Mediterranean migrant traffic is a route for transporting migrants from Africa to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea . He gained wide popularity in connection with the frequent mass death of migrants when crossing the sea. Smugglers use fishing boats from fishing trawlers to rafts and inflatable boats as boats . In addition to Africans, refugees from Syria also use the route [1] , fleeing the horrors of the civil war in their country .
Content
Gaddafi Factor
The massive influx of migrants is associated with a significant difference in the living standards of the countries of Europe and Africa, which was aggravated after the overthrow of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi , since the rather high standard of living in Libya itself from the time of Gaddafi was a constraining factor [2] . At one time, in 2010, Gaddafi warned EU countries about the threat of migration, asked for money and offered cooperation, but EU leaders not only ignored these proposals [3] , but also took an active part in the destruction of the Libyan state (see. Intervention in Libya ) .
Geography
The starting point of the movement is the coast of Tunisia [4] and Libya (port of Zuvara [5] ), and the final - Italy ( Sicily ) [6] . Lampedusa is a transit island, where a refugee reception center is in compared with the concentration camp of the XXI century [7] .
Revenue
The scale of the movement is evidenced by the fact that in 2014, EU authorities detained 10 thousand smugglers engaged in the route. The tribe of tebu, reportedly earns $ 60 thousand a week on the route, despite the fact that the price of smugglers is estimated at $ 500 [8] .
Patency
In 2010, 5,000 migrants took the route [9] .
The first migration “blow” occurred at the beginning of 2011 (in three months), when 18 thousand people were transported along the sea route [10] . In 2013, the number of migrants increased to 43 thousand. [9] In 2014, this figure increased four more times and reached 218 thousand. [11] (despite the fact that in that year, 276 thousand migrants arrived in the EU [12] ).
In 2016, 181,000 migrants (mainly from Africa) arrived in Italy on rafts and ships of dubious quality [13] .
Victims
Muammar Gaddafi announced the first victims of the Mediterranean migrant traffic back in 2008 [14] .
600 people became victims of the migrant route in 2013 [11] , and in 2014 this figure jumped to 3.5 thousand. [15] One of the first terrible tragedies occurred on October 3, 2013, when 274 migrants died in a ship sunken off the coast of Lampedusa. In the media, responsibility for the tragedy was assigned to the EU leadership and personally to the President of the European Commission Barroso [16] .
April 19, 2015, for only one shipwreck in the Sicilian Strait , 100 km from the Libyan coast, 850 migrants died (that is, more than for the entire 2013) [17] . Just a week before the tragedy in the Mediterranean, another 400 migrants died [18] .
In 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 5,000 deaths were recorded.
In February 2017, the bodies of 74 African immigrants were thrown out on the Mediterranean coast near the town of Zawiya. There is not a single survivor among them. Most likely, far more refugees died, since a torn rubber boat was found on the shore, which usually carries up to 120 people [19] .
Counteraction
To prevent loss of life, the Italian government launched the Mare Nostrum program in 2013 in , which has been criticized for encouraging migrant routes. 900 Italian military personnel, 32 ships and aircraft took part in the rescue operation. However, the program had to be closed due to its high cost [20] . In 2014, the pan-European Triton program was replaced by [21]
See also
- European Migration Crisis
- en: List of migrant vessel incidents on the Mediterranean Sea
Notes
- ↑ Migrants continue to arrive at the southern borders of Italy
- ↑ Europe or death. The Mediterranean Sea has become a “cemetery” for illegal migrants
- ↑ Gaddafi threatened Europe with migrants
- ↑ Refugee flood swept Italy
- ↑ A ship with migrants sank in the waters of Libya: at least 100 people died
- ↑ On the southern coast of Sicily, the Italian military caught more than a thousand migrants
- ↑ European Union outraged by the situation of migrants in Lampedusa
- ↑ Smugglers' activity is only a symptom in the vast problem with illegal migrants
- ↑ 1 2 Illegal migrants: new approaches to solving the old problem
- ↑ Berlusconi proposes to nominate the island of Lampedusa for the Nobel Peace Prize
- ↑ 1 2 Europe dispels a new invasion
- ↑ In 2014, more than 276 thousand illegal immigrants arrived in the EU
- ↑ Number of migrants for 2016 , USA.one .
- ↑ Muammar Gaddafi: European countries intentionally drown African migrants
- ↑ UN Secretary General compares the deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea with the Titanic shipwreck
- ↑ The head of the European Commission was met on the surviving tragedy of Lampedusa shouting "Shame!"
- ↑ 850 people drowned as a result of a shipwreck in the Mediterranean - Italian prosecutors
- ↑ 400 people became victims of a shipwreck in the Mediterranean
- ↑ The bodies of 74 migrants were cast ashore in Libya , USA.one .
- ↑ The death of illegal migrants: Operation Triton does not save
- ↑ Migrants in the Mediterranean: EU takes new measures