While European leaders have been going round in circles on the illegal migration issue, people have been dying in their thousands. Just a few weeks ago, over 1,000 people, including children, are thought to have drowned within days of each other while making the perilous journey between North Africa and Europe. Such a tragedy was bound to jolt Europe’s leaders into action. Or so some of us thought.
In 2013, Italy launched its Mare Nostrum operation. It wanted to lead by example, showing Europe that saving lives was not an option and that, despite its deep financial crisis, it could still rummage in its coffers and come up with enough money to sustain an efficient life-saving mission.
Italy, no doubt, expected the rest of Europe to be shamed into contributing, because if a country knee-deep into a recession could do it on its own, surely it would be no big deal for the other 27 countries to chip in. Unfortunately, Italy was proved wrong. Apparently, it was still a very big deal and, left without help, Italy was forced to wrap up the Mare Nostrum operation.
The results were catastrophic. After about 400 people drowned off Libya, Italy did not even get to say “I told you so” before another 700 perished in similar circumstances.
Certain countries had been against contributing to a life-saving operation because, they argued, it would act as a pull factor that attracted more migrants.
Over the past weeks, however, they were proved wrong. Migrants clearly did not care that there was no one out there to save them, because their desperation was such that they were willing to take the heightened risk.
The ‘drown a migrant to save a migrant’ policy now had ‘dunce’ written all over it.
Europe needed to save face and, had it not been for Malta and Italy, aided by the media and humanitarian organisations, these massive tragedies would have undoubtedly been once again swept under the carpet for the rest of Europe to wipe its feet on.
The ‘drown a migrant to save a migrant’policy now had ‘dunce’ written all over it
Instead, an extraordinary summit was convened, where an agreement was reached for another summit in Malta later on this year, with the expected attendance of about 50 European and African countries.
We were also faced with the now-famous 10-point plan, which basically reiterated past unkept promises. Among these we were told that Frontex would increase its funding for Triton and Poseidon, which, even if fulfilled, would still be a long way off from a decent replacement for Mare Nostrum.
Furthermore, Triton and Poseidon’s sole aim of border control was not altered.
This will not allow them to go further out to sea where the tragedies are taking place, and they will only move to assist drowning migrants when their help is requested specifically. This has to be done according to international legal obligations, so, essentially, the Frontex vessels will only be acting as any other vessel would in the situation.
A step forward was, however, the decision to capture and destroy vessels used by the smugglers as well as to gather information on their modus operandi, trace their funds and assist in their investigation.
This decision gave me a particular sense of satisfaction, as I have always believed that one of the key actions to stop the people smugglers was to target their boats. This could be organised by setting up a mission in northern Libya to buy and destroy all unworthy vessels that have the potential to be used for the trafficking of hundreds of people at a time.
Although the plan presented at the summit did not specify how these boats will be targeted, I wholly believe that such a mission in Libya would be a viable solution. It would resemble a peace-keeping mission, with no need for weapons or United Nations sanctions, with such boats being disposed of legally.
We will have to wait and see how the EU will proceed, hoping that it will not be a case of too little, too late.
Etienne Grech is a family doctor and a Labour MP.