EU Fails to Deliver on Promise of Safe Passage for 50,000 Refugees

The European Union launched the resettlement program two years ago with a deadline of October 31, 2019.


European governments, including the German government, have failed to deliver on a pledge to admit 50,000 refugees by this month, DW has learned.

The European Union launched the resettlement program two years ago with a deadline of October 31, 2019. But only 37,520 people have arrived in Europe under the program so far.

A spokesperson for the European Commission has admitted the target will not be reached by the end of October.

Among those affected are the thousands of migrants detained in camps in Libya. UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, said European countries’ slow progress in fulfilling their promises was one of the factors holding up the evacuation of people facing violence amid the lawlessness and civil war.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the outgoing EU migration commissioner, said he was “hopeful” that the remaining pledges could be fulfilled by the end of the year.

“I both commend and continue calling on member states to step up their efforts and to make sure they deliver on their pledges as quickly as possible,” Avramopoulos told DW.

Search For Safety

Mariam, originally from Sudan, was evacuated from Libya by UNHCR and is now waiting in neighbouring Niger to be resettled.

She told DW reporter Mariel Müller about the attack in Libya that led her to flee the country.

Also read: Egypt Quells Protests With More Stick Than Carrot

“I went out to go to a shop,” she said. “Three men grabbed me and forced me into a car. They raped me, right there on the street, then just threw me out onto the road.”

Mariam now lives in a temporary shelter in a UNHCR refugee camp in the desert.

She is no longer afraid of attacks, but fears for her future as she waits for resettlement — and an end to her search for safety. “I’m tired. I’m very tired,” she said.

The UNHCR camps in Niger are now full to capacity with people waiting to be resettled, meaning it cannot evacuate more people to the country from Libya.

Germany among states that didn’t deliver

Germany was one of the countries leading the EU resettlement initiative. Last year, Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly promised to accept 10,200 people under the program. A spokesperson for the country’s Interior Ministry told DW that just 4,800 had arrived so far. He said that the delay in forming a government after German elections in 2017 had led to “complex organizational preparations” for the refugees’ arrival being pushed back.

Sweden, by contrast, has already made good on its promise, resettling 8,750 refugees, as has Britain, which took in 7,800. France, the Netherlands, and Finland have resettled at least 80% of the numbers they pledged.

Belgium and Ireland have met around half of their pledges. Belgium said it had suspended resettlements because of an increase in asylum applications from people already in the country. Ireland said it expected to resettle the remaining 537 people it had promised by the end of the year.

Portugal resettled around a third of its quota but also said it would meet its pledge by December 31, which the EU has set as an extended deadline for the program.

Luxembourg has not resettled a single person despite pledging 200 places. The country’s foreign ministry said it was planning to accept 50 people from Niger this month.

DW requested figures from the governments of the 20 countries that had pledged resettlement places and received answers from 17. Lithuania, Cyprus, and Malta, which pledged 163 places between them, did not respond.

Resettlement in context

The resettlement program is supposed to offer a safe route for some of the most vulnerable people fleeing conflict zones such as Syria and Libya. It is intended as an additional option to the right of asylum.

Resettlement means refugees registered with the UNHCR in a country that is not able to accommodate them, such as Niger, can be offered a safe and legal route to another country that has agreed to host them.

Also read: EU Fails to Cement Agreement on Migrants Rescued at Sea

The numbers of refugees who arrive in Europe under resettlement programs are relatively small compared to the numbers making irregular journeys and applying for asylum after they arrive. They also dwindle in comparison to the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Aid agencies nonetheless say a resettlement system is an important tool for protecting those in greatest need.

Under the EU program, host countries receive payment of €10,000 ($11,000) for each person they resettle, to assist with integration efforts.

The US and Canada also offer resettlement, though President Donald Trump has dramatically cut the number of places offered by the US.

Charlie Yaxley, a spokesperson for UNHCR, said: “Resettlement is not happening fast enough. We need resettlement for the most urgent cases, such as children, survivors of rape and torture, elderly and disabled people.”

A Syrian refugee carries two children moments after arriving on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos, September 8, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Dimitris Michalakis

Shifting Attitudes

EU Commissioner Avramopoulos’ term in office ends on October 31, so the task of coordinating any future EU resettlement program will fall to his successor Margaritis Schinas, who has been at the centre of controversy even before starting his job.

Schinas has been appointed under the new title of the commissioner “for Protecting our European Way of Life” — a name which critics said mimicked the rhetoric of far-right populists, who claim immigration threatens European values.

Many political parties across Europe have made immigration an election campaign issue, taking a lead from populist parties and the far-right.

Also read: As New Syrian Exodus Unfolds, Some Fear They Will Never Go Home

Media coverage has also contributed to a picture of immigrants as the cause of violent crime and strain on public services.

Leonie Jegen, a migration expert at Germany’s Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institut, said resettlement was a divisive issue among EU countries.

“Resettlement is something that is not completely off the political agenda, but discourse around refugees has shifted in a negative direction in recent years,” she said.

Public Support

Despite that backdrop, data suggests the majority of EU citizens continue to support taking in refugees.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 10 EU countries in spring 2018 found that 77% said they support taking in refugees from countries where people are fleeing violence and war.

The aid organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) has called for the EU to meet its resettlement promises and pledge a further 250,000 places within the next five years. IRC argues that wealthy European states are well capable of accommodating these numbers, which would still only represent 17% of the people in need of resettlement worldwide.

Lena Donner, an IRC policy adviser, said: “Each delay means additional time for vulnerable people spent in limbo and additional time lost for the EU to demonstrate that it is serious about supporting its partners and sharing the global responsibility for protecting refugees.”

The article was originally published on DW. You can read it here

UN Warns Italy Against Criminalising Sea Rescue

The global organisation’s comments come after the arrest of German captain Carola Rackete. The 31-year-old contravened Italian law when landing with 42 rescued passengers last week.


The UN criticised Italy on Monday for its hostility towards refugee rescue ships. The comments came amid raised tensions between Berlin and Rome regarding the detention of German Sea Watch captain Carola Rackete.

The UN’s Stephane Dujarric said in a daily press briefing that “no vessel or shipmaster should be at risk of being fined for coming to the aid of boats in distress, where the loss of life is imminent.”

“Sea rescue is a longstanding humanitarian imperative. It’s also an obligation under international law.”

The captain of the Sea-Watch three was put under house arrest at the weekend after she forced her vessel into the Italian port of Lampedusa, citing the welfare of several refugees she had rescued.

The spokesperson for secretary-general Antonio Guterres said that the UN was “concerned by the recent decree from the government regarding NGO vessels.”

Dujarric was referring to Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini’s successful implementation of legislation to fine ships that flout orders to stay out of Italian waters. The range of fines varies from €10,000 to €50,000 ($11,360 to $56,800). There is also the possibility of criminal action against the crew, as well as the confiscation of the vessel.

Also read: Celebrity Powered Funding Campaign Raises €500,000 for Arrested Sea Watch Captain

The announcement came in the wake of the German foreign office pleading with Italian officials to set Rackete free.

“We refuse to allow sea rescue to be criminalised. In our view, the only feasible outcome of current proceedings under the rule of law can be the release of Carola Rackete,” foreign minister Heiko Maas said.

He added: “Haggling over refugee distribution is undignified and must stop. We urgently need a European solution – one that is also in line with our European values.”

But Salvini called Rackete “the German criminal” and has previously described the right to defend Italian borders as “sacred.”

German and Italian officials appeared to be at loggerheads as Germany’s European Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, who told broadcaster ZDF:

“I don’t care about Salvini’s assessment. As a citizen of Europe, I have full understanding for this woman, who acted bravely, in my view. And I have confidence in Italian justice.”

Also read: ‘Worst Is Still to Come’: Sizzling Europe Battles Wildfires, Health Risks

“This is not about an isolated incident. This is about finding a solution in Europe at last regarding how we deal with refugees.”

Meanwhile, an Italian investigating judge said that Rackete must remain under house arrest for a further night.

This article was originally published on DW.

Wider Image: Three Migrants Find New Life in Germany

More than 1 million people have come to Germany as migrants since 2015 under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy. Since then, migration has divided Europe and helped propel a rise of far-right parties.

Berlin: Ali Mohammad Rezaie doesn’t celebrate his birthday because his Afghan parents never noted the date he was born. Yet he knows exactly when he arrived in Berlin to seek asylum: Oct 15, 2015.

That day changed his life.

“It wasn’t a special day. I was tired and had been on the road for two months,” he told Reuters of his overland journey through the Balkans.

Since then he’s sung in a choir and done internships and temporary work at a nursing home, a bakery, hotels and restaurants. It is a far cry from the village of his birth 26 years ago.

Afghan migrant Ali Mohammad Rezaie and his German friends Chris and Jochen eat together in his flat in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Afghan migrant Ali Mohammad Rezaie and his German friends Chris and Jochen eat together in his flat in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

More than 1 million people have come to Germany as migrants since 2015 under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open door policy. Since then, migration has divided Europe and helped propel a rise of far-Right parties.

Rezaie is among those doing their best to make Germany home, but integration is a journey with many highs and lows and it requires more than simply finding a job and learning German.

One woman who helped him is Chris Wachholz. They met at the choir and she later invited him to cook and practice German at the home she shares with her husband. A common interest in motorbikes deepened their friendship.

Afghan migrant Ali Mohammad Rezaie poses on the motorbike of his German friends Chris and Jochen in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

Afghan migrant Ali Mohammad Rezaie poses on the motorbike of his German friends Chris and Jochen in Berlin, Germany, September 29, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

“Meeting this family was like being given an opportunity for my birthday. They are like my … mother and father,” he said.

But his immigration status prevents him taking further steps. His asylum application was rejected and he can only stay on as a ‘tolerated person’, which means he will not be deported but lacks secure status.

As a result, it is unlikely the temporary job he has found preparing food and cleaning at the Lufthansa lounge at Berlin’s Tegel airport will be made permanent.

Also Read: If Given the Chance, Refugees Can Create Jobs for Locals in Growing Cities

“I have an apartment here. I know many nice people. If they deport me I’ll lose everything,” he said. His fear is exacerbated because his Afghan ethnic group, the Hazaras, have faced attacks from militants in Afghanistan.

New freedoms

Many migrants say they are welcomed by Germans but others say they have experienced hostility. At the same time, a handful of militant attacks by migrants have enabled some politicians to argue they represent a threat to German society.

For some, though, the move to Germany has meant new freedom.

Haidar Darwish was dancing in Schwuz, one of Berlin’s oldest gay clubs, last year when Israeli student and drag queen Judy La Divana approached him and asked him to perform in her show.

Syrian migrant Haidar Darwish performs during a show at Silverfuture club in Berlin, Germany, July 8, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Alessia Cocca

Syrian migrant Haidar Darwish performs during a show at Silverfuture club in Berlin, Germany, July 8, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Alessia Cocca

He had never danced on stage in his homeland Syria, but La Divana convinced him to try.

“Now, many people ask me when and where my performances take place so they can come. Not to brag about it,” he said.

To supplement this income, he works at Brunos, a fashion and erotic shop that targets gay men.

“I found out that the store manager … had come to my shows many times and we’d even danced together once,” he said.

Syrian migrant Haidar Darwish stands in front of a wall covered with memories in his room in Berlin, Germany, July 13, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Alessia Cocca

Syrian migrant Haidar Darwish stands in front of a wall covered with memories in his room in Berlin, Germany, July 13, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Alessia Cocca

Sexual freedom was not the main reason he left Syria in 2016 – the country is at war, after all – but it represents a discovery he would not trade.

Church restorer

For others, the quest for freedom has been fraught.

Also Read: Without Help, Families Face Lonely Search for Europe’s Missing Refugee Children

Joseph Saliba was nine when his father sent him to work for a friend in Damascus who restored wood and mosaics. He slowly fell in love with the craft and later become a wood restorer. His business was booming when war broke out in 2011.

Joseph Saliba, a Syrian migrant of Christian background works with wood in a workshop inside the Berlin Cathedral in Berlin, Germany, August 3, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Joseph Saliba, a Syrian migrant of Christian background works with wood in a workshop inside the Berlin Cathedral in Berlin, Germany, August 3, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Scared of being drafted into the Syrian army, he decided to flee to Europe three years ago.

His German language class went on a field trip to Berlin Cathedral and immediately he felt a connection. He offered to volunteer in restoration work at the church using tools he had made himself. A year later, the church offered him a paid job.

The church became a home but not Germany. Authorities refused to give him a refugee travel document and referred him to the Syrian embassy in Berlin.

Joseph Saliba, a Syrian migrant of Christian background walks to the Berlin Cathedral in Berlin, Germany, August 13, 2018. Credit: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Saliba said he did not want to enter the embassy of the government from which he had fled and he is suing the German government to get a refugee passport.

“I fled the lack of freedom to get freedom here,” he said. “I didn’t find this freedom here.”

(Reuters)

EU Struggles to Resolve Migration Dispute at Tense Summit

The summit took place in an atmosphere of political crisis, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel under intense political pressure at home and a new eurosceptic Italian government threatening to torpedo any deal that did not meet its demands.

Brussels: European leaders struggled to overcome deep divisions on migration at a tense EU summit that dragged into the early morning hours of Friday before yielding vague pledges to strengthen external borders and explore new migrant centres.

The meeting in Brussels, dominated by a nine-hour dinner, underscored how Europe’s 2015 spike in immigration continues to haunt the bloc despite a sharp drop in arrivals of people fleeing conflict and economic hardship in the Middle East and Africa.

It took place in an atmosphere of political crisis, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel under intense political pressure at home and a new eurosceptic Italian government threatening to torpedo any deal that did not meet its demands.

A bleary-eyed Merkel, speaking to reporters at 5 am, tried to put a positive spin on the result, saying it was a good signal that leaders had been able to agree a common text on the controversial migration issue.

But she acknowledged that the bloc still had “a lot of work to do to bridge the different views.”

“Italy is not alone anymore,” said Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

French President Emmanuel Macron said European cooperation had “won the day”.

In a final statement full of convoluted language meant to satisfy the divergent views, the leaders agreed to set up joint asylum processing sites and restrict migrant moves within the bloc, but they made clear that virtually all of their pledges would be carried out on a “voluntary basis” by member states.

They also agreed to tighten their external border and increase financing for Turkey, Morocco and other North African states to prevent migration to Europe.

It was unclear whether the deal would prove sufficient to appease Merkel’s coalition partner, the Christian Social Union (CSU), which has threatened to shut Bavaria’s border to migrants, a move which could trigger the collapse of her three-month-old government as well as EU’s Schengen zone of free travel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves a EU leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, June 29, 2018. Credit: Reuters/Eric Vidal

Tortured

Diplomats described a tense, tortured meeting with small groups of leaders huddled together in a desperate bid to break the deadlock and avert the humiliation of heading home without having produced an agreement.

Early in the evening, Merkel and Conte set aside 45 minutes for a chat, only to break it off after 20 minutes when the Italian leader rejected the German leader’s overtures, according to diplomats.

Before the dinner clash over migration started, Conte, head of a new government that includes the anti-establishment 5-Star movement and far-right League, refused to endorse a summit text on security and trade until other leaders had bowed to his demands to help Italy manage the Mediterranean arrivals.

That forced the summit chairman Donald Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to cancel their pre-planned news conference.

“It is so toxic. They go into the room, clash, storm out, go back again, clash again. With no end in sight,” said one exasperated diplomat as dawn approached.

“It’s pure politics driving this, emotions are flying as high as back in 2015,” another EU diplomat said.

Fewer than 45,000 migrants have made it to EU this year, according to UN data, a sharp drop from the tidal wave of 2015 when many thousands were entering on a daily basis.

But the political tremors are still being felt across Europe, with populist, anti-immigrant parties on the rise in many countries.

Ex-communist easterners led by Poland and Hungary are still refusing to accept a share of the new arrivals to alleviate the burden on countries like Italy and Greece.

(Reuters)

Merkel Seeks EU Migrant Talks As German Coalition Crisis Looms: Paper

Top-selling paper ‘Bild’ reported that Merkel wanted to discuss possible solutions with Greece, Italy and Austria.

Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, struggling to avert a crisis within her coalition on migrant policy, is trying to set up a meeting of some EU states to discuss the issue before a leaders summit on June 28-29, a German newspaper reported on Sunday.

Citing government sources from representatives of several EU states, top-selling Bild reported on its website that Merkel wanted to discuss possible solutions with Greece, Italy and Austria.

“It is not yet agreed, we are in the planning phase. It is also unclear exactly when this special summit would take place,” a member of the Italian government told Bild. The paper added that next weekend might be one possibility.

A German government spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on the report.

EU states are deeply divided on how to deal with large numbers of people fleeing conflict, especially from the Middle East. The issue has come to a head in the last week with a new Italian government refusing to let a ship carrying hundreds of migrants dock at its ports.

Merkel is adamant that migrant policy can only be effectively agreed and implemented at the European level and is at loggerheads with her own conservative Bavarian allies and her Interior Minister who want unilateral action.

The Bavarians have threatened to defy Merkel and on Monday go ahead with plans which she has sought to block. Under the minister’s proposal, Germany would send back migrants who have already registered in other EU countries.

This would undermine Merkel‘s authority as it represents a reversal of her 2015 open-door approach, and would also be a blow to the EU‘s Schengen open-border system.

Merkel has asked the Bavarian conservatives to give her two weeks to come up with bilateral deals with some countries, like Italy and Greece, similar to one agreed between Turkey and the EU in 2016.

Bild said it was unclear whether Spain and other countries from the Balkans would take part in Merkel‘s meeting.

(Reuters)

French Police Clear out Paris Illegal Refugee Camp

Though Macron’s government has said it wants to be both firm and fair on immigration, it has taken a tougher stance lately, with parliament approving a bill that tightens asylum rules.

Paris: Police cleared an illegal refugee camp in Paris on Wednesday, in the French government’s latest attempt to deal with a migrant influx the country has been facing for the past three years.

At the Millenaire camp northeast of Paris, riot police flanked migrants as they boarded buses to temporary housing around the city. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said some 1,000 migrants out of the 1,600 counted on site had been evacuated.

A prefect for the greater Ile-de-France region said other dismantling operations at smaller camps in and around Paris would take place “as soon as possible.”

The migrants were being moved out of the camp for general welfare and security reasons, French interior minister Gerard Collomb said in a statement.

“Police services will be fully committed to preventing such camps being built again,” Collomb said. The evacuation was the 34th to take place since June 2015, he said.

Europe has faced a migrant crisis since 2015, after years of conflict in the Middle East. More than one million people from Africa and the Middle East flooded into the continent.

In France, much of the migrant influx ended up in the northern port of Calais, where a giant slum was cleared by the authorities in late 2016. Most of the rest have gathered in Paris and the southeast near the Franco-Italian border.

Officials and NGOs say 2,700 illegal migrants live in the Paris area. They said the migrants being evacuated would be taken to 24 accommodation centres around Paris, where they would be allowed to file asylum requests.

An NGO worker at the camp told Reuters his teams had counted around 900 migrants, many from Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, boarding buses.

“A lot of these migrants believe they will end up being welcomed here, in France. We try to inform them on the realities they face, because if they have left their fingerprints in another country, they will be expelled,” said Yann Manzi, who works for Utopia 56, an NGO that provides legal help to refugees.

Under European law, asylum seekers must remain in the first European country they enter. They often have to register with their fingerprints when they arrive.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has said it wants to be both firm and fair on immigration. But it has taken a tougher stance lately, with parliament approving a bill that tightens asylum rules.

As elsewhere in Europe, immigration from Africa and the Middle East has become a major political issue in France, fuelling the rise of far-right parties such as the National Front.

(Reuters)

German Parties Agree on Climate As Coalition Talks Progress

Angela Merkel, weakened after losing votes to the far-right in a September election, is pinning her hopes for a fourth term on a re-run of the ‘grand coalition’ with the SPD to end four months of political limbo in Europe’s biggest economy.

Al Gore, chairman of Generation Investment Management, speaks during the Web Summit, Europe’s biggest tech conference, in Lisbon, Portugal, November 9, 2017. Credit: Reuters/Pedro Nunes/Files

Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives agreed on climate targets for 2030 with their would-be Social Democrat (SPD) partners, who also announced steady progress on European policy in coalition talks which they aim to conclude within a week.

Merkel, weakened after losing votes to the far-right in a September election, is pinning her hopes for a fourth term on a re-run of the ‘grand coalition‘ with the SPD to end four months of political limbo in Europe’s biggest economy.

After a breakthrough on the contentious issue of family reunions for migrants on Tuesday – although it was overshadowed by a subsequent row over the details – the parties ticked off other, less tricky, issues including climate policy.

Reflecting a blueprint deal reached in exploratory talks earlier this month, the parties in effect dropped the previous government’s target to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels.

While ‘recognising’ that goal, documents seen by Reuters show the focus is instead on a legally binding 2030 goal to cut emissions by 55% via savings in transport, agriculture, energy and buildings, supported by tax incentives or subsidies.

An unexpected intervention on climate policy came from across the Atlantic. Green activist and former Democrat US presidential candidate Al Gore called on the conservatives and Social Democrats to agree to phase out coal by 2030.

“This is your moment to lead and help solve the climate crisis,” tweeted Gore.

He is likely to be disappointed as the parties have only committed to draw up a plan to phase out coal-generated electricity and set a date for its end, without indicating when.

Pensions, care, pay

Working groups are wading through the details of the framework deal on policies from Europe to tax and migrants.

SPD leader Martin Schulz told reporters the two sides were moving nearer on Europe policy immediately before entering talks on the policy area. Giving few details, he said both sides were keen on tackling tax evasion and low-wage competition on a European-wide basis.

Earlier, the parties had agreed to cap pension contributions, divided between workers and employers, at 20% of an individual’s salary to 2025, party sources said.

The SPD, which failed to win voters with a campaign focused on social justice, had before the election wanted a cap of 21.8% until 2030 from 18.7%.

In the blueprint deal, the parties also agreed to stabilise pensions at 48% of the average wage by 2025.

The parties have also agreed to keep social security payments to below 40% of gross pay and to give companies the chance to write down digital investments.

Late on Tuesday, the parties also agreed on steps to create 8,000 more jobs in the care sector and improve pay.

The SPD are pushing for tweaks that will help its leaders sell a final coalition deal to its 440,000 members, many of whom are against joining Merkel’s conservatives again.

Any deal will depend on the approval of SPD members who will be balloted after party leadersagree – possibly at the end of the weekend or early next week.

Already, the JUSOS youth wing of the SPD has sharply criticised the deal on family reunions for migrants, saying the SPD leaders had not delivered sufficient improvements from the exploratory talks blueprint.

“If we don’t succeed in getting more out of the negotiations overall, we must break off talks with the conservatives,” JUSOS leader Kevin Kuehnert told Deutschlandfunk radio.

(Reuters)

Migrants Seeking Europe Catch Their Breath in Morocco

A few kilometres separate the Spanish enclave Melilla and the Moroccan coastal city of Nador. This tiny Spanish town became a major crossing point for those seeking to reach asylum.

A few kilometres separate the Spanish enclave Melilla and the Moroccan coastal city of Nador. This tiny Spanish town became a major crossing point for those seeking to reach asylum.

City of Rabat, Morocco. Credit: Fabiola Ortiz/IPS

City of Rabat, Morocco. Credit: Fabiola Ortiz/IPS

Nador, Rabat and Casablanca, Morocco: With a stable economy and a peaceful political climate, Morocco – which has always been a transit country for migrants – is becoming a potential new destination for settlement. The elusive dream for most of those who cross the Sahara, though, is still Europe.

No more than 15 kilometres separate the Spanish enclave Melilla and the Moroccan coastal city of Nador, in the northeastern Rif region. This tiny Spanish town of 70,000 people became a major crossing point for those seeking to reach asylum in Europe.

Melilla, together with Ceuta, are the remaining Spanish territories on the African continent and the EU’s only land border. Precisely for that reason, many Sub-Saharan Africans and increasing number of Syrians dream of reaching the other side as a promised land and better life.

Both cities erected fortified borders as the pressure from migrants increased. Every year, hundreds of Sub-Saharans (many of those undocumented in Morocco) endeavour to cross the fences or embark on the perilous journey by boat across the Mediterranean.

Last month, rescue ships saved around 60 migrants who were adrift not far from Melilla. In early December 2016, at least 400 people broke through the border fence of Ceuta. On January 1, another wave of 1,100 African migrants attempted to storm the same fence.

Mohamed Diaradsouba, 24, risked his life after he decided to depart Ivory Coast. He travelled almost 5,000 kms from Abidjan to Nador, passing through Mali and Algeria. He left his wife and one-year-old son with the hope of one day coming back.

“Where I lived there was no employment, I couldn’t get money to survive. I came to Morocco because I want to cross to Spain. But here there is no job either. I’m sure I’ll find a job in Spain, France, Belgium or Germany and make my living,” he told IPS.

He and a group of four companions rely on small donations provided by activists and the Catholic church in Nador. Undocumented migrants are not tolerated by local police, who frequently conduct street sweeps and arrest those without legal papers.

When IPS talked to Diaradsouba on a cold November night, he was living in a rural community called Khamis-akdim, a 15-minute drive from Nador. It had been three months since he and some 300 other people Sub-Saharans Africa had set up a makeshift camp in the surrounding forest due to fear of entering the city.

Campsite where Sub-Saharan migrants live near Nador, Morocco. Credit: Mohamed Diaradsouba

Campsite where Sub-Saharan migrants live near Nador, Morocco. Credit: Mohamed Diaradsouba/IPS

“We’re camping in the bushes up on a hill. Life here is not easy. We have to walk every day to fetch water and food. We sleep in plastic tents, so when it rains everything gets wet. I didn’t bring any suitcase with me, I’m only wearing my clothes. We’re afraid of the police, they don’t know what human rights are, I’d better stay in the forest,” he said, noting that other nationalities like Cameroonians, Guineans and Malians share the same campsite.

The Ivorian migrant did not have any legal papers, refugee card or asylum seeker certificate of any kind. He is among the thousands of invisible undocumented foreigners in Morocco who are not recognised by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) or the Moroccan government.

“It’s difficult to get a paper or a residency permit. I’d have to travel to the capital Rabat (ten hours by train) to make a request. I’m waiting for my luck, one day it will come,” he said.

Diaradsouba had no idea how long he would have to wait to attempt his crossing to Europe. He was still unsure whether he would risk getting through the fences to Melilla, hide himself in the backseat of a car or go by boat. “There’s no fixed price to pay for a boat. We try to gather [funds] among 30 or 40 people. Everything will depend on how much money we’ll have to pay.”

Aziz Kattouf, an activist with the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), confirms that those people camping on the forest live in terrible conditions, but he says at least they are in a “safer place” than Nador.

“They’re far from the police’s eyes. They don’t want to stay, their only hope is to cross,” he told IPS, adding that there are other four large camps in the forest where undocumented people have erected tents.

Every two or three weeks, the police raid the camps. “They apprehend men and sometimes children, destroy their tents and take their phones. Many are sent by buses to further areas in the south of Morocco. But they always come back to the camps,” said the activist.

Living alongside the foreigners altered the daily life of residents of Khamis-akdim, but there has not been a case of mistreatment or racism against them. In fact, the local Berber farmers have shown solidarity, said Alwali Abdilhate, a Tamazight speaker.

“We have good relations with the people who are camping. Early in the morning, they go to the streams or waterholes to wash their clothes and buy food in our local market. There’s a bar that allows them to recharge their cell phones,” said Abdilhate, whose family home is located right by the path migrants take to reach the camping area.

A few weeks after the initial interview, Diaradsouba contacted IPS to say he had managed to reach Spain by boat entering through Almeria. He had to pay €2,500  to embark on the 12-hour sea journey.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), between January and December 2016, 8,162 migrants arrived by sea in Spain, while 69 people died attempting the crossing.

The majority of migrants in Morocco are Sub-Saharan male adults between 18 and 59 years old, says Miguel Hernandez Garcia, coordinator of a program run by the Association Droit et Justice that provides legal assistance for refugees and asylum seekers.

“There are different reasons for leaving their countries, threats of physical violence or political reasons. Some are in touch with members of their communities who have reached Europe and say living conditions aren’t what they used to be in the past. The image of living in Europe is changing and some of them prefer to stay in Morocco as long as they can access rights. It’s not a super-developed country, but neither is it a super poor country,” Garcia told IPS.

Morocco became the first Arab country to develop a policy that offers undocumented migrants the chance to gain permanent residency. In 2013, the King of Morocco Mohammed VI gave momentum to a new policy on migration after receiving recommendations from the National Council for Human Rights.

“Morocco ratified international conventions and needed to implement policies. It wanted to show a good image to the world as a welcoming country. It was a clever idea to put out this strategy to the international community as an open mind state with humanitarian will. Besides, it’s also a good thing for the economy,” said Garcia.

During a full one-year campaign for regularisation, more than 90% of the 27,000 migrants who applied were documented. The government is now discussing in parliament a raft of related legislation – the first law approved on the scope of the new policy was against human trafficking. A second law that still pending is about asylum.

“It’s basically to guarantee the access to rights for migrants. It’s only three years now that this policy is running and still no official body is in charge of it,” Garcia added.

JeanPaul Cavalieri, the UNHCR representative in Morocco, said the first challenge is to finalise the law on asylum and extend medical benefits to refugees and regular migrants.

“Another challenge has to do with the territorialisation of the policy, how you implement the policy on the ground in remote areas. The migrants are spread out across the country. That could be a model for [other] countries in the region. What we want is that refugees are able to find asylum and a protected space. It’s just the beginning, the policies are being developed, but it has to expand and be implemented.”

Migrant Death Toll Rises by a Third in 2016

The 2016 death toll, which is likely to rise as more data comes in, pushed the number of fatalities for the last three years to 18,501, or almost 20 deaths a day.

Migrants are silhouetted against the sky as they make their way to board buses in Nickelsdorf, Austria, October 6, 2015. Credit: Leonhard Foeger/Reutes/Files

Migrants are silhouetted against the sky as they make their way to board buses in Nickelsdorf, Austria, October 6, 2015. Credit: Leonhard Foeger/Reutes/Files

London: A record 7,495 refugee and migrant deaths were recorded worldwide last year – almost a third higher than in 2015 – with the vast majority perishing in the Mediterranean Sea, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.

The preliminary 2016 toll, which is likely to rise as more data comes in, pushed the number of fatalities for the last three years to 18,501, or almost 20 deaths a day, IOM said.

“These data … are simply shocking. And we don’t believe we are anywhere near counting all of the victims,” IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said in a statement.

“We are past the time for counting. We must act to make migration legal, safe and secure for all.”

The 2016 total of 7,495 deaths compares with 5,740 last year and 5,267 in 2014.

IOM, which has collated data on migrant deaths for its Missing Migrants Project since 2013, said the increase was largely due to better research methods.

However, some migrant routes also grew more deadly, particularly the Mediterranean crossing between North Africa and Europe, where nearly 4,600 people perished in 2016.

IOM said reports of deaths often came from migrants themselves who increasingly chronicled their journeys on social media.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said the agency had developed good tools for tracking migrants through social media in Latin America, but that some other parts of the world were “almost invisible to us”.

Routes used by Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans crossing Iran and Turkey may be much deadlier than data suggests, he told a media briefing in Geneva.

The Horn of Africa, Bay of Bengal and corridor linking Ethiopia and South Africa are other regions where the picture is far from complete.

“These are very robust migrant corridors and extremely dangerous … but we just don’t have the tools in place to track them,” Millman said.

“It’s likely we won’t ever get a true, final number for all these tragedies,” he added. “We hope for the day when these numbers begin dropping. But that may not come for a while, yet.”

Millman also highlighted two unexpected regions for migrant deaths in 2016, including among the growing number of Cubans crossing Colombia and Panama’s Darien Gap.

A sudden movement of thousands of Haitians leaving Brazil has also seen reports of migrant deaths in Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Central America – something that was rare in the past, he said.

Many Haitians headed to Brazil following their country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, but are now leaving for other destinations following a slump in the economy and the end of the Olympics.

(Reuters)

Rescuers Recover 17 Bodies Off the Coast of Libya

The number of migrants put on overcrowded boats in Libya has seen a jump this week amid calm seas and hot summer weather.

Members of the Italian Navy hold a child after disembarking from the Italian Navy ship Borsini in the Sicilian harbour of Palermo, southern Italy, 20 July, 2016. Credit: Reuters/ Guglielmo Mangiapane

Members of the Italian navy hold a child after disembarking from the Italian Navy ship Borsini in the Sicilian harbour of Palermo, southern Italy, 20 July, 2016. Credit: Reuters/ Guglielmo Mangiapane

Rome: An Irish navy ship recovered 17 dead bodies on Thursday when it went to the aid of migrants packed onto a wooden boat off the coast of Libya, Italy’s coastguard said, marking another deadly day of attempted sea crossings.

The LE James Joyce, which is in the Mediterranean specifically to perform search-and-rescue operations, brought on board the bodies of 16 men and one boy, a coastguard spokesman said. He could provide no further details about the cause of death or the nationalities of the dead.

On July 20, 22 bodies were recovered from a rubber boat off the Libyan coast and some 3,000 are dead or missing after trying to reach the EU by sea so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration estimates.

The LE James Joyce, an Italian navy vessel, a British ship participating in an EU anti-people smuggling operation, and a vessel operated by a humanitarian group also brought 1,128 migrants to safety on Thursday, the coastguard said.

There has been a jump in the number of migrants who people smugglers have put onto overcrowded boats in Libya this week amid calm seas and hot summer weather.

On July 19 alone, some 3,200 migrants were rescued at sea and one dead body was recovered.

With Europe’s migrant crisis in its third year, the Mediterranean has become the world’s most dangerous border for migrants.

More than 84,000 have crossed the sea from North Africa to Italy so far this year, in line with the number who came over during the same period last year, according to official data.

That brings the total number of migrants to have reached Italy by sea to more than 400,000 since the beginning of 2014.