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The PM plans to use Britains overseas aid budget to prevent Africans from risking their lives by paying smugglers to get on a boat in Libya

THERESA MAY will today launch an EU charm offensive by vowing to spend 75million of taxpayers cash on tackling the migrant crisis in the Med.

At the start of a crunch two-day summit in Brussels, the PM will outline plans to use Britains overseas aid budget to prevent Africans from risking their lives by paying smugglers to get on a boat in Libya.

Alamy

The package will provide the funds to take thousands of migrants back to their home countries in Africa through voluntary returns.

And it will stump up money for food, water and humanitarian relief for those cut adrift by people traffickers in the desert.

Aid Secretary Priti Patel said the package which nearly doubles the UK commitment in the Med so far would target transit routes running from the Horn of Africa and West of Africa through to countries including Niger, Egypt and Libya.

Reuters

Last year some 181,000 people arrived in Italy via this route.

The commitment comes at the start of vital EU Council where the PM is expected to seek her first big Brexit breakthrough by making a generous offer on residency rights for 3 million EU citizens living in Britain.

Getty Images

Senior Government sources said the PM would outline the deal over a working dinner tonight before the full proposal is unveiled at the start of next week.

She will be forced to leave the dinner immediately after so the remaining 27 EU leaders can discuss the divorce talks among themselves.

AP:Associated Press

Senior Government sources last night denied the UK had asked for a special session on Brexit.

EU insiders said the PM was also due to meet EU Council President Donald Tusk for a one-on-one meeting.

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Theresa May pledges 75MILLION of taxpayers' cash to tackle the ... - The Sun

wbur Liza Ramlow with migrants rescued on Mdecins Sans Frontires' search and rescue boat, the Aquarius. (Courtesy Mdecins Sans Frontires)

Gill resident Liza Ramlow spent three months in the middle of the crisis on the Mediterranean.

As a member of Doctors Without Borders, she worked on a search and rescue boat, scouring the sea for refugees and migrants. Her boat, the Aquarius, picked up people fleeing Libya for refuge in Sicily and southern Italy.

The ones they found were lucky: According to Doctors Without Borders, one out of every 41 people who attempted to leave Libya by boat died trying. Last year, more than 4,600 people drowned or went missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

As a midwife, Ramlow worked with many women who made the journey, both pregnant and not, and she kept records of their stories and what they'd gone through.

Liza Ramlow, retired midwife.

This segment aired on June 21, 2017.

Continued here:
Mass. Midwife Sees Migrant Crisis Firsthand On The Mediterranean - WBUR

Here AFP looks at the numbers that tell a deeper story. The basic facts are stark: Since 2014, more than 1.6 million people have arrived in Europe by sea while 13,500 have died on the way.

The numbers also give answers to the important human questions: Where are these people coming from, where are they going, how many have died, and how many will be allowed to stay?

The migration crisis has no official starting point but statistics from the International Organization of Migration (IOM) offer some chronological yardsticks.

Following gradual yearly increases since 2011, 2014 marked a first turning point with 170,100 people landing on Italian shores and 43,518 on Greek coastlines, up from 42,900 and 11,447 respectively the previous year.

But it was in 2015 that the situation took on dizzying proportions. The IOM registered 1,011,712 arrivals by sea in Europe, including 853,650 on Greek shores, with the peak in arrivals hit in October, and 153,842 on Italy's coastline.

The increase was mainly a result of the worsening conflict in Syria alongside deteriorating conditions in Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Among the arrivals in Greece in 2015, more than half 56.l percent were Syrian, while 24.3 percent were from Afghanistan and 10.3 percent were from Iraq.

Most came to Greece across the Aegean Sea from Turkey.

While the EU struggled to forge a collective response and help Greece cope with the influx, most of the migrants trekked along the so-called Balkan route toward wealthy northern European countries like Germany and Sweden.

The arrivals on the Italian coast in 2015 came on the central Mediterranean route, mainly from sub-Saharan African countries: 39,162 Eritreans, 22,237 Nigerians, 12,433 Somalis and 8,932 Sudanese.

There was a sharp drop in migrant arrivals in Greece in 2016, with the IOM registering a total of 363,401 arrivals on Greek and Italian shores, about one-third as many as the previous year.

In Greece, 173,614 arrived by sea, a drop of nearly 80 percent, reflecting the combined impact of a controversial migrant deal between Turkey and the EU and the nearly total closure of the Balkans route.

The trend is continuing in 2017, with just 7,699 arrivals registered by the IOM in Greece during the first five months of the year.

But the lull in Aegean crossings is tenuous as Turkey is increasingly at odds with the EU and has threatened to scrap the migrant deal over European criticism of its crackdown after an attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Italy meanwhile has seen arrivals continue apace, hitting a new record in 2016 with 181,436.

Those arrivals were mainly Nigerians (20.7 percent), Eritreans (11.4 percent) and Guineans (7.4 percent), according to the IOM. Most are not considered potential refugees, but economic migrants who must be returned to their countries of origin.

So far this year, figures confirm that the central Mediterranean route has once again become, by far, the main channel to Europe.

Italy has registered more than 65,000 arrivals since January, up nearly 20 percent from the same period last year.

While the migration crisis is often portrayed as a crisis facing the EU's roughly 510 million people, smaller countries outside the region have received a far higher proportion of arrivals.

Turkey hosts 3.2 million refugees, Lebanon shelters more than one million and Jordan is home to 660,000 according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The vast majority are Syrians.

Behind the migrant influx are human dramas.

In total, nearly 14,000 people have died or disappeared trying to reach Europe in the last four years: 3,283 in 2014, 3,784 in 2015, 5,098 in 2016 and already more than 1,800 since January 1.

Moreover, among the asylum seekers in the EU in 2015 and 2016, around a third were minors, according to the European Commission.

The EU police agency Europol said in January last year that more than 10,000 unaccompanied migrant children had disappeared in Europe during the preceding 18 to 24 months, adding that many may have been victims of sexual abuse and other assaults by organised crime networks.

The mass arrival of migrants has shaken the EU, creating tension between its legal obligation to help asylum seekers and the anti-immigration sentiment that has risen in a number of countries, particularly in the wake of a series of terror attacks on the continent.

EU countries had a record number of asylum applications in 2015, with nearly 1.26 million applying for the first time, after 562,000 in 2014, according to Eurostat. These amount to the total requests in member states, which can include people who applied in several countries.

In 2016, the level remained high at 1.2 million first-time requests, filed mainly by Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, as was the case the year before. A number of the requests were filed in 2015 but counted by Eurostat only the following year.

Many applicants are part of the flow over the Mediterranean, but not all. There are for example 28,925 Albanians and 23,015 Russians who sought asylum in EU countries.

In proportion to the population of each country, 2016 statistics from Eurostat show that the highest number of asylum requests were recorded in Germany, ahead of Greece, Austria, Malta and Luxembourg.

In 2016, EU countries granted protection to about 710,400 people, more than twice the figure of 2015, according to Eurostat.

Some 55 percent of the total in 2016 were listed as refugees, while 37 percent were placed in the category of "subsidiary protection," or those who fall short of the criteria for refugee status but who are in danger in their home countries. Another eight percent qualified for "authorisation to stay for humanitarian reasons".

Germany topped the EU in granting protection to the greatest number of people last year, with Eurostat reporting 445,210 positive decisions, or three times more than in 2015.

Much further behind were Sweden, with 69,350 positive decisions, Italy (35,450), France (35,170) and Austria (31,750).

Syrians topped the list of people benefitting from protection in EU countries last year at 405,600, or 57 percent of the total, ahead of Iraqis (65,800) and Afghans (61,800).

The rate of positive responses to asylum requests for one of the three statuses stood at 61 percent on first request, and 17 percent on appeal, but there were wide disparities depending on the nationality of the applicant.

The rates rose to 98.1 percent on average for Syrians, 92.5 percent for Eritreans and 63.5 percent for Iraqis.

The rate was far lower for other nationalities, like 17.4 percent for Pakistanis, 5.2 percent for Algerians and 3.1 percent for Albanians.

Asylum seekers whose applications are rejected are supposed to be sent back to their country of origin, as are new arrivals who do not ask for asylum and are considered economic migrants.

About 305,365 people last year received an administrative or judicial order to return to their home country, up from 286,725 in 2015 and 251,986 in 2014, according to Frontex.

And 176,223 people were effectively deported in 2016, including 79,608 via a forced departure, Frontex said.

Topping the list for forced departures were Albanians at 19,482, Moroccans at 7,506 and Kosovars at 4,916. Ukrainians, Iraqis and Indians topped the category of people who chose to leave voluntarily.

Faced with the extraordinarily high number of arrivals in Italy and Greece, the EU agreed in September 2015 to make a temporary exception to the requirement that the country where migrants first land must process asylum requests.

The EU then decided to distribute 160,000 Syrians and others in Italy and Greece to other countries in the bloc over two years.

But the relocation plan that was intended to embody EU solidarity ended up exposing divisions among member states, which have either dragged their feet in accepting their share or rejected taking any.

The European Commission launched legal action last Wednesday against Hungary and Poland for refusing to take any migrants and against the Czech Republic for effectively dropping out of the plan. The move starts a long process that could result in fines.

Meanwhile, most of the migrants continue their route north to the wealthier countries, if they can.

The plan has been hit with both logistical problems and reluctance from asylum seekers to travel to assigned countries they fear will not offer them much of a future, particularly in eastern Europe.

As a result of all these obstacles, just over 20,000 have been relocated three months before the deadline.

AFP

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Numbers tell staggering story of EU migrant crisis - Independent Online

ROME Italy on Tuesday said migrant arrivals by sea were up by a quarter this year and chided European Union partners who refused to offer a helping hand to those who flee their troubled homelands.

Two days before European leaders meet in Brussels to discuss migration policy and other issues, Italy's Interior Ministry said 71,000 migrants have been rescued at sea this year, 26 percent more than the same period last year.

Last week, the European Commission opened a legal case against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for refusing to take in asylum seekers under a 2015 plan to relocate migrants from frontline states Greece and Italy.

"I'm sorry that not everyone, including in Europe, has shown the same willingness to take people in" as Italy has, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a message marking world refugee day.

More than 190,000 asylum seekers are living in state-funded shelters.

"The refugee issue crosses national borders and involves the entire EU and is, in the end, a global phenomenon," he added.

Turkey has largely stopped migrants from setting off in small boats for the Greek islands since signing a deal with the EU last year. That has made Italy the main country through which migrants fleeing violence and poverty are reaching Europe.

"There are a lot of problems in Chad... There is a lot of killing and a lot of violence," said Ibrahim, who was rescued in the Mediterranean over the weekend along with his wife and infant daughter, who he held in his arms.

"All we really want is to stay in a really safe place, where we can feel safe without any of these problems and any of these troubles, and not be fearful for our lives," he told Reuters on the Vos Hestia rescue ship run by Save the Children.

Almost 2,000 people have died trying to make the crossing this year, and at least 130 people died at sea over the weekend in three different incidents, the U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday.

There has also been a decline in the number of rescues by ships participating in the EU's anti-smuggling mission, Sophia, this year, Italian coastguard data show.

Italian navy and coastguard picked up 41 percent of migrants rescued at sea last year, NGO ships 26 percent, and Sophia 25 percent. During the first four months of this year, Italy rescued 33 percent, NGOs 35 percent and Sophia 16 percent.

(Additional reporting by Antonio Denti aboard the Vos Hestia rescue ship in the Mediterranean, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

LONDON Prime Minister Theresa May promised on Wednesday to listen more closely to businesses' concerns about Britain leaving the European Union as she set out a Brexit-focused government program, pared-back to reflect her weakened authority.

BRUSSELS A suitcase bomb packed with nails and gas bottles could have caused heavy casualties, Belgium's prime minister said on Wednesday, a day after a soldier shot dead a Moroccan national attempting an attack on Brussels' Central Station.

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Italy chides EU partners for lack of solidarity in migrant crisis - Reuters

File photo of migrants waiting to be rescued from a sinking dinghy: Abdullah Elgamoudi/AFP

Two sociology professors analyse the question of whether NGOs bear responsibility for the migration crisis which has seen thousands perish en route to Italy.

2016 was an extraordinarily deadly year for migrants: 5,000 people perished in the Mediterranean Sea, vastly exceeding the death toll of 3,700 in 2015. And in the first six months of 2017, more than 1,000 deaths have been recorded.

Year after year, we see the same dynamics at work. Migrants flee conflict and instability in the Middle East and Africa trying to reach Europe. In order to avoid the land checkpoints established by European governments, they take their lives into their hands, setting off across the Mediterranean in makeshift boats, often operated by unscrupulous people smugglers.

This is not a recent tragedy; migrant advocate organisations have been recording the death toll of these people since the 1990s. But now they dont simply tally up the dead, they directly intervene by rescuing migrants at sea.

It all started in 2014 with the discontinuation of the Italian navys humanitarian and military operation Mare Nostrum. The cost of the operation was too high for the Italian government, which was unable to convince its European partners to join its efforts.

The program was replaced by operation Triton, financed by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). But NGOs feared that the change would lead to the deaths of thousands of migrants: Triton has a lower budget than Mara Nostrum and only operates in a small section of the waters where boats are liable to sink.

Above all, Triton was primarily designed for border control, rather than saving lives.

Launched by a couple of Italian-American millionaires, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) was the first private organisation of its kind to charter a boat. In 2015, Doctors without Borders (MSF, short for Mdecins Sans Frontires) followed their lead, as did Save the Children in 2016.

Across Europe, citizens came together to create new organisations such as SOS Mditerrane, Sea Watch, Life Boat Project, Sea Eye, Jugend Rettet in Germany, Boat Refugee in the Netherlands, and Proactiva Open Arms in Spain.

The number of different authorities and organisations involved has made rescue operations more complex. Since maritime law states that any vessel close to a boat in distress must come to its aid, the relevant maritime authorities coordinate rescue efforts for each zone. In the central Mediterranean Sea, it is most often the Italian coast guard, part of the Ministry of Transportation, that grants NGOs permission to intervene.

But, in reality, its often the NGOs who find a sinking boat and contact the coast guard themselves.

Once the migrants are rescued, they are taken to an Italian port, under the authority of another government department (Ministry of the Interior), who selects their destination, registers them and directs them towards hotspots migrant centres set up by the European Union.

In Italy, the role of NGOs in rescue operations has created controversy. In December 2016, the Financial Times highlighted Frontexs frustration.

The European border force has reservations about sea rescue operations. In its opinion, letting migrants believe that all they need to do is take to the sea to be rescued and welcomed to Europe opens up the floodgates.

According to the British newspaper, Frontex has evidence that some NGOs are in contact with smugglers and direct them towards zones where migrants have the best chance of being rescued. In other words, they claim these NGOs are accomplices to human traffickers and are therefore guilty of the crime of assisting illegal immigration.

The report led Italian authorities to investigate. In May 2017, the Italian senates parliamentary inquiry concluded that NGOs constitute a pull factor and that they should cooperate more with maritime police operations. The Catania chief prosecutor nevertheless stated that there was no proof of wrongdoing.

The Italian government itself is divided. While the minister for foreign affairs has denounced the NGOs, the prime minister has thanked rescuers for their help, and the coast guard says it supports politically neutral maritime activities.

International organisations have also taken a stand. The UN High Commission for Refugees defended the NGOs, while the International Organization for Migration gave partial support to Frontexs arguments, while highlighting the importance of saving lives in the Mediterranean.

On June 9 2017, researchers Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani published the report Blaming the Rescuers. Using empirical evidence, it refuted Frontexs claims and pointed out that the border force also accused operation Mare Nostrum of encouraging illegal immigration.

Yet the end of the Mare Nostrum operation, far from limiting fatalities, led to an increase in deaths. In the 2016 report Death by Rescue, these same researchers measured fatalities during Mediterranean crossings, comparing the number of people lost at sea with the number of people who reached Europe. They showed that it was far more dangerous to migrate during the Triton operation than Mare Nostrum. Increases in fatalities and the risk of death during a crossing are therefore not due to the presence of rescuers but rather to the lack of rescue operations.

These reports accuse Frontex of ending the Mare Nostrum operation knowing that it was saving lives. They also claim that it is now doing the same thing with NGOs, attempting to get rid of them knowing full well that their absence would make the journey riskier.

The debate highlights contradictions in European migration policies, which are creating a prohibition effect. If it is impossible to procure something legally (access to Europe), demand shifts to the riskier back market, profiting unscrupulous intermediaries.

Strengthening border control, especially on land, automatically results in risky boat journeys and therefore a rise in the number of deaths at sea. And the humanitarian aim of saving lives inevitably runs up against government efforts to control immigration.

Behind the controversy lies the question of legitimacy. Who has the right to intervene and come to migrants rescue?

Frontex defends the right of governments to control their borders and exercise sovereignty. NGOs have another perspective: if national governments are unable to uphold certain fundamental rights, such as the right to life, civil society must intervene.

This philosophy is nothing new. State inaction is also the reason many NGOs have become involved in the fight against poverty, for instance, and the defense of minorities. What is different is its application to questions of sovereignty, which is normally reserved for nation states.

File photo of a rescue vessel: Carlo Hermann/AFP

To an extent, the crisis in the Mediterranean enables NGOs to challenge state control over borders. And its understandable that this creates resistance. But if governments wish to defend their monopoly, they should find better arguments than those put forward by Frontex.

Greater solidarity in Europe would help avoid situations like the one that led to the discontinuation of the Mare Nostrum operation. Following the Dublin Convention, countries such as Greece and Italy are continuously at the front line, which is neither fair nor sustainable.

In this context, we can see the limits of the current political approach to migration, founded on an obsession with security and a denial of fundamental rights.

With calm weather conditions ideal for sea crossings, the northern summer is almost upon us. The migration debate is only just beginning and it brings with it the need for a basic rethinking of European migratory policies.

Translated from the French by Alice Heathwood for Fast for Word.

Antoine Pcoud, Professeur de sociologie, Universit Paris 13 USPC and Marta Esperti, Doctorante en sociologie, Universit Paris 13 USPC

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Analysis: Are NGOs responsible for the migration crisis in the Mediterranean? - The Local Italy