Migrants wait to disembark from the Italian Navy vessel ‘Chimera’ in the harbor of Salerno, Italy
European Union leaders are discussing plans to double financial sources to save lives in the Mediterranean where hundreds of migrants have drowned in recent days, and to capture and destroy vessels which could be used for trafficking, according to a draft statement prepared for yesterday’s summit.
The latest draft statement, obtained by The Associated Press, would pledge the 28 nations to “increase search and rescue possibilities” and to “undertake systematic efforts to identify, capture and destroy vessels before they are used by traffickers.”
It said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini would immediately start preparing an operation that would likely have a military component.
“We will take action now. Europe is declaring war on smugglers,” said the EU’s top migration official, Dimitris Avramopoulos, who was in Malta to attend the funeral of 24 migrants who perished at sea.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi agreed.
“European Union naval operations in the Horn of Africa have successfully fought piracy — and a similar initiative must be developed to effectively fight against human trafficking in the Mediterranean,” Renzi wrote in a New York Times opinion piece. “Trafficking vessels should be put out of operation.”
A civil-military mission to do the job would face many legal hurdles and already proved controversial ahead of the summit.
The draft statement also said the nations want to “set up a first voluntary pilot project on resettlement, offering at least 5,000 places to persons qualifying for protection.”
That resettlement plan would amount to about half of the number which arrived in just the last week and a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands likely to arrive this year.
The draft statement also proposes cutting the time needed to process would-be migrants, which can now take up to a year before a person is processed and deemed legitimate to stay. Under the plans that would be cut to as little as two months.
The leaders are under great pressure to react after more than 10,000 migrants were plucked from seas between Italy and Libya in a week.
EU President Donald Tusk urged the summit “to agree on very practical measures,” including “strengthening search-and-rescue possibilities, by fighting the smugglers and by discouraging their victims from putting their lives at risk, while reinforcing solidarity.”
The leaders are also to assess a concern raised by U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who called for a stronger EU search-and-rescue operation and more legal migration channels. “We all have a moral imperative to act swiftly,” Ban says in a letter to Tusk obtained by The Associated Press.
EU officials say the leaders will commit to doubling the size of the European border agency effort in the Mediterranean, but those operations are designed for monitoring migrant movements, not necessarily saving lives.
Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders want a multinational rescue effort launched to help the thousands fleeing conflict and poverty from places like Syria, Eritrea and Somalia.
“The stakes are very high. The number of hours, literally, that it takes to take action will make the difference between life and death,” Iverna McGowan, acting director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office told The Associated Press. Lorne Cook and Raf Casert, Brussels, AP
malta honors dead of med’s worst migrant disaster
European officials honored the dead of the Mediterranean’s worst-ever migrant disaster yesterday as more would-be refugees arrived in Italy and prosecutors questioned the suspected smugglers. Twenty-four caskets containing the only bodies recovered from the weekend capsizing that left an estimated 800 dead were laid out for an interfaith memorial service on the grounds of Malta’s main hospital. Wails from members of Malta’s African community punctuated the ceremony, which included Christian and Muslim prayers. “We mourn them, because irrespective of our creed, nationality, race, we know that they are our fellow human beings,” Gozo Bishop Mario Grech said. Malta’s president and prime minister, Italy’s interior minister and the EU’s migration commissioner attended. Only 28 people survived the capsizing of the migrant boat last weekend and 24 bodies were recovered, including that of an adolescent whose remains were placed in the lone white casket for burial.
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