Euro-Med: 2018, the year Europe let down migrants and asylum seekers
Geneva - The number of migrants and asylum seekers has once again dropped in 2018 given the series of deals signed between the
European Union and the countries migrants take as a transit point on their way to Europe, says the Euro-Mediterranean
Human Rights Monitor.
The total number of arrivals in 2018 stood at 116,295. Of these, 2,262 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, an
equivalent of 1.9% of this year’s further reduced number of arrivals, added the human rights group.
The European Union has managed to reduce the number of arrivals to Europe by 34% this year, compared to last year, a
decrease by 56,000 in 2017, and 246,000 in 2016. This ‘success’ is the result of an inhumane effort by the Union to
deter migrants from arriving in Europe’s shores.
Official rescue operations have been reduced to the minimum and were transferred to become the responsibility of the
Libyan Coast Guard, which suffers a great shortage of technical equipment, and also takes migrants and asylum seekers
into Libya, thus prompting further violations.
“The European Union’s violations are not limited to the deals made with countries that migrants arrive from nor to its
failure to conduct rescue operations, but also includes cases where the EU has criminalized rescue operations carried
out by trade and military vessels, non-governmental organizations or by foreign naval forces,” said Sarah Pritchett,
Euro-Med’s spokeswoman.
“Previously, such rescue operations accounted for over 40% of the overall rescue operations at sea,” added Pritchett,
stating that, the EU has demonstrated a moral crisis, thinking only about preventing migrants from arriving in its
shores even if it means losing their lives.
Taking these measures, the European Union has not reduced the number of people willing to seek asylum in Europe, given
that the reasons for their migration continue to date. These measures only led them to seek other ways to reach Europe,
such as the route through Spain, by land through Turkey or through Morocco.
The numbers of arrivals at major European ports by sea over the past three years are provided by the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A comparison between the figures from 2016 to 2018 is demonstrated in the figure
below.
The comparison shows that the number of refugees arriving in Greece in the past two years has been significantly reduced
compared to 2016. In Italy, the number of arrivals dropped only last year, following an agreement with the Libyan Coast
Guard to carry out rescue operations.
Meanwhile, the number of arrivals to Spain this year has nearly doubled compared to the previous year. Also, migration
from the coast of Lebanon to the shores of Cyprus has increased, and most of the operations were carried out by fishing
boats, thus endangering the lives of migrants.
Regarding land routes, the figures by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) showed an increase of 78% in
land traffic this year, with 25,665 people arriving in Europe by land, compared to 14,406 in 2017. The number of deaths
among migrants and refugees by land was 108 in 2018, and 96 in 2017, the majority of whom were victims of road accidents
due to the overcrowding of refugees in transport trucks or because of drowning in rivers and water channels during their
journey from Eastern to Western Europe.
“The EU has indeed succeeded at violating the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees,” said Pritchett. Europe
prevented refugees fleeing the scourge of wars in the Middle East and Africa from reaching its territory.
Italy violated the provisions of the Convention by returning 108 migrants from its territorial waters to Libya by an
Italian ship, in violation of Article 33 of the Refugee Convention, which states that “No Contracting State shall expel
or return (“refouler”) a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom
would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion..”
Ships’ captains are also responsible for protecting and rescuing migrants and refugees drowning at sea, as stipulated in
the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), Article 5 of which stressed the duty of seafarers to
rescue those in danger at sea.
The Italian and other European authorities have obstructed the work of Aquarius, the last rescue ship by Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF), where all other rescue vessels in the ports of Italy and Malta had been banned and bound by
complicated legal procedures or detained.
The organization was unable to take survivors ashore because of the large financial losses incurred by the delay to
allow them to take down migrants and refugees they had rescued.
The Maltese authorities have detained two rescue vessels belonging to German non-profit organizations Lifeline and Sea Watch, preventing them from leaving the port of Valletta Island. In addition, the Italian authorities conducted an
investigation with 20 employees working for Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and the German NGO Jugend Rettet.
Giving the Libyan Coast Guard such a heavy burden is utterly irresponsible, said Ahmed Abu Hamad, Euro-Med’s Migration
researcher, especially that the Libyan Coast Guard lacks a fully functioning maritime coordination center with shortages
of fuel and equipment, which hinders the continuous coverage and response of distress calls. Those rescued are also
subject to severe violations at detention centers by the Libyan Coast Guard forces.
The European Parliament's recent positive response to the demand made by Euro-Med Monitor and other human rights
organizations over the past years concerning the issuance of European humanitarian visas is a positive step that would
allow asylum seekers have access to Europe by applying for international protection. However, this step should be
activated soon enough to allow migrants and refugees access this type of protection.
The position of Algeria and Tunisia, refusing to accept any European pressure to establish platforms for illegal
migrants on their land, is fully appreciated, since Europe is known for using such platforms to evade its
responsibilities towards migrants and asylum seekers in Africa, added Abu Hamad.
In a related context, Abu Hamad urged Algeria to stop the expulsion of African migrants to Niger and Mali, and to allow
them as well as Palestinians, Syrians and Yemenis, to seek asylum, calling on Algeria to respect the international
conventions concerning to refugees.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor calls on the international community to ensure the immediate resumption of
rescue efforts in the Mediterranean and to pressure the EU to stop its policy of concluding agreements and deals that
disregard humanitarian considerations.
The Euro-Med Monitor also calls on the European parties to stop using the ‘refugee crisis’ as a political tool to win
local elections, resulting in much hatred and racism against refugees in various European countries.