On Monday 15 June, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on European Union Member States not to turn their backs on migrants under the pretext of the health risks associated with Covid-19. Meanwhile, new shipwrecks have been reported in recent days off the coast of Libya and Tunisia.
During a debate in the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on the migration situation in the Mediterranean Sea, they called on Member States to continue to assist migrants at sea and to help countries such as Malta and Italy manage the arrival of migrants.
The pandemic “must not be an excuse to leave migrants at sea” and, sometimes, on boats for many days, said IOM’s Ola Henrikson, adding that the EU-27 must stop their endless negotiations “with human lives”.
Vincent Cochetel of UNHCR echoed Henrikson, recalling the even more precarious situation of migrants in Libya and North Africa, “half of whom have lost their jobs” due to Covid-19 and do not know if they will be able to return to them again, which could have consequences for their situation and their desire to leave.
He called on the EU-27 to put the number of arrivals in the EU into perspective, given that 350,000 people have been displaced in Africa in the last three months. And, contrary to some European governments’ claims that there is no longer a need for NGOs at sea to rescue migrants, “sea crossings continued during the pandemic”.
The EU Member States must therefore show more solidarity with the countries on the front line and help them to deal with the arrivals, even if not all the people who have arrived can be relocated because they cannot demonstrate that they are entitled to asylum.
Member States must also avoid relying on North Africa by “outsourcing their responsibilities”.
The NGO Sea Eye, for its part, called on the EU-27 to stop cooperating with the Libyan coastguard and criticised the mandate of Operation Irini, which it said was used to bring migrants back to Libya.
According to the latest figures from Frontex, the number of irregular migrants who crossed the central Mediterranean in May increased by 40% compared to April, reaching around 1,000 people. The total for the first five months exceeded 5,500, almost three times the number recorded during the same period in 2019. The three main nationalities are Bangladeshis, Sudanese and Ivorians.
The Pact in the “coming weeks”
A Commission representative indicated that the Pact on Migration and Asylum would be “presented in the coming weeks, with some delay”.
It should include procedures for the disembarkation of migrants, to prevent them from having to “stay in limbo for too long”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)