Brussels, 16/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 16 September, the European Commission pledged to step up its efforts to tackle criminal trafficking networks and individuals responsible for human trafficking. This comes after the loss of further boats with migrants on board in the Mediterranean over the past few days. The International Migrants Organisation (IMO) fears that an exceptionally serious sinking involving 500 migrants off the coast of Malta could have seen the migrants being deliberately thrown into the sea by the traffickers.
Michele Cercone, the spokesperson for Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström, said that “we welcome the IMO's endeavours to investigate these events”. He added that the Council and Commission were working to step up EU efforts against traffickers, particularly by way of “new measures, including a new anti-human-trafficking directive”.
The directive in question is not new, the Swedish commissioner's spokesperson went on to explain, having been adopted in 2011 but it forms part of a raft of actions to be taken. The directive includes law enforcement measures and prison sentences of between 5 and 10 years. By September 2014, only two member states, Germany and Belgium, had still not provided notification of transposition of the directive, said the Commission. Cercone deplored that “we are confronted by traffickers that are outside the law and have no scruples, we're talking about murder and not about accidents”. He refused to accept that responsibility for these boats sinking be laid at the door of the Commission or member states. He said that “the Commission is doing everything that it can” to help member states manage the arrival of immigrants (Italy will receive €1 billion for the 2007-2020 period) and that the only ones responsible for these incidents are the traffickers. (SP)