Italy proposes new EU-wide migrant deal with African nations as another mass drowning kills hundreds in the Mediterranean
Free Speech Radio News Italy is proposing another plan to deal with the migrant crisis, this one between the EU and African nations, as hundreds of would-be migrants drown while attempting to cross from Libya last
Free Speech Radio News
Italy is proposing another plan to deal with the migrant crisis, this one between the EU and African nations, as hundreds of would-be migrants drown while attempting to cross from Libya last week. FSRN’s Nell Abram has more.
As many as 500 people reportedly drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in a single incident last week. The total number of victims is still unconfirmed, but estimates are based on accounts by a few dozen survivors rescued at sea April 16th. According to the UN’s refugee agency, the survivors include 37 men, three women and a three-year-old child; more than half are Somalis, the others from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.
The mass drowning is the deadliest of its kind documented so far this year. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni spoke to reporters in Luxembourg earlier this week, ahead of talks about what’s now being referred to as the Italian compact – a plan that goes beyond the EU-Turkey deal to address the crisis at at least some of its origins.
“What is sure is that we are again with a tragedy in the Mediterranean exactly one year after the tragedy we had not in the Egyptian, but in the Libyan waters one year ago,” said Gentiloni, in reference to a mass drowning of as many as 800 migrants in April of 2015. “This is another strong reason for Europe to commit itself not in building walls but to strengthening our common commitment towards migration – especially towards Africa.”
All of the survivors were bound for Italy when they say smugglers tried to load them onto a larger, already overcrowded vessel – which then sank. The news seeped out slowly after survivors drifted at sea for three days before a Filipino cargo ship took them to Greece, where they now join thousands of other migrants stranded in camps since the EU-Turkey deal took effect and with the Balkan route sealed shut.
In the weeks since implementation of the EU-Turkey deal that summarily deports migrants arriving in Greece, there’s been a resurgence along the route through the Mediterranean towards Italy. The Italian compact calls for the EU to fund development aid and legal resettlement programs in the African countries from which many migrants are fleeing. Funding would come from “EU-Africa” bonds. In turn, African nations would more aggressively control their borders and pre-screen potential refugees. European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker welcomed the plan Friday, but was silent on the funding aspect.
Natnael April 23, 2016
“…500 people reportedly drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in a single incident last week. … The mass drowning is the deadliest of its kind documented so far this year. Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni spoke to reporters in Luxembourg earlier this week,…”
This tragic incident is not new to the fascist Italians and the other EU former African colonialisten (at least since the [Bismark’s] Berliner conference from 1884). What the victims wish though is a lasting solution at the roots of the cause. But the EU-policy makers don’t even mention the traficker & co issue. They let the smugglers do all what they want (or even they are the smugglers themselves). Now after the eradication of all refugees into the SEA, they go fsrther to Libya and they are going to station their soldiers there to ‘protect’ the asylum seekers seemingly from smugglers!!! That is the dillema of the real EU-politics we are in. some years later we are going to the recolonized AFRICA. This is the sole target of the whole Sinai and mediteranean drama at the cost of Eritreans. May be Italiy wants to regain the old colonial territories – Somalia, Eritrea and Libya !
k.tewolde April 25, 2016
Neri,bruta rasa,imbeccilli,genti papagalli………….do you remember this insults on our fathers,it is making a come back. yep, we might see again Eritrea with cable cars and commuter trains and bustling marcatos , but with the natives looking from outside in. Ray charles saw this coming. That is why they gave the tyrant the euros,to expedite the process.
k.tewolde April 25, 2016
These are the mastermind of ‘global economy’ the mass migration is its collateral damage, they don’t give a damn about nations and good governance but only their corporate interests and they are using dictatorships as one of their tools and they are going to mold and reshape our globe to fit their master plan just like they did in the past when they created nations with artificial borders.Is there anybody out there smart enough, bold enough ,rich enough…..to counter this oligarchy?