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Lampedusa tragedy shows need for better surveillance at sea – IOM
Nationalist Party – ‘Tragedies at sea can be avoided with greater cooperation between Mediterranean states’
4 October 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
2 min read
The bodies of the dead migrants shipwrecked between Lampedusa and Sicily, following their recovery by the Italian coastguard.
The Nationalist Party yesterday issued its own note of solidarity for the death of 94 asylum seekers who lost their lives in a shipwreck in the Mediterranean sea. The statement followed that of the Prime Minister, who used the occasion as a reminder of the challenges faced by Mediterranean states against human trafficking.
"These events remind us that the migration challenge is a human tragedy. We must never forget these peoples' quest for a better life," the PN said. "We hope next week's European conference on migration relocation will deal with the humanitarian aspect of migration. Tragedies like these can be avoided with everybody's cooperation."
The PN echoed Muscat's call for more aid from the EU in a bid to prevent more tragedies at sea. "We express our appreciation for the Armed Forces of Malta who save lives at sea on a daily basis," the party said.
EU Commissioner for home affairs Cecilia Malmström expressed her condolences to the families of the people who lost their lives at sea. "Europe has to step up its effort to prevent these tragedies and show solidarity both with migrants and with countries that are experiencing increasing migratory flows. We have to become better at identifying and rescuing vessels at risk. We also need to intensify our efforts to fight criminal networks exploiting human despair so that they cannot continue to put people's lives at risk in small, overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels."
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) also expressed its deep sorrow at the terrible tragedy that took place today between Sicily and Lampedusa leaving at least 93 people dead and 250 missing.
"It's one of the most worst episodes ever to occur off the Italian coast in terms of the number of deaths. These migrants, many of whom were fleeing war and persecution, hoped to find a better life in Europe. They ended up entrusting their lives to human smugglers, risking everything aboard an unseaworthy boat," said José Angel Oropeza, Director of the IOM Coordinating Office for the Mediterranean in Rome.
"About 20,000 migrants have lost their lives in the Mediterranean over the past 20 years, in the struggle to reach Italy. Most of these have died trying to reach Lampedusa.
"The real crisis we are facing is not the number of people trying to reach Italy or the numbers coming ashore. It is actually the number of migrants losing their lives at sea every year. This is not an emergency in terms of migratory flows, it is essentially a humanitarian emergency," Oropeza said.
"Despite the excellent work of the Italian Coast Guard that has saved thousands of lives, and the high-profile humanitarian work performed by the port authorities, more must be done to prevent terrible tragedies like [yesterday's]. We need to intervene in both countries of origin and in the main transit country, Libya, in order stop these tragedies."
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The EU should first off find ways to stabilize their countries where these people come from like Somalia, Syria and Ertrea.Second patrol the Mediterranean from the human trfficking and third Ms Malmstrom distribute the migrants accepted to all European countries.
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This tragedy reflects the migration failure of the EU which is headed by Mamlstrom.
The truth is that the majority of Europeans -including their governments- don't want extra- community people to arrive in Europe with no papers and no controls. So they devise all sort of excuse to filter the amount of migrants arriving in their country-especially so, by devising Dublin 2 to force people remain on tiny and barren islands without prospects.
The thousands of Somalis and others arriving here wont to leave for Europe but the current EU migration policy forces them to remain here.
Europe must come up with a European green card which is safer to all those who want to come to Europe.
Only by an organized and sustainable system will these tragedies come to an end and possibly this human trafficking will stop.
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The PN is encouraging human traffickers with their comments. Shame on you Simon !
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Lampedus tragedy shows that IOM, UNHCR EU and other NGOs must stop promioting migration and tell the peopel to stay in their own xcountries to solve their own problems and not impose themselves on other countries. It should work to better the conditions in the immigrants countries, to encourage rich countries to provide work for would-be immigrants in their own countries, and MOST IMPORTANT, to campaign against any country selling arms to African and other countries known to repress their citizens. The ARMS MANUFACTURERS and certain COUNTRIES are to blame for all the disasters in the world together with certain institutions like the EU, IOM, UNHCR, JRS and other NGOs who encourage illegal immigration by promoting a better living in EUrope and elsewhere and preventing the repatriation of illewgal immigrants. THey all have these and other deaths on THEIR CONSCIENCE.
