By Jaime Ortega.
Hundreds dead Immigrants this month off the coast of Italy are only a small part of those who’ve perish at the gates of the European dream. About 1,500 drown each year in the Mediterranean, most of the coast of North Africa according to UN data. The last two tragedies have rocked European leaders, but political leaders are far from solving the fundamental problem: the lack of a common and effective approach to the phenomenon of immigration, before perceived as a source of progress and now seen as a threat to Europe.
With the images of the first wreck, European interior ministers on Tuesday were unable to commit resources to nurture a rescue operation in the Mediterranean, the Commission admitted. This is just a sample of the slowness that characterizes community decisions. In this case , aggravated by fears aroused among the rulers addressed without immigration demagoguery. The rise of populism that is against a soft approach to this problem.
Maltese Prime Minister , Joseph Muscat said yesterday he was ” abandoned ” by the rest of the EU and called on countries to mobilize to agree ” on the change of rules. No change is equivalent to making the Mediterranean a cemetery. ”
COUNTRY
The influx of immigrants in the Mediterranean shows no signs of abating anytime soon. The outbreak of the Arab Spring, in 2011, and migratory mismanagement have been seen by some of the countries that overthrew the old regimes. This happened in that year, although paradoxically there was a significant decline in entries by sea, especially between Italy and Malta ,main doors during the riots. Data are Frontex, the EU agency for border control, which amounts to 72 437 people identified EU borders in 2012 .
Still, the numbers are very volatile and probably so far this year are already rebounding. The change of scenery in Egypt , added to the lack of control in Libya’s borders – a real loophole of persons of several nationalities, mainly sub-Saharan – EU scare. “Libya is the most complicated because it has gone into semblance of state apparatus.”
So the EU has launched a border control mission , which is now being deployed to help them create a network,” explains Bernardino León, Special Representative of the European Union for the Southern Mediterranean . For transiting Libya largely from the Horn of Africa ( Eritrea , Somalia … ) . And that trafficking networks are the most organized of the whole area, says a spokeswoman for Frontex.
Regional instability falsely invites to remember the days when the dictatorships of the area had an iron hand to control borders. But the figures do not endorse that analysis. ” It is understandable that you look in fear to Egypt, but stability can not be achieved by simply buying authoritarian governments. Flows to Europe began to grow for many years , before spring. Dictators did not guarantee much control as they originally promised , “says Richard Youngs , an expert on European foreign policy think tank Carnegie.
More than the type of government of the countries of origin, the key to mitigate the flows is the ability of the Union to agree with their rulers and compensatory measures. It is no coincidence that the country with more impermeable borders, is Morocco. Since last July, Rabat has signed an agreement with the EU mobility program to help stop illegal immigration. Besides other advantages, including two key elements: the North African country agrees to readmit any of immigrants from Europe to intercept there and, in exchange, Brussels would help facilitates visas. Leeway legally in exchange for greater firmness in illegal.
These conditions generate controversy on both sides of the Mediterranean, explains Leon. The EU would grant that costs more open to legal entries and African leaders who also support the complaints of its population forced by readmissions. So its “negotiated slowly and cautiously ” describes Leon, who aspires to achieve something similar with Tunisia and Egypt.
The other element that is used in Europe is the border control. This week, the European Parliament has given its approval to Eurosur a surveillance system to coordinate all EU external borders, so that the authorities in each country have real-time access to information from other Member States. The plan will begin in December this year and will be fully implemented a year later.
After what happened in Lampedusa, the Community authorities wanted to stress that this mechanism enhances the ability to rescue shipwrecked flotillas, or at least it tries. Because the resistance of member countries increased commitments to hinder any further progress. ” But Europe has to manage migration, ” says Anna Terron, former Secretary of State for Immigration in Spain and now in charge of the company Instrategies, advising the European Commissioner for Internal, Cecilia Malmström.
In practice the germ of these events is in the legislation. In public, all ministers show their solidarity with Italy, but privately different European sources put their hands to their head by the laws of that country, that penalize those who help illegal immigrants for the problems posed to control its maritime borders and up to the alleged under-performing European funds for these purposes.
Of all the elements, the most serious is the
