The choices before the European leaders who met in Brussels on Thursday were not happy ones. They had to come up with a policy to respond more humanely to an exodus of migrants traveling by sea from Africa and Asia to Europe, without giving the impression that by extending a search-and-rescue program they were encouraging even more desperate migrants to try to reach the continent. European leaders have decided to triple their spending (now $3.22 million a month) on border protection. But the Triton border protection operation patrols only within 30 miles of the Italian and Maltese coasts. Amnesty International and other human rights organizations say this is far from where many of the deaths at sea occur. They also find a proposal for a resettlement program that would include 5,000 places for migrants who qualify for “protection” woefully inadequate. Thousands arrived recently in a single week, they point out. These people were among the survivors of disasters like the capsizing of a ship carrying mostly African migrants off the coast of Libya on April 19. If the toll (as many as 900 people) in that tragedy is confirmed, as many as 1,800 migrants will have died so far trying to cross the Mediterranean since the start of this year. The International Organization for Migration estimates around 21,000 have made the voyage successfully. Although the overall total reaching Europe safely is similar, so far, to the same period last year, according to the IOM, the death toll is 10 times higher. This gives us an idea of the magnitude of the crisis that Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi likens to the African slave trade of centuries ago. Many of the migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa or Syria; but most board boats in Libya, often under the direction of smuggling networks. In what is described as the biggest human upheaval since World War II, migrants and refugees are coming to Libya, the closest point to the Italian coast. If the EU's response to the crisis is pitifully “inadequate and shameful”, one reason is the intense budget pressures from which some member countries suffer. Secondly, there is no uniform approach to migration, with each EU member following its own policy. This is what pushes migrants into the hands of traffickers. Most important is the rising anti-immigrant sentiments across the continent, not always linked to growing unemployment in some countries. Whatever the economic and political constraints, European nations should resume a large-scale search-and-rescue operation like the one abandoned by Italy due to lack of funds and pressure from right-wing parties. Along with surveillance and border protection, Operation Triton should give equal importance to saving lives and minimizing death. European leaders should also consider providing more legal ways for people fleeing war, poverty and persecution to seek shelter in their countries. Stern action needs to be taken against smuggling networks who trade in human misery. The West should also rethink its policy of “humanitarian” intervention in Third World countries. They would do well to remember that among those who clamber into overloaded, unseaworthy boats are Libyans who want to escape lawlessness and deprivation at home and people from neighboring countries who originally sought refuge in that once-wealthy North African oil state in hopes of a better life for them and their families.
