At least 175 dead and 1,000 rescued in the Mediterranean: the reality of migration
The Médecins Sans Frontières ship, Geo Barents, has rescued 558 migrants off the Libyan coast in recent days, while Sea Watch has rescued another 444. These NGOs denounce the lack of organisation on the part of the Maltese and Italian governments, from which they are urgently awaiting authorisation to disembark as the safest ports as they are closest to the Libyan coast.
Humanitarian organisations denounce the situation of minors and those injured by burns and the critical conditions caused by overcrowding on the boats. Weather conditions are also part of the drawbacks reported by NGOs for the demand for the authorisation of a safe harbour. Italy authorised the last disembarkation last Friday of the Ocean Viking, of the organisation SOS Mediterranée, with 114 rescued migrants who had to wait nine days.
Those who could not be rescued are 175 migrants who have died in the last two weeks in the Mediterranean crossing in several shipwrecks. So far this year, more than 1,700 people have died in the central Mediterranean, double the number of last year. Just this past weekend, at least 28 people died in a shipwreck northeast of Libya, according to the head of the Red Crescent, Mohamad Abushaala. The total number of arrivals along the central Mediterranean route to Italy and Malta has reached almost 64,000 migrants, mainly from the Libyan coast. Libyan mafias, meanwhile, have killed 102 migrants who drowned after capsizing in a boat.
Not all the people who arrive in Italian or Maltese ports stay in Europe. So far this year, more than 32,000 people have been returned to Libya, a country where torture, sale as slaves, extortion and sexual violence are reported, according to reports by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The UN also condemns the returns of migrants to Libya as a country mired in the chaos of the Arab Spring and far from political stability, as demonstrated by the postponement of elections scheduled for this month.
The UN has also called for a common protocol for the swift management of disembarkations to ensure the safety of migrants and an equitable reception among several countries, thus decongesting the countries that receive the most migrants, such as Spain, Italy and Greece, mainly.
It is precisely this demand that is shared by the Italian government, which is calling on the European Union to draw up a joint migration policy. Italy's prime minister, Mario Draghi, has called on the EU to draw up "clear action plans, adequately financed and fairly targeted", with the aim of guaranteeing the defence of national borders, combating human trafficking and offering an adequate reception, as the prime minister stated at a conference to review the year.
These declarations come after the Italian government last July renewed the financing of the agreement with the controversial Libyan Coast Guard, something Draghi is calling for the European Union to take charge of through the IRINI mission, approved in 2020.
The Italian government has announced the creation of safe and legal humanitarian corridors for migrants and refugees. Mateo Villa, an ISPI researcher specialising in migration, said that "Rome is practically alone in Europe in these corridors, and Tripoli turns a deaf ear to Italian requests. And so we continue, subsisting, until the next crisis".
