by Tony Iozzo
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
ROME, Italy – The Italian and Maltese governments have called for action from its partners in the European Union to put an end to a dangerous migrant crisis that has claimed the lives of dozens of people crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa recently.
Last Friday, a boat filled with 250 migrants sank in the Mediterranean, claiming thirty four lives, after individuals were en route to Europe from North Africa. Navy ships from Italy and Malta recovered the victims’ bodies and rescued 206 of the migrants.
Friday’s accident was the latest in a series of boating accidents in the Mediterranean with migrants attempting to escape adverse conditions in their former country.
“I don’t know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done. The fact is that as things stand, we are just building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea. Until now we have encountered statements, words but little more than that,” stated Joseph Muscat, Malta’s prime minister.
Muscat stated that he would join Italy in demanding action at the next European Council meeting.
The latest boat sank about sixty miles south of Sicily; roughly two weeks after another boat carrying a larger number of migrants sank less than a kilometer from Lampedusa, a tiny island between Sicily and Tunisia. That accident killed almost 300 people.
The migration of individuals from North Africa to Europe has increased over the past twenty years, but this year has seen a significant rise due to the political unrest in Egypt, the Syrian crisis, and turmoil in Libya.
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has urged for the crisis to be included on the European Council agenda at the October 24-25 meeting.
“We cannot continue like this. We’re in a situation where what’s happening in North Africa, Eritrea, Somalia, Syria presents us with a real emergency” Letta stated on Saturday.
According to estimations by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, roughly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Italy and Malta so far this year, about two thirds of whom have filed asylum requests.
On Monday, the latest ship carrying 137 people arrived in Italy from North Africa, just as the Italian government is planning to launch increased air and naval patrols to attempt to preempt these shipwrecks.
For more information, please see:
BBC News – Italy Steps up Migrant Boat Patrols After Tragedies – 14 October 2013
Reuters – More Migrants Reach Italy, Government Prepares to Boost Sea Patrols – 14 October 2013
Al Jazeera – Migrant Deaths Prompt Calls For EU Action – 13 October 2013
New York Times – Days After Disaster, Another Migrant Ship Sinks Near Italian Island – 11 October 2013
