EU har sendt en flådestyrke til Middelhavet, hvis opdrag var at tage smuglere i Libyen. I stedet har skibene begyndte at fungere som redningsbåde, der går ind i libyske farvand. Smuglerne kan derfor bruge de mindst sødygtige både, og fylde dem til randen, vel vidende om, at EU-fartøjer berger dem straks de lægger fra land.

Dette er EU-politik i praksis. Man har ingen politik. Ingen politisk handlekraft. Man falder tilbage på at redde folk, selv om man ved, at man er ved at opbygge krisen man egentlig kom for at standse. Den humanitære alliance er stærk, og det har tilslutning fra et væld af internationale organisationer med FN i spidsen, som kun fokuserer på Europas pligt at hjælpe.

Det er The Times, der kan fortælle om, hvordan EU-bådene er gået ind i trafikken på en måde, der gør at menneskesmuglere kan fylde på. I mellemtiden udvikler situationen i Libyen sig til at blive mere og mere brutal. Migranterne – mange fra Sahel-landene – fortæller om kidnapning, voldtægt, afpresning og tortur.

More than 19,000 migrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, have arrived in Italy from north Africa so far this year, a huge increase on the same period in 2015. The surge has raised fears in Rome that Italy will have to accommodate up to 270,000 new arrivals this year, particularly if Syrian refugees trapped in Turkey switch to the north African route.

The EU’s naval operation, known as Sophia, was launched last year with the aim of catching traffickers at sea with the help of a Royal Navy ship. Instead, it is spending most of its time rescuing migrants from the water, in effect making life easier for the traffickers, according to an Italian magistrate.

“The ships are patrolling very close to Libyan waters, allowing traffickers to send out unstable dinghies helmed by migrants because they know they will be picked up quickly,” said Carmelo Zucchero, who has prosecuted traffickers in Sicily.

“We used to stop traffickers on the high seas escorting migrant boats, but we don’t see them any more,” he added. “The EU is doing an important job saving lives, but if its primary mission is catching smugglers, it is not doing it — thanks to its own methods.”

På papiret lyder det godt at afhente smuglere. Virkeligheden er en anden.

Police in Ragusa, southern Sicily, have arrested this year 48 people suspected of piloting migrant vessels but most turned out to be migrants, not traffickers, and 12 were under 18, a police source said. “Some of these boats are even being picked up inside Libyan waters, and are at sea for only five hours,” the source said.

På papiret kan man centralt bestemme, at Italien skal etablere hot spots, såsom på de græske øer. Der skal alle registreres. Men i virkeligheden ender indvandrerne mange andre steder, hvor de ikke bliver registrerede. Dvs. de kan opgive et navn, men det er uverificeret. Det eneste sikre er fingeraftryk, men det nægter mange at give. Det er fantastisk at læse, at politiet affinder sig med indvandrere der nægter at afgive fingeraftryk. Indgiver det respekt for de europæiske myndigheder?

Bowing to EU pressure, Italy has opened “hotspot” centres to register all new migrants, processing 11,500 people between September and February. A police official said, however, that claims that nearly 100 per cent of migrants had been registered were false.

“Seven hundred were brought to Cagliari in Sardinia this week — which is not a hotspot — and only nine agreed to be identified before 200 disappeared,” said Franco Maccari, head of the police union Coisp. “We don’t know whether we can use force or not and it’s hard to fingerprint someone when they are struggling.”

A group of 70 new arrivals in Cagliari fought police in the centre of the town after refusing to be fingerprinted. The rules require migrants to request asylum in the country where they are first registered, but many wish to travel beyond Italy to find relatives in northern Europe. There are large numbers of Syrians who are expected to sail to Italy this year after the route through Greece was blocked.

Folkevandring

En båd der blev taget imod onsdag fortæller, at der er en eksodus fra en række lande i øst, syd og vest. Hvis døren holdes åben, vil strømmen kun vokse.

More than 300 migrants were rescued on Wednesday near Sicily from a packed boat that had set off from Egypt. Italy’s coastguard and a Spanish aircraft working for the EU’s border agency came to the boat’s aid. The migrants were from Syria, Egypt, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Palestinian territory, Libya, Sudan and the Comoros Islands.

Dette er lande med enorm befolkningstilvækst, en befolkning, de ikke kan uddanne eller ansætte. Kriger og politisk undertrykkelse er reelle, og folk vil have et bedre liv. Europa bliver det forlokkende kontinent. Europa kan give dem ophold, men ingen fremtid, intet arbejde og integration. Hvad tænker Europa så at gøre? Det siger ikke politikerne.

Libyere behandler afrikanere som slaver og lovløshed giver frit løb for vold, sadisme og afpresning.

Africans fleeing chaos tell of rise in rape and murder

African migrants fleeing to Italy report an increase in rape, torture, kidnapping and imprisonment in Libya, even as the country moves towards a political settlement after years of chaos (Tom Kington writes).

Black migrants have long been the victims of beatings and extortion in Libya, but some of the thousands who have sailed to Italy this spring told me that the situation had never been worse.

“We were being kidnapped at gunpoint and told to pay for our freedom,” Brown Momodu, 21, a Nigerian who worked for two years in Libya, said.

“They give you just flour and water, and hand you a phone to get money from your relatives. If that doesn’t work, they shoot you,” he added.

The UN reported yesterday that four migrants had been shot dead and 20 injured a week ago while trying to escape from the Al-Nasr detention facility for migrants in al-Zawiya in Libya — where inmates are reportedly tortured.

Mr Momodu was one of 500 new arrivals sent last week to the migrant centre at Mineo, in rural Sicily. “The way Africans are packed on to dinghies by traffickers tells you that Libyans give no value to black lives,” one Sicilian police official said.

Migrants in Sicily who had just arrived said that they had tried to live and work in Libya before fleeing, rather than passing through en route to Europe. Those who travelled from sub-Saharan Africa to Libya as economic migrants may now gain asylum in Italy.

Det har været kendt et års tid, at IS bevæger mænd og ressourcer til kysten af Libyen. I går blev det rapporteret, at der er anslået 6000 IS-krigere i Libyen. Vi ved, hvad de planlægger. Vi ved, at de har flyttet krigen til Europa. De har nu alle muligheder for at smugle deres folk ind i Europa på både.

Hvad gør EU for at møde trusselen?

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/eu-naval-force-fuelling-libya-s-migrant-exodus-dcvhhwzzc

EU migrant crisis
EU naval force ‘fuelling’ Libya’s migrant exodus
Tom Kington, Catania