At least 800 people are believed to have drowned after a migrant boat carrying up to 900 capsized off the coast of Libya on Sunday, the worst in a series of such disasters, says the Daily Mail. Since the start of 2014, nearly 200,000 migrants have reached Italy, driven by upheaval in the Middle East and north Africa, and around 5,000 have died in the attempt.
Italian officials believe there could be up to one million more “would-be immigrants” waiting to board boats in conflict-torn Libya. EU policies have made an already dangerous crossing even more risky.
Last year, Italy scrapped its Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue missions after failing to persuade other EU nations to contribute to its £6.5m-a-month running costs. A UK foreign minister referred to it as an “unintended pull factor”.
It was replaced by the smaller, cheaper Operation Triton, which focuses on border control. The reality is that the main “pull factor” is the prospect of a new life, says Memphis Barker in The Independent, and in any case the “push factors” are far more significant.
The “myth” that Europe can stop the problem at source is currently being repeated, but we should know by now that “neither the West’s mandarins nor its armies can do much to fix failing states and so encourage people to stay in them”. We should start where we can “really make a difference”, which is our own rescue services and asylum system.
Quite, says the Financial Times. A “comprehensive migration agenda” is to be unveiled over the next few weeks, and our priorities should not be in doubt. EU member states should fund a “proper” search and rescue mission, set up asylum centres and open their arms to refugees.
In December, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees appealed to the EU (population 500 million) to provide 130,000 resettlement places for Syrians displaced by the civil war. Germany has pledged to take 30,000; Sweden, 2,700. The remaining 26 EU states are taking 5,438 between them. Britain is taking 143.
“Events in the Mediterranean should provide a crisis of conscience and of memory. Europeans cannot call themselves civilised if they fail to respond generously to people seeking salvation on their own continent.”