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A female voice crackles over the radio, begging for rescue from a crowded migrant boat sinking into the Mediterranean as the coastguard barks over and over: What is your position? Like much of Italian master Gianfranco Rosis cinematic, Oscar-nominated documentary Fire at Sea, this opening scene plays out like a narrative thriller, except the lives in danger are real. I wanted to reverse the question. We should be asking ourselves, What is my position about this tragedy? We can no longer be the silent majority, Rosi told AFP in Los Angeles ahead of next weeks awards.

As Europe grapples with its biggest migrant influx since World War II, Rosis harrowing film offers an unflinching look at life on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Thousands of asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East have arrived in Italian waters trying to reach the European Union over the last two decades. Many others-some 4,000 last year-have perished on the dangerous journey in rickety, overcrowded boats.

Eritrean-born Rosi has toured the world with the film, which competes for the best documentary Oscar with American entrants I am Not Your Negro, 13th, Life, Animated and the favorite, O.J.: Made in America. One of the most decorated documentary filmmakers in the business, Rosi, who is in his early 50s, won the top prize from a jury led by Meryl Streep at the Berlin Film Festival last year. His star was already on the ascendant after he took home the Venice Film Festivals 2013 Golden Lion for Sacro GRA, which looks into everyday life off a Rome ring road.

Rosi spent a year living on Lampedusa, just another tiny island barely meriting its inclusion on the map, he thought when he started filming in 2014 before millions began heading into Europe across the Balkans. I realized only in Berlin how the movie became political and I could feel politics breathing into the frame, Rosi said. Before, Lampedusa was just Italy. Now its a universal problem, a metaphor, almost.

The picture is told through the eyes of a 12-year-old local boy, Samuele Pucillo, and a doctor, Pietro Bartolo, who has been tending to the dehydrated, malnourished and traumatized arrivals for a quarter-century. How do you get used to seeing pregnant women, dead children? Bartolo laments, admitting that the horror has infected his dreams. Rosi accompanied coastguard rescue missions answering the terrified SOS calls of people on boats, most of them arriving from Libya. Many of the vessels are packed with corpses of people who suffocated from diesel fumes. Rosi said the films nomination for a best documentary Oscar was an opportunity to carry the call for help from Lampedusa to Hollywood.

Moments of truth The US spotlight on the movie comes with the refugee crisis a hot-button public policy issue following President Donald Trumps elevation to the White House. The Republican leader stood on an anti-immigration ticket, vowing to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico. In one of his first acts in office, Trump issued an order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, though its since been withdrawn after hitting legal objections. This is a tragic moment here as well. America was always the land of freedom, the land of immigrants. What happens when it turns its back on history to build barriers? Rosi asks.

Rosis filmmaking style sets Fire at Sea apart from more traditional documentaries, dispensing with the usual tropes of interviews to camera, on-screen text and a narrator. Rosi says that when he is behind the camera he is looking for moments of truth that show more than a long monologue could ever say, drawing on poetic language to create an emotional connection with reality.

I like to close the door of information and interact more with emotion with the audience beyond any number, there is a person, some eyes looking at you, he says. Rosi lived through his own migrant crisis at age 13, evacuated by Italian soldiers from his east African homeland without his parents during the Eritrean War of Independence against Ethiopian troops.

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Filmmaker Rosi brings Med migrant crisis to Oscars - Kuwait Times

But he insists viewersshould not be distracted from the focus of the film which highlights the suffering of refugees fleeing their homes

Hes been shot at by ISIS fighters in the Middle East, met arms dealers in Lebanon and gone eyeball to eyeball with the worlds most notorious gangs but, for Ross Kemp, Libya presented his most deadly challenge of all.

In terms of risk, what I witnessed and the difficulty of getting in and out in one piece, this was the hardest film weve ever made, admits the Bafta-winning filmmaker, 52.

Sky

Weve been shot at and I saw some horrific things in Afghanistan, but I was always embedded with the Kurds, the British Army, Royal Marines or American Marines. In Libya, we were on our own.

We were vulnerable and exposed.

Ross and his film crew found themselves in the middle of a 12-hour armed stand-off between rival tribes in the south of Tripoli, with the threat of being kidnapped as a high-value target.

But Ross insists people should not be distracted from the focus of his documentary the suffering of refugees trying to make it to Europe by a celebrity in peril story.

Some reports have made it about me, and it is called Ross Kemp Libyas Migrant Hell, but it should just be called A Migrant Hell, he says.

Its about the suffering of these people who are using the most dangerous migrant route in the world to get to Europe across 1,000 miles of desert in Libya and then the Mediterranean sea.

Sky

Those who have made it to Italy talk about 90 per cent of the people who travel through that desert witnessing some sort of human- rights abuse, whether it be murder, rape or torture.

Its estimated that 5,000 people drowned trying to make that crossing in 2016 and probably more than that died in the desert.

This will be one of the worst humanitarian disasters that will befall Europe and Africa in the coming years if nothing is done to address it, which is why this film is going out now. We want people to be aware of it.

After more than 10 years of investigative documentaries, Ross admits he should be hardened by the horrors hes seen.

But talking to a girl called Favour, in one of the detention centres in Surman, he cant help but console her as she weeps for a little boy whose mother drowned.

Sky

"Another woman who has already lost her baby in childbirth tells him she is dying: Its heartbreaking.

Even more shocking is a visit to a local brothel, which Ross and his crew are ordered to leave at gunpoint when they ask questions.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 Nigerian women are trafficked into Libya every year to work in the sex trade, although they are told that they are going to Italy, reveals Ross.

You see so many pregnant women among the refugees. You dont embark on a journey like that when youre pregnant. Its because youve been raped.

Ross is aware how controversial the subject of migrants and refugees is right now both here and abroad, but calls for understanding.

Sky

This programme is not about whether you agree or disagree with the migration of sub-Saharan Africans into Europe, he says.

No matter what your views are, a situation exists which needs solving. And the way that you solve a problem is by understanding it.

And he sends out a warning in the light of President Trumps recent executive order to restrict movement to the US.

Its going to cause panic, he says. It will cause greater distance and less understanding between one part of the world and another.

If you were sitting there [in Africa] now and you thought the door was closing on you, what would you do? Run. People are going to be more desperate. So theyre going to go there in bigger numbers.

NEW! Ross Kemp Libyas Migrant Hell Tuesday 9pm Sky1

More here:
Ross Kemp survived the threat of kidnap whilst making a show about the migrant crisis in Libya - The Sun

The UK is building walls to stop migration inflows, but this wont keep away people whove covered thousands of kilometers to get to Europe, Calais deputy mayor told RT, adding that the city authorities fear migrants may return to the Jungle camp.

The English government is doing [a lot] to put fences [and] walls. Is that enough? Its not... Theyve gone through a lot of walls; theyve gone through the Mediterranean Sea. You think only wall and fences 30km away from the target [the UK] would be enough? Philippe Mignonet told RT.

A 4-meter-high anti-intrusion wall financed by the British government to stop migrants from jumping into trucks on the way from France to the UK was completed in December 2016. The wall is said to have cost 2.7 million (about US$3 million), according to AFP. Its primary goal is to thwart migrants from going to the UK, mainly on trucks.

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Mignonet admitted that there is one thing French government cant change: Calais is [still] the shortest way to England.

Calais is a major place [for migrants] because this is where you maximize chances to get into a truck and get to England.

Many asylum-seekers from the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan travel to France in hope of crossing the English Channel to the UK. They have often had their applications rejected elsewhere, or expect better prospects in Britain than in the rest of the EU.

[French] police are arresting [migrants] if they are caught. Some of them have refugee documents. But they still want to go to Britain, he said.

If asylum seekers without any documents got arrested they are sent to specialized centers, while those with papers remain free and one night they take a truck and go to England, he added.

The notorious refugee camp dubbed the Jungle was shut down by French authorities in October 2016. The majority of refugees from the camp were transferred to Dunkirk refugee center, some 47km from Calais. However, Mignonet worries that if Dunkirk camp is closed, these refugees would return to the Jungle.

It would be the same process as was in Calais in October [2016], he said, adding that traffickers and smugglers will come back, too.

According to the deputy mayor, Brussels does nothing to help France with migrant crisis.

We have never seen anybody from Europe [Brussels authorities] in Calais area, he said, adding that Calais is too far from Brussels.

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Yet since the start of the year reports in French media emerged claiming that asylum seekers are back in the old place. In early February police sources told Le Figaro newspaper that up to 400 migrants, mostly unaccompanied minors, were seen in Calais.

A refugee aid group Utopia 56 has been recently posting photos of refugees in Calais on Facebook, saying that these people need clothes and food.

Another group, L'Auberge des Migrants, is also releasing photos of migrants in Calais. In January it wrote that, some 60 minor migrants, were in the streets of the city.

However, local people are not happy with migrants coming back. Calais residents even made a Facebook group, Les Calaisiens en Colre (Angry people of Calais), to share their negative experiences of meeting with asylum seekers.

We knew well that they would come back. We are not surprised at all. There is no solution coming from the state [franc authorities, one woman told RT, while another added: We dont want them to stay in Calais. Calais has suffered a lot. Our small business has suffered a lot.

According to one local man, Calais doesnt have the necessary facilities to host asylum seekers.

Read more:
'Britain's walls aren't enough,' Calais deputy mayor reflects on migrant crisis (RT INTERVIEW) - RT

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The Frontex Risk Analysis for 2017 admits that:

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Both border surveillance and SAR missions close to, or within, the 12-mile territorial waters of Libya have unintended consequences.

Namely, they influence smugglers planning and act as a pull Dangerous crossings on unseaworthy and overloaded vessels were organised with the main purpose of being detected by EUNAVFOR Med/Frontex and NGO vessels.

Apparently, all parties involved in SAR operations in the Central Mediterranean unintentionally help criminals achieve their objectives at minimum cost, strengthen their business model by increasing the chances of success.

Migrants and refugees encouraged by the stories of those who had successfully made it in the past attempt the dangerous crossing since they are aware of and rely on humanitarian assistance to reach the EU.

The end result is that crossings to Italy reached an all-time high of 182,000 in 2016, with an attendant rise in drowning deaths: 5,083, as compared with 3,777 in 2015 and 3,279 in 2014.

Frontex acknowledges the scope of the problem is alarming, with SAR missions forming an essential component of the people-smugglers operations and providing them with a distinct tactical advantage.

Even so, the EU agency concludes that SAR efforts will continue as long as the migratory crisis persists in the Central Mediterranean not only because they relate to international legal obligations, but also because they stem from European values.

Australia drew the opposite conclusion from its own migrant crisis, which also saw people-smugglers sending unseaworthyvessels towards their destination with inadequate fuel, radioing ahead for them to be picked up and escorted to their target country by the authorities.

These crossings reached a high of 403 boats and 25,173 migrantsin 2012-13 before former prime minister Tony Abbott launched Operation Sovereign Borders. This military-led mission sees smuggler boats either turned back to their port of origin or escorted to a third country, with migrants asylum applications processed off-shore. Genuine refugees are homed outside Australia at the commonwealths expense.

The Australian approach is unlike the European policy in that it is designed to reduce drowning deaths by strongly disincentivising illegal sea-crossings. It appears to have been successful, with the government recently reporting that it has been 900 days since the last smuggler boat reached Australia.

Tony Abbott has advised EU leaders that If you want to stop the deaths [and] you want to stop the drownings, you have got to stop the boats.

Speaking in Prague in late 2016, the London-born conservative said Effective border protection is not for the squeamish, but it is absolutely necessary to save lives and to preserve nations.The truly compassionate thing to do is: stop the boats and stop the deaths.

Abbott has also warned that Many of those taking to boats across the Mediterranean or clamouring at Europes gates look set to join an angry underclass, and the migrant crisis could, therefore, represent an existentialthreat to European societies.

Too many are coming not with gratitude but with grievance, and with the insistence that Europe should make way for them.Some of Turkeys leaders have even urged Muslims to take back parts of Europe, and among the would-be migrants are soldiers of the caliphate bent on mayhem.

Go here to read the rest:
Damning EU Report Finds 'Rescuing' Mediterranean Migrants Encourages Smugglers, Increases Drownings - Breitbart News

The French presidential hopeful said "radical" reforms are needed to end the migrant crisis engulfing the bloc.

And she urged Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni to take action instead of bowing down to Eurocrats.

Ms Le Pen said: "As long as Italy obeys the EU's diktat, it will be impossible to eliminate the problem of illegal immigration.

We need a bilateral agreement between Italy and France

Marine Le Pen

"We need a bilateral agreement between Italy andFranceto intercept migrant boats, make sure they are safe and send them back."

The outspoken right-winger made the comments while visiting Menton, a commune on the French-Italian border.

She also said she was "disturbed" by figures showing the extend of migrant flows between the two countries.

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AFP/Getty Images

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A French politician who is the president of the National Front (FN), a national-conservative political party in France and one of its main political forces.

GETTY

The Front National leader said: "Every time an illegal immigrant touches the EU's shores, there are at least ten others who try to do the same thing.

We all know outcome is catastrophic. Three thousand people dying in the Mediterranean Sea is an insurmountable human drama."

And she warnedISISjihadists could take advantage of the border chaos, saying: "Border control is essential in the fight against terrorism."

GETTY FILE PICTURE

Ms Le Pen also condemned a French farmer found guility of smuggling 200 migrants into the country.

She said: "This is a man that claims to act for humanitarian reasons, but he is really a militant of the extreme left.

"People who fight against the nation, the borders and the rights of the French people to protect themselves, driven by ideological reasons."

Excerpt from:
'Stop obeying the EU' Le Pen BLASTS Italy for bowing down to Brussels over migrant crisis - Express.co.uk