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Criminal EU refugee policy has led to 441 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean

Sunday, 23 April 2023 9:17 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 23 April 2023 11:13 AM ]

Migrants who set off from Libya by sea, being rescued (Photo: Flickr)

The International Organization for Migration, IOM, a UN body, says more than 20,000 refugees have drowned in the Central Mediterranean since 2014 whilst trying to reach the EU.

This year in January, February and March, 441 have perished.

We currently let people die in the Mediterranean. We let them die by ordering container ships and fishing boats to stand by and wait. We let them die by criminalizing and jailing those who want to pull them out of the water.

Damian Boeselager, German MEP

UN body, says more than 20,000 refugees have drowned in the Central Mediterranean since 2014 whilst trying to reach the EU.

EU refugee policy branded criminal as 441 die in Mediterranean

The International Organization for Migration, a UN body, says more than 20,000 refugees have drowned in the Central Mediterranean since 2014 whilst trying to reach the EU. This year, in January, February and March, 441 have perished.

The EU's asylum policy has been slated during a debate in the European Parliament

The UN recently concluded that the Libyan coast guard, which is heavily funded by the EU, is deeply involved in slavery, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, detention, and, torture, of migrants.

Tineke Strik, Dutch MEP

The EU is paying billions of Euros to Turkey and Libya to manage refugee flows. Campaigners say detention centers in Libya are particularly bad.

The conditions there are horrible. They are defined as HELL We have witnesses of people who were able to escape that and their stories that are just horrible, really, and slavery, raped for slavery, I can just go on,...

Natalia Alonso, Refugee Rights Advocate

Children among thousands of refugees in prison-like facility in UK.

Children among thousands of refugees in prison-like facility in UK

The overcrowding reached a breaking point after hundreds of people were moved there from another migrant processing center nearby.

Western powers have been accused of relentlessly causing refugee crises. They are now being urged to deal with the root causes

Vilifying this belief basically that means ending wars and interference. It means ending neocolonial policies and plundering, it means ensuring that states are independent.

It means we support less developed countries.

Sandra Pereira, Portuguese MEP

EU refugee policy set to become more discriminatory.

EU refugee policy set to become more discriminatory

The EU plans to deport a record number of asylum seekers in 2023 while applying no limit on the number of Ukrainian refugees who wish to enter the 27-country bloc.

The Italian government has declared a state of emergency because 31,000 refugees have arrived into the country since January.

During the debates the point was made that 1 million Ukrainian refugees have arrived into another EU nation, Poland, with no state of emergency declared.

The question has been asked: is it the case that those who arrived in Italy simply have the wrong colored skin for the EU authorities?

As rescue ships in Catania waited for permission to disembark every last person, a migrant rescue hotline said some 500 others had run into difficulty on the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

Italy accused of illegally rejecting migrants as anger mounts

Humanitarian groups on Sunday said Italy had broken international law by refusing to let in migrants plucked from the sea.

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