Boat Carrying African Immigrants Reaches Italy With 13 Dead

[B_part]

Source: NY times

Boat Carrying African Immigrants Reaches Italy With 13 Dead By ALAN COWELL (The official body count, as of 21 October on Italian news sources is 70) Published: October 21, 2003 OME, Oct. 20 — Italian authorities reported Monday that at least 13 people died in a small wooden boat adrift in the Mediterranean trying to reach this country from North Africa. A rescuer described the 40-foot vessel carrying the dead and 15 survivors as resembling "a scene from Dante's Inferno." One of the survivors, an unidentified woman, was so weak that she was initially taken for dead after the crew of an Italian fishing boat spotted the stricken vessel on Sunday. Italian authorities quoted survivors as saying the vessel had been at sea for more than two weeks but had run out of fuel, food and water. Survivors, thought to be Somalis who had traveled from Libya, said they had thrown many bodies overboard before they became too weak to manage even that, Italian authorities said. The final death toll could therefore climb much higher. Survivors were quoted as saying the bodies dumped at sea included those of 15 women and 7 children. This newest grisly episode on the high seas between North Africa and the Italian island of Lampedusa — which is closer to the coast of Tunisia than to the Italian mainland — served to underscore the huge challenges confronting European authorities seeking to control traffickers of immigrants and fugitives ready to risk death for a chance of a new life in Europe. "This tragedy weighs heavily on the conscience of Europe, but it also puts the spotlight on African governments doing nothing to control this exodus," said the Italian interior minister, Giuseppe Pisanu. He was speaking after a meeting with his French, British, German and Spanish counterparts in La Baule, in western France, that produced agreement on a range of measures, including a crackdown on people-smuggling gangs and stronger visa controls to prevent a flow of illegal migrants, particularly from Eastern Europe, China and Africa. With its long, unguarded coastline, Italy has long been a target for illegal immigrants. Once they reach Italy, the absence of cross-border controls between many European Union countries makes it easy for them to disappear into a growing underground of unauthorized residents. Italy partly sealed off the flow when it struck an agreement in 1998 with Albania to prevent the use of Albanian ports for illegal sailings. But Rome has been unable to do the same with Tunisia and Libya. Michele Niosi, the commander of the harbor master's office in Lampedusa, quoted survivors as saying around 85 people had been on the small boat when it sailed from North Africa. Initial accounts by survivors said the vessel departed Oct. 3 but soon ran out of fuel and began to drift. Some survivors said they had had nothing to eat or drink for 10 days before their rescue, according to Italian news reports. Stefano Valfre, 34, the skipper of the fishing boat, the Sant' Anna, said he and his crew spotted the stricken boat about 50 nautical miles off Lampedusa on Sunday. "The bodies were piled up one on top of the other," he said in an interview by radio with Italy's ANSA news agency. "You couldn't tell the living from the dead. All we could see was the arms of some of them stretching out to us to ask for help." Daniela Pugliese, a spokeswoman for the Italian Interior Ministry, said illegal immigrants were usually sent back to their country of origin. "But in special circumstances like this, when the situation is really desperate, they may be given permission to stay for humanitarian reasons. But it is too early at this stage to tell what will happen to these people."

Tonight another 20 people reportedly drowned after attempting to leave Libya on an old fishing boat which subsequently sunk some 10 miles off the coast. Only two survived.
Such tragedies aren't new: hundreds of illegal migrants have died during "hope-travels" towards Italy, although it has seldom made international news.

Until about 2001 the main stream of desperates came to Italy through the Otranto channel, the narrowest part of the Adriatic Sea, leaving from the ports of Albania. In the year 2001 a deal was struck between Italy and Albania, which allows Italy to police Albanian territorial waters, together with the military forces of that country. These measures have allowed both governments to effectively stop people smuggling.

After a period of truce, the flow of desperates has started again, this time coming from the coasts of Libya and Tunisia towards the island of Lampedusa, south of Sicily. Deals with Tunisia to prevent people smuggling are under way, but such deals are impossible with the Libyan government.

The said government claims to be unable to effectively patrol their coasts due to the lack of military equipment such as patrol boats. Such equipment cannot be sold to them because of a UN embargo. Yet Libya doesn't want to allow Italian navy to patrol Libyan territorial waters, or italian army to support land based operations to secure the maritime Libyan border. It is quite clear that the Libyan government is trying to use this flow of desperates as a form of pressure towards Europe, in order to get the UN sanctions lifted.

In the meanwhile desperate people pay 3000 - 5000 € to criminal organizations in order to be shipped, like cattle, on boats insanely crowded and unable to float in your bathtub. And many of them either drow, or die by thirst and starvation in the high seas.

My question is, where are EU and UN when they are needed? They could either lift the sanctions on Libya and allow them to get limited coastal patroling equipment, or compel Libya to accept EU/UN vessels patroling their coasts. Yet, Europe seems not to bother to get a coherent immigration policy, and the UN simply doesn't care.

[khazadman]

Libya will do nothing about it because they are probably making money from the trafficing. And they also permit it because of the destabilizing effect that the illegal aliens are having in Europe. Italy should just inform the Libyan government that they wiil patrol their waters no matter what and that any attempt to stop them will be met with overwhelming force.

[Skunk]

Originally posted by B_part: My question is, where are EU and UN when they are needed? They could either lift the sanctions on Libya and allow them to get limited coastal patroling equipment, or compel Libya to accept EU/UN vessels patroling their coasts. Yet, Europe seems not to bother to get a coherent immigration policy, and the UN simply doesn't care.

UN sanctions have been lifted - but not those from the US. Many EU defence companies are mindful of the fact that selling arms to Libya will still get them in hot water with the US, not only full prosecutions, but also loss of orders and denial of access to US technology.

Patrolling Libyan coasts would be an infringement of sovereignty - and against international law. Besides, EU naval forces are a bit stretched to deal with the problem - they are currently busy supporting acts of piracy against NK vessels in Asia and around the Cape of Africa, supporting the Iraq occupation - as well as legitimate activities related to UN peacekeeping.

Likewise that particular stretch of water is extremely busy with legitimate traffic, and you can't stop and search ships at will in international waters (or in the territorial waters of another state) as this is contrary to international law.

Originally posted by khazadman: Libya will do nothing about it because they are probably making money from the trafficing. And they also permit it because of the destabilizing effect that the illegal aliens are having in Europe. Italy should just inform the Libyan government that they wiil patrol their waters no matter what and that any attempt to stop them will be met with overwhelming force.

I think that Iraq is enough of a problem right now without creating yet another front to fight on, don't you?

[B_part]

Originally posted by khazadman: Libya will do nothing about it because they are probably making money from the trafficing. And they also permit it because of the destabilizing effect that the illegal aliens are having in Europe. Italy should just inform the Libyan government that they wiil patrol their waters no matter what and that any attempt to stop them will be met with overwhelming force.

You cannot do that. It is against any international law, because it violates international sovereignity, and Skunk is right, no need for another war.
Yet, IMO, there are other means to put pressure on Libya, e.g. stop any investment in that country, and they sorely need money, they would give in. In other words, that means either you accept the patroling or you keep on paying sanctions. But that requires EU/UN to act united, and so far non has moved an eyebrow.

Originally posted by Skunk: Likewise that particular stretch of water is extremely busy with legitimate traffic, and you can't stop and search ships at will in international waters (or in the territorial waters of another state) as this is contrary to international law.

Actually, that wouldn't be a problem, for two reasons. The active patrol measures require that you control ports, and you cannot load big ships with people outside ports. Any trespasser would be blocked in territorial waters, where it would be perfectly legal to do so. Second, so far no boat bigger than a fishing ship has ever been used for this trafficking, because the boat is disposable - once you get in italian waters, it gets confiscated. You cannot afford to lose a ship every time.
The active patrol measures work, the Albanian case has proved that. Yet, without international consense, nothing can be done.

[Skunk]

Originally posted by XXXXX: Actually, that wouldn't be a problem, for two reasons. The active patrol measures require that you control ports, and you cannot load big ships with people outside ports. Any trespasser would be blocked in territorial waters, where it would be perfectly legal to do so. Second, so far no boat bigger than a fishing ship has ever been used for this trafficking, because the boat is disposable - once you get in italian waters, it gets confiscated. You cannot afford to lose a ship every time. The active patrol measures work, the Albanian case has proved that. Yet, without international consense, nothing can be done.

Territorial waters generally don't extend much further than 12 miles (often less where other states have a claim). That leaves a very small margin to stop ships behaving in a suspicious manner - which means to actively patrol the area would require a rather substantial fleet of fast patrol boats.

A second point to consider is that the smugglers only make the trip for show - they've already been paid to smuggle the people across and frankly, don't show much concern for their welfare (how many times have the crew abandoned the ship in a fast speedboat?).

And this ties in very well with the ships that they tend to use - old rust buckets bought for a few dollars that might make it across the sea - and then again, might not. I think that they have even factored in the cost of the boat into their fee - and if the boat manages to return (by some miracle), they consider that as an extra bonus. As a result, I very much think that they can afford to lose a boat every time.

What is really required is a combined effort both on the patrol front - and on the legistlative front. Tightening immigration laws front is politically unpopular - every time a state attempts to make illegal immigration unattractive through the legislature there are howls of protest and labels of 'far right wing anti-immigration party' (witness Switzerland and the Netherlands).
However unpopular it is though, tackling with the lure that Europe presents is just as important as dealing with those who are not dissuaded by the risks.