Europe currently faces uncontrolled migration, as thousands of migrants trying to flee ongoing military conflicts and dire economic situations in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and other areas across North Africa and the Middle East, are using the Mediterranean Sea as their main route to Europe.
According to the estimates of the International Organization for Migration, at least 1,727 migrants have died at sea since the beginning of 2015. The most recent tragedy occurred in April, when a boat carrying some 900 migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea while heading from Libya to Italy, resulting in the deaths of almost all on board, with only 28 rescued.
"Of course, it's a terrible human tragedy; hundreds of people have died. But why did people start to rapidly flee Libya? All because of the bombings and the killing of [Muammar] Gaddafi. When Gaddafi was in power, there was no illegal migration."
Ivanov added that "European countries are now facing the results of their own policy."
Libya has been engulfed in violence since the 2011 overthrow of the country's longstanding leader Muammar Gaddafi. To date, the country has two rival governments, with the internationally recognized authorities based in Tobruk and the self-proclaimed General National Congress based in the capital city of Tripoli.
Libya has also faced aggression from the extremist rebel groups, including Islamic State-affiliated militants.
At least 3,500 people fleeing the North Africa and the Middle East for Europe have died crossing the Mediterranean in 2014, according to UN estimates.
http://sptnkne.ws/hfm
2/5/15
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Italy says 10 migrants die, 4,800 rescued in ongoing mission...
ReplyDeleteAbout 4,800 migrants were plucked from boats off the coast of Libya over the weekend and 10 bodies were recovered, Italy's coast guard and navy said, in what looked to be the biggest rescue operation of its kind so far this year.
Two weeks after nearly 900 boat people drowned in the worst Mediterranean shipwreck in living memory, the flow of people desperate to reach a better life in Europe has accelerated as people smugglers take advantage of calmer seas.
Seven bodies were found on two large rubber boats packed with migrants and rescuers plucked from the sea the corpses of three others who had jumped into the water when they saw a merchant ship approaching, the coast guard said.
Separately, authorities in Egypt said that three people died when a migrant boat attempting to reach Greece sank off its coast. Thirty-one people were rescued....todayonline.com
3/5/15
Britain criticizes EU over Mediterranean migrant plans...
ReplyDeleteBritain's interior minister Theresa May Wednesday criticized the EU's approach to stemming the flow of migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe, saying that by not sending economic migrants back, the bloc was encouraging them to travel.
International focus on the issue of migration into Europe has been sharpened by a series of disasters in the Mediterranean in which hundreds of migrants from North Africa have drowned after attempting to cross the sea in unsafe vessels.
After briefing the United Nations Security Council on plans to deal with such migration, the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini Monday said no refugees or migrants intercepted at sea would be sent back against their will.
Home Secretary May criticised Mogherini's statement.
"Such an approach would only act as an increased pull factor across the Mediterranean and encourage more people to put their lives at risk," she wrote in an article in the Times newspaper......Reuters.....dailystar.com.lb
13/5/15
ISIS heading to Italy with migrants...
DeleteTerrorists belonging to Islamic State (ISIS) will be coming to Italy "in the coming weeks" hidden among migrants on boats, Omar al Gawari, information minister in Libya's Tobruk government, told ANSA Tuesday. Reports in recent months have also warned that ISIS terrorists are moving into Italy as well as threatening to attack the Vatican.
"In the coming weeks, Italy will experience the arrival not only of poor African immigrants but also of boats carrying Daesh (Isis)," said the minister.
He said that Malta will also be affected.
Both countries have received tens of thousands of migrants mostly arriving by sea on rickety vessels...........ansa.it