Brussels, 04/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - Members of the civil liberties committee (LIBE) at the European Parliament urged member states on Tuesday to rapidly find a solution to contain the problem of illegal migrants who lose their lives seeking to cross to the European continent by sea. “Priority must be given to saving people's lives”, said Jean-Marie Cavada (ALDE, France), who chairs the civil liberties committee, as he opened a public hearing on the tragedy of migrants lost at sea.
New call for solidarity: Nearly 120,000 illegal migrants cross the Mediterranean each year, and at least 10,000 have died in the past ten years seeking to reach the coast of the EU, according to the International Centre of Development of Migration Policy. With these figures in mind, Mr Cavada pointed out that it was “impossible to ask a single country to shoulder the burden”. All EU member states that share the same external borders must share this responsibility, he stressed. All member states must abide by their international legal obligations regarding safety and rescue at sea and the protection of human lives, Mr Cavada added. He publicly announced his displeasure at the Frontex representatives' refusal to speak at the hearing, feeling that it was unacceptable to be so offhand about such matters. He said it was a “serious fault” on their part, especially given the incidents that have taken place recently. In June, a total of 210 were reported dead or missing in the Strait of Sicily alone, according to Paolo Artini of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Rome. He also expressed grave concern about the disappearance of at least 53 persons, mostly of Eritrean origin, who, after having been photographed by a reconnaissance plane on 21 May, had gone missing between Libya and Malta. On Tuesday, during a press conference, Franco Frattini, the immigration commissioner, announced that he had called on Frontex to include rescue at sea in its remit.
No magic solution: It is essential to reach international consensus on the place where immigrants are to be taken and on the authorities responsible when they are rescued at sea, said Malta's representative with the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana. During the debate, the representatives of Cyprus, Spain and Greece with the EU supported the idea put forward by Malta consisting of creating a system of “shared responsibility” between all EU nations in order to determine where rescued migrants should be disembarked before the problem actually occurs. In Malta, some 700 migrants disembarked this year, four times more than last year during the same period. It should be noted that the Commission was recently requested by the Council to make proposals on sharing responsibility (EUROPE 9457). MEPs demanded greater involvement of Council in order to change legislation and close legal loopholes. Christopher Hein, Director of the Italian Council for Refugees, cited several areas of conflict that add legal precarity to the physical dangers faced by migrants at sea. These legal areas are: - the EU's right to protect its external borders, the difficulty of differentiating between asylum seekers and illegal economic immigrants, complying with the “non-refoulement” principle while coping with the repatriation of massive arrivals and the lack of progress in managing the legal entry of protected people into the Union. Constanca Urbano de Sousa, representing the Portuguese EU presidency, nonetheless pointed out that there was no “magic solution” to resolve such problems, even if everything possible were done during the next six months. Does Frontex intend to become the European border police? “No”, replied Ms de Sousa, preferring to see the Frontex agency simply as a coordinator. Jean-Louis De Brouwer, director for immigration at DG Justice, Freedom and Security, took the view that the problematical situations to be faced by the EU will be still more plentiful if the measures recommended by the Commission are not carried out. Mr De Brouwer specified that a communication would be presented in early 2008 on a satellite external border surveillance system. It is reported that Mr Frattini also recently wrote a letter to member states calling for the preferential relations enjoyed with third countries by some member states to be exploited with a view to increasing cooperation on immigration.
Tackling economic reasons: “Fewer than 1% of the illegal immigrants arriving in Spain request asylum; most are economic migrants”, said Eugenio Burgos Nieto from the Spanish Permanent Representation. He argued that the problem has to be tackled at its root, by helping the economic development of countries of origin and by stepping up cooperation, including the creation of new joint patrols of the coasts of the countries of origin and transit. The Moroccan ambassador with the EU, Alem Menouar, admitted that the number of persons seeking to leave Morocco in order to enter the EU in an illegal manner fell by 60% in 2006, thanks to increased cooperation with Spain and agreements to repatriate illegal immigrants transiting through Morocco from countries of origin like Senegal, Mauritania, Ghana and Nigeria. (bc)