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As people around the globe marked World Refugee Day Tuesday the all too familiar news came that at least 120 people had drowned off the coast of Libya. Their deaths bring the total number of people who have died while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean to more than 1,800 since the start of the year.

Against this grim backdrop, European leaders are meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels to discuss migration. Each leader will no doubt lament these latest deaths. But despite their hand-wringing rhetoric, the focus of their discussion will not be the importance of saving lives. Instead it will be how to reduce the number of people arriving in Europe in the first place, by reinforcing cooperation with African countries to stem irregular migration.

This strategy not only exacerbates the disparity between developed and developing countries in the number of refugees they are taking in, but it also undermines any claim by the European Union to be a standard bearer for human rights.

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Rather than offering refugees and migrants the chance to avoid irregular border crossings, by creating safe and legal routes for people to move to Europe and improving conditions in refugee camps, Europe has focused on increasing border controls and stepping up returns.

No matter how much money European governments invest in international aid projects purportedly intended to address the root causes of displacement, the reality is that EU leaders have so far largely favored projects that create barriers for migrationand they have used international aid as leverage to get African governments to cooperate in their implementation.

The currently preferred method for solving the migrant crisis seems to be externalization. This involves recruiting countries refugees and migrants come from or travel through to tighten border controls or to shift protection responsibilities to other countries.

So-called externalization policies increase the likelihood of human rights violations. This is particularly the case if measures to tighten border control are encouraged politically (including by leveraging aid) and facilitated technically (through training and equipment) in countries with problematic human rights records.

These policies can end up encouraging or supporting refoulement, collective expulsions, arbitrary detention, ill treatment and other serious human rights violations. Investing in such measures might not even achieve the desired result of reducing irregular arrivals. In the absence of alternatives, people fleeing conflict, persecution and poverty will still try to flee the only way they can, putting their lives in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers.

A shameful example of how this works in practice is Europes cooperation with Libya. European leaders have deepened cooperation with the Libyan coastguard, through training and even provision of boats, in the hope of stopping sea crossings, despite warnings that this would support and even fuel human rights violations. They are now looking at supporting Libyan border control capacity in the south of the country.

This is happening even though Libya does not have a concrete plan to improve human rights protection. Refugees and migrants are detained automatically and people in need of international protection have no prospect of claiming asylum, as Libya has no legal asylum framework.

By empowering the Libyan coastguard to intercept refugees and migrants at sea and take them back to Libya, EU policy is exposing thousands to unspeakable abuses in the detention centers where they are sent upon disembarkation; centers where they are detained indefinitely and subjected to torture, beatings, rape and exploitation by guards.

Also, as we have seen in multiple sea interceptions carried out over the past months, the Libyan coastguard disregards basic safety protocols and international standards, and has even opened fire during rescue operations at sea. Refugees and migrants are put at risk while the EU looks the other way. Meanwhile, the number of irregular crossings and deaths at sea continues to rise.

This might be the most troubling example of how cooperation may lead to unintended but foreseeable consequences, but it is by no means the only one. In the pursuit of quick fixes to reduce migration, European governments are further developing measuressuch as the labeling of certain countries as safe for returnsthat increase the risk of human rights violations. So desperate are they to achieve the goal of reducing arrivals that they are prepared to trample the rights of desperate men, women and children seeking safety in Europe.

EU leaders have an opportunity to revert this course of action. At the very minimum, they should refrain from any form of cooperation that might leave refugees and migrants stranded in countries where they are exposed to human rights violations. They must monitor and address the human rights risks that may arise from current externalization policies.

But radical change is needed. As they review their external migration policies, European leaders must end their focus on the short-term objective of reducing crossings. Instead, a bold plan is needed to support human rights protection in countries of origin and transit and to make safe routes available to refugees and would-be migrants.

Such measures would provide a safer and more orderly alternative to dangerous irregular crossings and in so doing, steer refugees and migrants away from criminal networks who leech off their desperation. Only then will the tragedy of lives lost at sea become a thing of the past and the rights of vulnerable men, women and children will be truly protected.

Matteo de Bellis is a researcher at Amnesty International.

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EU Refugee Crisis: Human Rights Violations and Migrant Deaths Are Being Ignored - Newsweek

Artwork by Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei is a striking reminder of the migrant crisis taking place on Europes shores.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark In the sun-soaked setting of Copenhagens Nyhavn harbor, there is a striking reminder of the migrant crisis taking place on Europes shores.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has barricaded the windows of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg museum with more than 3,500 salvaged life jackets worn by migrants and collected on the Greek island of Lesbos.

The artwork is named Soleil Levant French for Sunrise and was inaugurated Tuesday, which was World Refugee Day.

Obviously, Ai Weiwei wants to put attention to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe, or as he calls it, the human crisis, says Kunsthal Charlottenborg director Michael Thouber. The beautiful thing about this piece is that every one of these life jackets, 3,500 life jackets, represents a human story.

The title is a reference to French painter Claude Monets painting Impression, Soleil Levant from 1872, which depicted Le Havre harbor and captured the political and social reality of the time.

Ai previously used 14,000 discarded life vests collected from the beaches of Lesbos to wrap the columns of Berlins Konzerthaus, and they were used to create lotus blossoms floating in a pond in Viennas Belvedere Park. The latter is thework that made Thouber contact Ai and ask him to do something similar in Copenhagen.

It was absolutely heartbreaking and breathtaking, he says.

Last year, Ai withdrew his works from two Danish museums to protest a new law that allowed the countrys authorities to seize valuables from migrants.

Kunsthal Charlottenborg says the artwork will remain on its facade until Oct. 1.

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Migrant life jackets turned into artwork in Copenhagen - The Seattle Times

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.

Excerpt from:
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