2018, the year Europe let down migrants and asylum seekers
Euro-Med: 2018, the year Europe let down migrants and asylum seekers
Geneva - The
number of migrants and asylum seekers has once again dropped
in 2018 given the series of deals signed between the
European Union and the countries migrants take as a transit
point on their way to Europe, says the Euro-Mediterranean
Human Rights Monitor.
The total number of arrivals in
2018 stood at 116,295. Of these, 2,262 migrants drowned in
the Mediterranean Sea, an equivalent of 1.9% of this
year’s further reduced number of arrivals, added the human
rights group.
The European Union has managed to reduce the number of arrivals to Europe by 34% this year, compared to last year, a decrease by 56,000 in 2017, and 246,000 in 2016. This ‘success’ is the result of an inhumane effort by the Union to deter migrants from arriving in Europe’s shores.
Official rescue operations have been reduced to the minimum and were transferred to become the responsibility of the Libyan Coast Guard, which suffers a great shortage of technical equipment, and also takes migrants and asylum seekers into Libya, thus prompting further violations.
“The European Union’s violations are not limited to the deals made with countries that migrants arrive from nor to its failure to conduct rescue operations, but also includes cases where the EU has criminalized rescue operations carried out by trade and military vessels, non-governmental organizations or by foreign naval forces,” said Sarah Pritchett, Euro-Med’s spokeswoman.
“Previously, such rescue operations accounted for over 40% of the overall rescue operations at sea,” added Pritchett, stating that, the EU has demonstrated a moral crisis, thinking only about preventing migrants from arriving in its shores even if it means losing their lives.
Taking these measures, the European Union has
not reduced the number of people willing to seek asylum in
Europe, given that the reasons for their migration continue
to date. These measures only led them to seek other ways to
reach Europe, such as the route through Spain, by land
through Turkey or through Morocco.
The numbers of
arrivals at major European ports by sea over the past three
years are provided by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR). A comparison between the figures from 2016 to 2018
is demonstrated in the figure below.
The comparison shows that the number of refugees arriving in Greece in the past two years has been significantly reduced compared to 2016. In Italy, the number of arrivals dropped only last year, following an agreement with the Libyan Coast Guard to carry out rescue operations.
Meanwhile, the number of arrivals to Spain this year has nearly doubled compared to the previous year. Also, migration from the coast of Lebanon to the shores of Cyprus has increased, and most of the operations were carried out by fishing boats, thus endangering the lives of migrants.
Regarding land
routes, the figures by the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) showed an increase of 78% in land traffic
this year, with 25,665 people arriving in Europe by land,
compared to 14,406 in 2017. The number of deaths among
migrants and refugees by land was 108 in 2018, and 96 in
2017, the majority of whom were victims of road accidents
due to the overcrowding of refugees in transport trucks or
because of drowning in rivers and water channels during
their journey from Eastern to Western Europe.
“The EU
has indeed succeeded at violating the 1951 Convention on the
Status of Refugees,” said Pritchett. Europe prevented
refugees fleeing the scourge of wars in the Middle East and
Africa from reaching its territory.
Italy violated the provisions of the Convention by returning 108 migrants from its territorial waters to Libya by an Italian ship, in violation of Article 33 of the Refugee Convention, which states that “No Contracting State shall expel or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion..”
Ships’ captains are also responsible for protecting and rescuing migrants and refugees drowning at sea, as stipulated in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), Article 5 of which stressed the duty of seafarers to rescue those in danger at sea.
The Italian and other European authorities have obstructed the work of Aquarius, the last rescue ship by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), where all other rescue vessels in the ports of Italy and Malta had been banned and bound by complicated legal procedures or detained.
The organization was unable to take survivors ashore because of the large financial losses incurred by the delay to allow them to take down migrants and refugees they had rescued.
The Maltese authorities have detained two rescue vessels belonging to German non-profit organizations Lifeline and Sea Watch, preventing them from leaving the port of Valletta Island. In addition, the Italian authorities conducted an investigation with 20 employees working for Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and the German NGO Jugend Rettet.
Giving the Libyan Coast Guard such a heavy burden is utterly irresponsible, said Ahmed Abu Hamad, Euro-Med’s Migration researcher, especially that the Libyan Coast Guard lacks a fully functioning maritime coordination center with shortages of fuel and equipment, which hinders the continuous coverage and response of distress calls. Those rescued are also subject to severe violations at detention centers by the Libyan Coast Guard forces.
The European Parliament's recent positive response to the demand made by Euro-Med Monitor and other human rights organizations over the past years concerning the issuance of European humanitarian visas is a positive step that would allow asylum seekers have access to Europe by applying for international protection. However, this step should be activated soon enough to allow migrants and refugees access this type of protection.
The position of
Algeria and Tunisia, refusing to accept any European
pressure to establish platforms for illegal migrants on
their land, is fully appreciated, since Europe is known for
using such platforms to evade its responsibilities towards
migrants and asylum seekers in Africa, added Abu
Hamad.
In a related context, Abu Hamad urged Algeria to
stop the expulsion of African migrants to Niger and Mali,
and to allow them as well as Palestinians, Syrians and
Yemenis, to seek asylum, calling on Algeria to respect the
international conventions concerning to refugees.
The
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor calls on the
international community to ensure the immediate resumption
of rescue efforts in the Mediterranean and to pressure the
EU to stop its policy of concluding agreements and deals
that disregard humanitarian considerations.
The Euro-Med
Monitor also calls on the European parties to stop using the
‘refugee crisis’ as a political tool to win local
elections, resulting in much hatred and racism against
refugees in various European
countries.