers. In the past the trade was seasonal: today the
boats are taken out to sea in all weathers by their cynical traffickers. So
far this year more than 3,000 have drowned.
Last month, 500 migrants were deliberately killed at sea. After being
decanted twice to smaller and even more crowded boats, the passengers
protested against this. Soon afterwards a larger, more seaworthy ship
appeared and deliberately rammed the migrants’ boat until it sank. The
traffickers laughed as their customers flailed and drowned before their
eyes. Only a handful survived.
Amnesty International condemned Italy’s decision to end Mare Nostrum, saying
it would “put the lives of thousands of migrants and refugees attempting to
reach Europe at risk”. The substitute is the EU’s Frontex Triton operation,
but unlike the Italian initiative, which extends across the sea, Triton only
patrols up to 30 miles from the coast.
Mare Nostrum, however compassionate its motivation and valuable its rescue
work, was never a cure. The trade itself is an evil one, destroying
thousands of lives, dumping tens of thousands of traumatised people with no
documents and no prospects to fester on the outskirts of Europe’s cities,
turning asylum application into a brutally Darwinian process and further
poisoning European sentiment about immigration. International efforts have
succeeded in drastically curtailing Somalian piracy because of its impact on
the profits of big multinational companies. Do the lives of thousands of
Africans thrown away at sea by vile profiteers really mean so little that we
are prepared to allow this trade to continue?
http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article9738244.ece/alternates/w620/mig
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