The recent tragic events in the Mediterranean – where 1,400 migrants who set off from Libya drowned in three separate incidents (including one where 900 migrants perished) – has finally set the alarm bells ringing in the European Union that something urgently needs to be done about this phenomenon. Last Thursday’s emergency EU summit will hopefully prove to be a turning point in the way the bloc deals with migration.
There is no doubt that the flow of migrants towards Europe via the Mediterranean is a massive challenge for the EU which needs to be dealt with urgently. Despite pleas over the years by Italy and Malta for a pan-European approach to this humanitarian crisis, such appeals fell on deaf ears and many EU leaders seemed to believe that this problem would simply go away if ignored. Of course, the problem did not go away, but only got worse.
The migration figures are indeed alarming. The number of deaths in such incidents has now reached 1,750 so far this year. Almost 220,000 migrants reached the EU by sea in 2014, four times as many as in the year before, and most of them, 170,000, were rescued by the Italian navy and taken to Italy. Another 3,200 drowned when crossing the Mediterranean and 2015 is predicted to be a worse year unless Europe gets to grip with the situation.
Most of the migrants are fleeing from war, oppression and extreme poverty and come from countries such as Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Niger, Nigeria, Sudan and Afghanistan.
Thursday’s funerals in Malta for 24 people (who remained nameless) killed in the worst ever recorded capsizing of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean (in which 900 died) rammed home the message that we are dealing with human beings here, not just numbers. The moving and sombre interfaith funeral service (Catholic and Muslim), which was given extensive coverage by the international media, at least gave these unfortunate people a dignified send-off.
Shortly before Thursday’s EU summit, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told the Italian Parliament: “We are asking Europe to be Europe, not just when it’s time to devise a budget.” Renzi is right, of course, and if the EU cannot act collectively to deal with a situation which concerns its security and borders – not to mention to uphold its values – then what is the EU for? German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a good point when she said ahead of Thursday’s EU summit on migration: “We have a great deal to do in this area. It’s a matter of European values – it’s of supreme importance.”
EU leaders at their summit did agree on a number of measures to help save lives, such as tripling the funding for search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean, looking at ways to capture and destroy smugglers’ boats and deploying immigration officers to non-EU countries.
We are asking Europe to be Europe, not just when it’s time to devise a budget- Matteo Renzi
The increased funding for the EU’s border control operation Triton brings spending back up to the level of Mare Nostrum, the Italian-run search-and-rescue operation which saved so many lives last year. A number of EU member states promised more ships and other resources, including the UK – in the past a leading promoter of reducing naval patrols – which said it would contribute HMS Bulwark, two patrol boats and three helicopters. Germany, France and Belgium also offered ships.
However, the summit failed to agree on burden-sharing when it comes to hosting refugees, and did not discuss the possibility of facilitating the process by which refugees gain safer access to protection in EU states. Crucially, nevertheless, there now seems to be the political will within the EU to really do something about this tragic situation, as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat pointed out.
At the end of the summit, Dr Muscat told Times of Malta: “There’s a consolidation of previous ideas and points with one notable exception. There’s a clear political signal that Europe is ready to act on the criminal network managing the illegal migration flows and profiting from innocent people. A signal has been sent to the criminals that the game has changed. They don’t have a field day any longer.”
Exactly how the EU is going to crack down on the criminal networks is unclear. One possibility is the targeting (bombing?) of the boats used to traffic migrants in Libya, which obviously is somewhat risky. The Foreign Minister of the Tripoli government has already told Times of Malta that his government will not accept such bombings, although he did hint that it might be a different matter should his government (which is not internationally recognised) be consulted over the EU’s plans.
The short-term measures announced at the summit are without doubt a step in the right direction that will help reduce the number of migrant deaths, but will not solve the problem. The only long-term solution is stabilising the situations (both politically and economically) in the countries from where the migrants are fleeing, and most crucially, helping Libya form a government of national unity and restore law and order. Without a stable and peaceful Libya, which is the gateway to Europe for these migrants, there is no possibility at all of solving this problem.
Furthermore, it is clear that the EU, as well as the rest of the world, should do much more to offer resettlement to Syrian refugees who have been displaced by the country’s brutal civil war. The international community has completely failed Syria and it has the moral duty to help as many refugees as possible. Within the EU only Sweden, Germany and France have taken in substantial numbers; it is about time other member states as well as other countries, followed suit.
Indeed, thousands of Syrian refugees could easily be thinly spread out throughout the world, which would not place any burden on individual countries taking them in. What the international community did for Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees 30 years ago should now be repeated for the Syrians. It is the least the world can do, given that its record in Syria is so abysmal.