EU should focus less on smuggling, more on plight of refugees: NGOs

The European Union held an emergency meeting on refugees after more than 1,100 people drowned in the Mediterranean in what is the worst single such accident on record. Specialists working with refugees told RFI that merely focusing on quick results is not enough.

Migrant protesting in front of Italian parliament, 21 April 2015 Reuters/Yara Nardi

Brandon Cox, policy research director for Save The Children, stressed that the EU’s approach to focus mainly on the human smuggling operations may lead to a decreasing flow of refugees but won’t solve the problem.

“These people who are fleeing from Syria, Eritrea or Somalia are often in fear for their lives," he said.

The children his organisation tries to help are often deeply traumatised, Cox explains: “They have seen beheadings in Libya, they have seen people put on fire with petrol in the Sahara, they’ve seen children who’ve been tortured and were forced to send the pictures of that torture to the families to extort money.”

He called EU decisions taken last year to scale down search-and-rescue operations “unconscionable”.

Other NGOs working with refugees, such as the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) stress that the root causes such as civil war and repression in the countries of origin need to be put on the agenda. “Refugees will keep coming and they will keep looking for a safe place. We would all do it. We would go on that boat,” says ECRE spokesperson Ana Lopez.

But for the time being, all eyes will be on direct results. The organisation that guards the European borders, Frontex, wants to boost its presence. “A Frontex proposal is to immediately increase the number of planes used that are now deployed in operation Triton, in addition to the boats that are already deployed there,” says Ewa Moncure, a spokesperson for the organisation.

Frontex launched Operation Triton, estimated to cost 2.9 million euros per month, last November and currently uses seven vessels, two aircraft and one helicopter in the region.

The strengthening of Frontex may be part of increased military operations that target human smugglers, who are often involved in armed incidents with those who try and save the refugees.

Moncure says there have been “several incidents where armed smugglers came after migrants who were rescued, to reclaim the boat.” After the migrants are on a patrol vessel, “a speedboat would come from Libya with armed men, who threaten the crew and the migrants and take the boat back to Libya, supposedly to re-use it for another trip.”

Additional problems are caused by the political turmoil that rules Libya, home to many of the refugee boats. “Libya has practically ceased to exist as a state. The search-and-rescue operations that would be the responsibility of Libya are very often taken over by the Italian authorities,” says Moncure.

Any action is badly needed. Save the Children says that an estimated 2,500 children may die this year unless improved search-and-rescue operations are implemented.

These figures are based on dramatically growing refugee numbers. The UNHCR reported that last year alone, 170,000 refugees arrived in Italy, and the International Organisation for Migriation estimates that some 10,000 migrants arrive on a weekly basis since the beginning of this year.

The amount of people dying during the crossover to Europe is also rising. Some 3,500 victims died in 2014, and as a result of last week's disaster the death toll of 2015 already stands at more than 1,500, the highest ever for that period.

“There are differences across Europe   Germany has taken many thousands of refugees for example, whereas the United Kingdom has only taken a handful,” says Cox, who stresses the need for increased cooperation.

Many EU member states are wary of taking in refugees, citing economic and social problems. Still, Lopez is optimistic: “There are communities who support the refugees. They are able to see how much they contribute, and they know it is a win-win situation and in the long run it will be positive for their society.”