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JUDY WOODRUFF: Italys Parliament today approved a plan to send a naval task force to Libya to crack down on smugglers who send thousands of migrants on a deadly journey across the Mediterranean to Europe. Italy put stricter rules around rescue ships run by charities in the area.

Amid this, a ship containing anti-immigrant activists is heading towards Libya on a mission to return migrants.

From Sicily, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

MALCOLM BRABANT: At Trapani in Western Sicily, the routine rarely varies. Survivors of a disaster off the Libyan coast disembark from a charity ship. The injured and traumatized make landfall first. And then, shielded from the living by a line of hearses, come the dead.

Save the Children spokesman Rik Goverde:

RIK GOVERDE, Save the Children: They probably died of drowning, in combination with chemical burns, which is when seawater and fuel, when they react, they get some bodies were just without skin. It was terrible.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The migrants were lifted from a deflating dinghy by rescuers from the Spanish charity Proactiva.

WOMAN: I am pregnant. I am dying.

MALCOLM BRABANT: So far this year, almost 2,400 have drowned in the Mediterranean. Last year, the death toll was 5,000.

WOMAN: There is 10 dead bodies at the boat. Three jump inside the water. The rest are inside the boat.

LEOLUCA ORLANDO, Mayor of Palermo, Sicily: Its a cemetery. Its a place so full of dead people, is a place that is a shame for the European Union. We cannot say we dont know what is now happening in front of our eyes.

MALCOLM BRABANT: At city hall in Sicilys capital, Palermo, Mayor Leoluca Orlando is exasperated by Europes reluctance to share Italys burden.

LEOLUCA ORLANDO: What is sure that, today, some European states, first of all, are responsible for what is happening.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But this new right-wing organization vehemently opposes the mayors open-borders agenda. It is militant about what it sees as the threat to Europes racial identity from Africa.

MAN: Every week, every day, every hour, ships packed with illegal immigrants are flooding the European border. An invasion is taking place.

MAN: This mass migration is changing the face of our continent. Were losing our safety, our way of life. And we will become a minority in our own country.

MALCOLM BRABANT: They call themselves the Identity Generation. Trailed by police and opponents in Sicily, they quietly traveled to Cyprus, where a supporter filmed them.

They believe Europe can stop the influx by emulating Australias military strategy of intercepting migrant boats and returning them to the point of departure. They have chartered a ship called the C-Star, and its reportedly heading from Cyprus towards the Libyan coast. They say they will return any migrants they rescue.

Italian Lorenzo Fiato:

LORENZO FIATO, Italian Identitarian: Since when the NGOs started operating, the deaths in the sea increased. And the illegal immigration became more, more, more a problem. So, breaking the narrative of the NGOs that are literally a taxi service from Libya to Europe is the most important thing to do now.

PROTESTERS: No borders, no nations! Stop deportations!

MALCOLM BRABANT: The left-wing campaign group Avaaz signaled its opposition to the extremists by symbolically blocking the Sicilian port of Catania, from where the C-Star had originally been expected to begin its mission to Libyan waters.

Spokesman Luca Nicotra:

LUCA NICOTRA: We know they are trying to show their best face.

We know they are coming from the worst far-right movement all around Europe, some of them with neo-Nazi pasts. We know that, in May, they tried to literally stop one of the boats here in the port.

MALCOLM BRABANT: That was the Aquarius, jointly operated by SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders.

Many volunteers insist the presence of rescue ships doesnt entice migrants to make the desperate journey. They claim the push factors of conflict, intimidation or poverty in their homelands are stronger.

Dr. Craig Spencer, a public health specialist at Columbia University Hospital in New York, has just spent three months on the vessel.

DR. CRAIG SPENCER: For me, the question is, is it acceptable to you, is it acceptable to anyone to let someone drown? I hope everyone would answer no, that, no, its not acceptable to allow humans, children, even your worst enemy to drown unaccompanied in the middle of the Mediterranean.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But one Sicilian prosecutor is investigating allegations of collusion between the charities and Libyan smugglers.

Today, a German ship was stopped and searched by the coast guard before leaving the island of Lampedusa. This week, in an attempt to impose more control in the rescue zone, the Italian government has ordered the NGOs to sign a code of conduct.

Marcella Cray leads the Doctors Without Borders team on the Aquarius.

One of the accusations thats sometimes leveled against organizations like yours is that you are in cahoots with the smugglers, that youre communicating with them, so that you can actually pick these people up at sea. What is the situation?

MARCELLA CRAY, Doctors Without Borders: Well, what I can say is that in no way, shape, or form have we ever been in contact with any traffickers or anything like. We are patrolling the international waters north of Libya, looking for boats in distress.

We work with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in Rome, and theyre the ones that direct where we go, which rescues we do, and where we go afterwards to bring the people.

MALCOLM BRABANT: So theres never any communication whatsoever?

MARCELLA CRAY: None whatsoever.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The Aquarius sailed for the rescue zone before the code came into force. Doctors Without Borders has refused to sign. It objects to having an armed police officer on board, and claims lives will be lost by a new rule demanding that ships return to Italy immediately once they have rescued migrants.

Previously, they could transfer survivors between ships and spend more time in the search-and-rescue zone. Today, the Italian Parliament approved plans to send a small naval task force into Libyan waters.

The internationally recognized Libyan government asked for help to crack down on traffickers responsible for sending 600,000 migrants to Italy since 2014. The European Union has just pledged to give Italy $120 million to help ease the migration burden.

But the president of the European Parliament has warned that the E.U. is underestimating the scale of this crisis. Antonio Tajani is predicting that millions of Africans will try to come to Europe in the next five years unless urgent action is taken. He says that the way to discourage them from coming is for there to be a massive program of investment in Africa.

This center for unaccompanied minors gave a taste of Italys problems to the man who wants to replace Angela Merkel as Germanys chancellor. Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament, now leads the Social Democratic Party as it heads towards Septembers German general election.

And he visited Sicily late last week.

What do you think about the suggestion that there should be an Australian solution to try to stop the wave of migrants coming across the Mediterranean?

MARTIN SCHULZ, Chairman, Social Democratic Party of Germany: What we need are systems of legal immigration to make the distinction between attempt to join the territory of the European Union outside the legal frame, and the legal frame, which is giving hope, not a guarantee, but hope. And thats whats missing and lacking in Europe.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But do you not think that its worth taking away all the vessels because theyre acting as a pull towards Europe?

MARTIN SCHULZ: I think theres a lot of activities of the security forces, but at the center of all our activities is, first of all, humanitarian aid.

MALCOLM BRABANT: At the memorial for those drowned in the Mediterranean, another question for the man campaigning to be the most powerful figure in the European Union.

Is there anything more that Europe could do to stop the deaths?

MARTIN SCHULZ: Thats the reason why Im here. We need a fair share of the responsibilities.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But much of Europe isnt listening, and isnt softening either.

For the PBS NewsHour, Im Malcolm Brabant in Sicily.

See the rest here:
Political clashes over the migrant crisis turn the Mediterranean into a battleground - PBS NewsHour

Italy on Wednesday sent a navy patrol boat to Libya and seized a German rescue ship in dramatic steps aimed at ending the migrant crisis that has engulfed Europe in recent years.

The crew on board the Iuventa, operated by the NGO Jugend Rettet, is being questioned on the orders of the Italian prosecutor.

While investigators suspect "the crime of clandestine immigration'' was committed by some of the Jugend Rettet boat's crew, prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio told reporters that "my personal conviction was that the motive is humanitarian, exclusively humanitarian.''

Jugend Rettet said on its Facebook page Wednesday that it went to Lampedusa on instructions from the Rome-based maritime rescue coordination center after being asked to help in a search-and-rescue mission on Tuesday.

"As it happened during other stops at this port, the crew was questioned by the local police, which also entered the ship,'' Jugend Rettet said. After a warrant-authorized search of the ship, authorities seized the Iuventa, which will eventually be taken to the main island of Sicily.

Cartosio stressed that no individual members of the crew have been charged and the investigation was ongoing to see which of them might have made contact with smugglers at sea.

"There is no indication [the crew] was paid,'' by smugglers, "nor is there any element to make us think there is a stable tie between the ship and Libyan traffickers," Cartosio said.

New rules for NGOs

It is the first time Italian police have seized a humanitarian boat. The move came amidst growing suspicion over the role non-governmental organizations are playing in picking up migrants off the Libya coast and bringing them to Italian ports.

Jugend Rettet was one of several NGOs which declined this week to sign on to new rules promoted by Italy's interior minister and aimed at ensuring rescue groups don't end up effectively helping human traffickers.

The humanitarian groups say they are only interested in saving lives, warning that thousands of people would die if they were not out at sea. Despite their efforts, 2,200 migrants have died this year trying to reach Europe from northern Africa.

But Italians are getting tired of playing host to thousands of migrants.

Migrant numbers

The number of migrant arrivals in Italy in July was down dramatically on the same month last year, suggesting that efforts to train and better equip the Libyan coast guard could be having an impact.

The Interior Ministry said 11,193 new arrivals had been registered in July, compared with 23,552 in July 2016.

Italy's naval mission to Libya is aimed at holding that trajectory.

Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said Italy was providing technical support, not seeking to impose a "hostile" naval blockade designed to prevent the departure of migrant boats.

Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said last week that the naval mission was being organized following a request from Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of conflict-torn Libya's U.N.-backed unity government.

Read more here:
Italy Seizes Boat in Aim to End Migrant Crisis in Europe - Voice of America

Rondo Mo is the latest iteration of the imagination of London songwriter Robbie Redway, an artist perhaps best known for his association with AKASE.

Surging ahead as a solo artist, new track 'The Fear' matches lush, probing electronics to that soulful delivery, a velvet concoction that reaches out into fresh ground.

Lyrically, Rondo Mo draws on his experiences working with charities during the migrant crisis.

Travelling to Calais, he saw first hand the impact it was having on people's lives - and the sense of common humanity that remained.

Check out the new single below, then catch our Q&A with Rondo Mo after the jump...

What moved you to become involved with the migrant situation?

To claim to 'be involved' with the migrant situation would be a little misleading of me. I volunteered with Help Refugees down in Calais, for the same reason lots of other people have - because there are thousands of homeless refugees in Europe and beyond who are being shunned by society and are in desperate need of help. Xenophobia is a driving cause of this and it's hitting the most vulnerable people the worst, people who have escaped a savage war are being told they're not welcome anywhere. It's outrageous.

How did you become involved with this particular charity?

A friend of mine, Debbie (who also took the photo for my artwork), had worked with Help Refugees before so she put me in touch with them. It's an amazing charity run by a brilliant group of people, mainly volunteers, and they are fighting a cause which rubs authorities up the wrong way, so it's far from simple for them. The situation has been forgotten about a bit because news interest doesn't sustain on one topic for long and we all get distracted by other things, so it's important to keep digging in, which is why I wanted to try to raise a bit of money for the charity with this track.

How did the experiences fuel your new songs?

The same as any experience will fuel a song or an idea really, although this is more explicit in its subject matter than most of my writing, probably because it wasn't a retrospective - I wrote the lyrics while I was away volunteering. I tend to spend long periods on my own when I'm writing because it helps me think more easily and more deeply but this one was a very different process, which is why I'm releasing it as a stand-alone. It's got a slightly different vibe to the other stuff I'm working on at the moment.

Can you tell us more about this particular track?

I wanted it to be a very direct, simple message, so the structure and lyrics are pretty straightforward, although the time signature changes in the chorus which is a little unsettling (I hope!). I always try to keep the variety of instruments I use to a minimum on each track I make. This one is basically just one synth, a piano and some drum samples, and my voice.

Driving from the hostel to the warehouse in Calais in the morning you would see people, usually young men, huddled under bridges, hiding away from the police. It reminded me of those pleasant humans who hunt animals for fun, which is where I got the main line from - 'It's not big-game hunting'. That was the initial idea and it grew from there.

Many people want to help the migrant situation, what do you feel is the easiest way for someone reading this to get involved?

There's loads of ways to help. Follow Help Refugees on social media and they will tell you what they need in terms of donations - clothes, sleeping bags, food etc. There's a huge demand for donations but the needs are quite specific so don't just send all your old stuff that you don't need any more.

They also need money so if you can spare something then please do! Buy or stream this track (wink wink) and my share will go to the charity. Or if you have some spare time it's really easy, and fun, to volunteer, you can do it in the UK I think but it's only a couple of hours to get to Calais from London.This is their website https://helprefugees.org.uk/ Nice one!

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Rondo Mo's 'The Fear' Draws From His Experience With The Migrant Crisis - Clash Magazine

BBC News

Migrant crisis: Italy blocks German aid ship at Lampedusa BBC News The Italian Coast Guard is questioning the crew of a German rescue ship on the isle of Lampedusa, amid a dispute over Italy's code of conduct for handling migrants at sea. The Iuventa is operated by German NGO Jugend Rettet, which called the Italian ... Italy enforces NGO boat crackdown as migrant flux slowsYahoo Singapore News all 11 news articles »

Read this article:
Migrant crisis: Italy blocks German aid ship at Lampedusa - BBC News

Italy is putting its hopes for managing the migrant crisis on a new, Libya-requested mission to support the North African nation's coast guard despite suffering a rebuke by humanitarian groups.

Ministers were briefing parliamentary committees Tuesday on a Cabinet-approved mission that would deploy Italy's navy to assist the Libyan coast guard in patrolling its territorial waters. A vote could come as early as Wednesday.

Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti told a joint meeting of parliament's defense and foreign affairs commissions that Italian ships would respond to specific Libyan requests and that the deployment would not impinge on Libya's sovereignty.

Pinotti also denied the claim from some human rights groups that the mission would constitute a naval blockade.

Premier Paolo Gentiloni says Italy's assistance off the coast of Libya could become a "turning point" in his country's effort to manage the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

The U.N. migration agency says 94,802 migrants have reached Italy this year as of Sunday, a number on par with last year and which represents 85 percent of Europe's new arrivals. The agency estimates that 2,221 people have drowned this year while attempting to cross the main Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy.

Italy's bid to get 10 humanitarian groups to agree to new rules of conduct for rescuing people from the Mediterranean failed when at least four, including Doctors Without Borders, refused to sign on Monday.

Amnesty International was the most recent group to criticize the plan, saying that dispatching warships to aid the Libyan coast guard was "a shameful attempt to circumvent the rescue of migrants and refugees."

Objections to the Italian demands include a provision that would permit armed police on the rescue ships. Several non-governmental groups strenuously oppose having weapons on the ships at any time, saying guns and humanitarian operations are incompatible.

The groups also oppose a proposed rule that would prevent them from transferring rescued migrants to other vessels, which would force their boats back to port instead of allowing them to keep doing rescues.

Doctors Without Borders general director Gabriele Eminente said her charity would continue to work in the Mediterranean "but at the moment, I don't understand what the failure to sign means."

The Italian government has said humanitarian groups who do not agree to the new rules could be refused access to Italian ports.

But it seems unlikely that Italy could deprive them of access to its ports. Under international law, vessels that have rescued people must not be subject to undue delay, financial burden or other difficulties, according to the U.N.'s refugee agency.

In Brussels, European Commission spokeswoman Natasha Bertaud said that if the groups "adhere to some principles and operational standards, in line with international law, then they will have the assurance that they can access Italian ports."

At least three groups accepted the Italian government's rules: Save the Children, Malta's MOAS and the Spanish group Proactiva. The EU is encouraging more to sign up.

Italy drafted the code of conduct after prosecutors in Sicily alleged that some non-governmental organizations had been colluding with the smugglers who send boatloads of migrants out daily from Libya, for example by signaling their presence in one area of the sea.

Groups including Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders denied the allegations, and said the claims undermined their humanitarian work by creating a climate of mistrust.

This story has been corrected from an earlier version to show that the number of migrants to Italy this year is on par to 2016 figures, not up 11 percent.

Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

See the original post here:
Italy focuses on Libya mission to manage migrant crisis - ABC News