In 2014, more than 207,000 migrants and refugees made the risky Mediterranean crossing to get to Europe – nearly three times the previous highest figure of 70,000 in 2011. Of those, some 3,400 died.
“At least 3,400,” says Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stressing that the crossings are by nature clandestine, making accurate data-gathering difficult. “This makes the need to save lives a clear and urgent priority.”
The problem is complex and global, he explains. It encompasses the root causes of flight, the unscrupulousness of human traffickers who exploit desperation, and of course the response of countries receiving migrants and refugees.
In Europe, southern countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece are most immediately affected and need support from their EU partners, not least because their own economies have foundered in the recession.
This need coincides with a growing concern over the issue of immigration in many countries, including Britain. Though the situation may appear remote to the UK, Edwards told Sputnik News that “the transboundary, transnational problem of these major migration and asylum routes coming towards Europe has to be dealt with collectively.”
Emerging Arc of Conflict
It’s vital to understand the root causes in order to start tackling the problem in a collaborative, organised way, Adrian Edwards says.
“We have more than 51.2 million people in forced displacement [end of 2013 figures] which is a post-WW2 high,” he says. “We believe those levels have gone higher still in 2014. That’s all to do with the prevailing very high level of conflict in the world. Lots of people are fleeing conflict.”
Beyond Europe, says Edwards, there’s conflict in Libya, Mali, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic to the south; to the south-east, there’s the Syria-Iraq situation; and now the complicated situation vis-à-vis Ukraine in the east of Europe means that there is “an emerging arc of conflict around the European continent” which creates its own problems for Europe in managing its borders.
Though Europe has a good track record in dealing with migrants and asylum-seekers, he says the response is still “patchy”. And while finance is a factor, “all countries work on a basis of protecting their own borders, dealing with their own immigration policies, which is a natural responsibility.
“The problem is working out how to manage those policies so that human lives don’t end up being collateral damage. Human lives are at the centre of it all.”
Izabella Cooper, spokesperson for the European border protection agency Frontex, told us that there are new routes opening up because of the conflict patterns.
“Freight boats departing from Turkey are now being used, which is a new trend,” she says. “The smugglers buy old boats from scrap yards and put the migrants on them. They go to different countries to take more migrants up to transport to Italy.
“This year there is a new route, the Black Sea route from Turkey into Romania. That is an important piece of information.”
What Needs to Be Done and Is Anyone Doing It?
The images of the 2013 disaster at Lampedusa off the Italian coast, in which 366 migrants perished, remain etched in our memories.
The Mare Nostrum search and rescue mission launched in response by the Italian government was both praised for its humanitarian intent and criticised for its cost and consequences.
Britain’s Home Office told Sputnik News that: "Ministers across Europe have expressed concerns that extended maritime patrols off the coast of North Africa have encouraged people to make dangerous crossings in the expectation of guaranteed and swift rescue. This has led to more deaths as traffickers have exploited the situation using overcrowded boats that are unfit to make the crossing.”
Mare Nostrum is now being downsized and Europe is relying on Triton, an operation run by Frontex. It provides fully-equipped sea vessels and aircraft whose mission is to prevent anyone from entering the EU undetected.
The aim of Triton is to pinpoint areas in the 2.5-million square kilometre Mediterranean Sea where vulnerable people may be at risk on smuggling routes, and to accompany them to shore for medical treatment, identification, and assessment of their needs – particularly, whether they are refugees needing asylum protection, or migrants seeking to live and work in a European country.
Cooper, who has witnessed many missions, has nothing but admiration for the way the rescue crews handle the situation — from the emotional toll of finding people dead from suffocation or engine fumes in overcrowded old fishing boats, to communicating with desperate, exhausted survivors, to helping the weak or elderly up the steep sides of the rescue vessel in high seas.
What’s the worst thing she has witnessed?
“Seeing the women and children,” she says, without hesitation. “Their fear, seeing their faces…”
Desperate people do desperate things Britain doesn’t contribute any vessels or aircraft, but the Home Office confirmed to Sputnik News that the UK currently contributes one de-briefer, a specialist who interviews migrants and refugees to help build a picture of the criminal networks involved in the human trafficking.
“Information gathered by de-briefers who conduct voluntary interviews with the migrants is very important, it can definitely save lives,” says Izabella Cooper.
”We can’t conduct investigations but we do pass the information on to the migrant-receiving countries and Europol so that they can take action on the criminal networks.”
The smugglers who have sent migrants and refugees across the sea have often extorted sums of money which might represent a family’s entire fortune.
“For every boatload of 400 people, the smugglers make a clear profit of one million euros,” says Cooper.
“Quite often people will tell you that they know the dangers but they’re prepared to take the risks anyway,” says Edwards. “It’s not necessarily that they have a diminished sense of the real risk, it’s that in many cases, desperate people really do take desperate measures.”
Outlook for 2015
Though the poor weather has slowed the flow for the winter months, is the outlook any better for 2015?
Britain’s Home Office says the EU has agreed on enhanced cooperation “to tackle the causes of illegal immigration, along with the organised gangs that facilitate it” and that Britain has “responded positively to a Frontex request for a further contribution in January 2015” without specifying what that contribution will consist of.
Izabella Cooper says pressure will remain high on the central Mediterranean route, with the situation in Libya crucial to that: about 87% of the Mediterranean crossings begin in Libya, where the trafficking gangs can work with almost complete impunity.
“We’re going to have to see how the new operations work, whether they end up reducing or increasing the flow,” believes Adrian Edwards. ”Conflict and displacement are on the rise, so we’re heading into 2015 looking at difficult asylum environments with more people in flight."
“It is,” he says simply, “a time of real need in the world.”
