Why The Italian Government Can’t Stop Refugee-Smuggling Boats? Because It Doesn’t Want To
By Tyler Durden
The rule of law is often invoked by as a Western value that “populist” movements want to destroy, yet the establishment’s own governments have long suspended that very same rule of law when it comes to immigration. The most evident example of this is the immigration policy started by the Italian Letta government in 2013 and continued since then under the Renzi government.
In October 2013, the Letta government, facing waves of refugees escaping the chaos of Western backed-Arab Spring in Libya, which later transpired as nothing more than insurgencies of Islamic radical groups, launched the operation “Mare Nostrum” or “Our Sea”, which consisted in the use of the Italian navy near Libyan waters to rescue asylum seekers from the African coast.
As noble as its motivation may be, a side effect of the operation was to encourage even more people to undertake sea travel because now they are certain that the Italian navy will rescue them. The result was a 224% increase in the number of boats leaving Libya, which translates into an average of almost 10 million euro a month for the Italian government.
In November 2014 Mare Nostrum was replaced with the EU-coordinated and funded Triton, covering a smaller part of the Mediterranean at the cost of 3 million euro a month. The official reason for the Triton operation is to control borders, however once we look at facts the goal of the operation is simply to bring in as many people as possible, regardless of whether they are refugees, economic migrants, legals or illegals. Since then, smuggling channels instead of being stopped have multiplied.
An established practice since the “Mare Nostrum” operation, continued under Triton, was for smugglers to launch a rescue signal to the patrolling navy and request assistance. In the meanwhile, NGOs pursuing the “open borders” have joined forces with them, assisting anyone, legal, illegal, refugee, who wants to reach Europe.
The European Commission that is responsible for Frontex, and what follows border controls, has a clear opinion on the matter. Commissioner for Home Affairs, Migration and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said: “Another important element that emerged strongly from the discussions on countering smuggling is that NGOs – and local and regional authorities – which provide assistance to smuggled migrants shall not be criminalised. I fully agree with this, of course, as I also agree on the need to protect the fundamental rights of those who are being smuggled. Those who we need to punish are the smugglers!”
Punishing the smugglers, unless they are part of NGOs, meaning the problem can’t and won’t be solved, because NGOs will always be free to smuggle migrants. This continues a well established tradition; during the Monti government in 2011-12 a Ministry for Immigration was created and given to Andrea Riccardi of the “Comunità of Sant’Egidio”, the prominent Italian open borders NGO. “Comunità of Sant’Egidio” runs projects such as “Humanitarian corridors”. The project funds an alternative route to bring people into Italy. Andrea Riccardi told the French media that he is convinced …read more
Source: Why The Italian Government Can’t Stop Refugee-Smuggling Boats? Because It Doesn’t Want To
