#matteo_villa

  • No, aumentare i tempi di permanenza nei centri non fa aumentare i rimpatri di #migranti irregolari.

    La relazione tra tassi di rimpatrio e tempo di permanenza nei #CPR è inversa.

    Maggior repressione porta solo a maggior sovraffollamento e a maggiori sofferenze.

    https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1704131792566124855

    #CRA #détention_administrative #rétention #statistiques #chiffres #efficacité (#inefficacité on devrait plutôt dire) #renvois #taux_de_renvoi #temps_de_permanence #temps #Matteo_Villa #Italie

  • Dal 2008 a oggi, i paesi europei hanno valutato 600.000 richieste d’asilo da parte di afghani.
    Ne hanno rifiutate 290.000, rimpatriando oltre 70.000 persone (di cui 15-20.000 donne).


    Nel mare di ipocrisia, per una volta l’Italia svetta in positivo.
    Questo significa che su 290.000 afghani che non hanno ricevuto protezione, 220.000 sono ancora in Europa.
    Ora i governi dovrebbero impegnarsi per proteggerli tutti. Sospendendo i rimpatri sine die, ma soprattutto concedendo permessi umanitari a chi oggi è irregolare.

    https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1427159238892216322

    –—

    Tra il 2008 e il 2020 abbiamo rimpatriato più di 70.000 afghani.

    https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1426924703105564679
    #renvois #expulsions

    #statistiques #chiffres #réfugiés_afghans #Europe #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Matteo_Villa #graphique #visualisation #demandes_d'asile

  • Fact check: Is sea rescue a pull factor for refugees?

    For years there have been claims that sea rescue is a pull factor in asylum-related migration. But is this theory true?

    What is the debate about?

    Some argue that more people will dare to embark on the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, for instance from Libya or Morocco to Europe, because they believe they will be rescued from boats that are often not even seaworthy.

    Conservative politicians in particular regard sea rescue as an incentive to migrate. As a result, they criticize civilian sea rescue operations including Sea-Watch and Sea-Eye, groups that rescue tens of thousands of people in the Mediterranean every year. In some cases, the rescuers have been accused of colluding with smugglers, which in turn means they support human trafficking — an accusation the NGOs reject.

    EU ships no longer patrol along the migration routes and have saved hardly any lives since the naval mission Operation Sophia ended in spring 2020. One of the reasons why state rescue at sea has been so severely restricted is that Italy and Austria, for instance, feared these missions would lead to a rise in the influx of refugees and migrants.

    So-called push and pull factors play an important role in EU policy and discussions about limiting and managing migration.

    Whereas push factors refer to circumstances that turn people away from their countries of origin — war or environmental disasters — pull factors are those that attract people or create incentives for them to come to Europe, including political stability and prosperity as well as liberal immigration laws.
    Research status

    So far, there is not much sound research. According to Julian Wucherpfennig, professor of international affairs and security at the Berlin-based Hertie School of Governance, this is partly due to the poor data situation — and partly to the complexity of the issue. “Cause and effect are difficult to separate,” the scientist said, adding it’s like studying whether the number of lifeguards has an effect on the number of bathers.

    Some research on the issue does exist, however. The 2017 study Blaming the Rescuers by Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani of the University of London looks at when and where how many people fled across the Mediterranean until 2016. The researchers juxtapose this data with the periods in which European rescue and border protection missions were active. They could not establish a correlation.
    2015: Numbers down despite a rise in the number of NGOs?

    Sea Rescue NGOs: A Pull Factor of Irregular Immigration? is a dossier that focuses on civilian sea rescue as a possible pull factor and analyzes migration from Libya to Italy from 2014 to 2019. Here too, authors #Eugenio_Cusumano of the European University Institute and #Matteo_Villa of the Italian Institute for International Political Science Studies “could not find any correlation between the presence of NGOs at sea and the number of migrants.”

    According to the dossier, the total number of departures in 2015 from Libya fell slightly compared to the previous year, although the number of migrants rescued by NGOs rose sharply. “The results of our analysis challenge the claim that non-governmental rescue operations are a pull factor of irregular migration across the Mediterranean,” the authors of the 2019 paper wrote.

    “Unintended consequences” of sea rescue

    Claudio Deiana (University of Cagliari), Vikram Maheshri (University of Houston) and Giovanni Mastrobuoni (University of Turin) came to a different conclusion in their Migrants at Sea: Unintended Consequences of Search and Rescue Operations study.

    A rise in rescue activities in the Mediterranean led smugglers to switch from seaworthy wooden boats to inflatable boats of poorer quality, they found, concluding that the fact that more people risk the journey to Europe under worse conditions could be an “unintended consequence” of sea rescue.

    However, most of their colleagues have not arrived at the same conclusion. Almost all other scientific studies assume that rescue at sea does not lead to more crossings, according to the Hertie School’s Julian Wucherpfennig.

    Consequences for smugglers

    Many researchers conclude it seems logical that rescue activities don’t have so much of an impact on the refugees as on how the smugglers react — they could, as reported by Deiana, Maheshri and Mastrobuoni, choose less seaworthy boats and send them out with less fuel.

    “The reality is that there are many other variables that play a role in departures — like weather conditions and the security situation and monitoring of the coast — that would affect departures more than anything else,” Safa Msehli, spokeswoman for theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM),told DW. Over the past years, there have been many departures even when there were no rescue boats at sea — “and accordingly, a large number of deaths,” she said.
    Push factors play a bigger role

    But push factors — war, political persecution, and extreme poverty —are much more important for migrants and refugees, other researchers argue.

    “In our opinion, the push factors are much higher than anything else alleged (...) People are stuck in a cycle of abuse,” said IOM spokesman Msehli. “They end up in detention, forced labor, abuse, in many cases, torture, disappearances. And those are the conditions that migrants are mentioning to us that permit them to take such a difficult journey.”
    Sea rescue, an incentive for migrants?

    There is no proof that sea rescue has a direct effect on the influx of migrants and refugees to Europe. Most studies suggest that rescue activities do not increase the number of departures from the North African coast.

    However, the claim that sea rescue acts as a pull factor cannot be unequivocally refuted either. Almost all researchers who have studied the issue say more data and further research are needed.
    What it means for EU policies

    The cutbacks in state rescue at sea and the hurdles for civilian rescue at sea, such as detaining ships in ports or banning them from entering, are based on assumptions that are not substantiated.

    Sea rescue as a pull factor seems so obvious to many that they hardly question the assumption, nor do they require any evidence for it, Matteo Villa wrote in an article for Germany’s Die Zeit weekly. Yet the evidence to date would suggest that more lives could be saved “without risking many more people setting off for Europe. Unfortunately, the EU is choosing a different path.”

    https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-is-sea-rescue-a-pull-factor-for-refugees/a-57804247?maca=en-Twitter-sharing

    #pull-factor #facteur_pull #appel_d'air #sauvetage #Méditerranée

    ping @isskein @karine4

  • Coronavirus Socio-Economic Responses in the world – JUMPER #tracker*

    Les catégories de la compilation:
    – Institutional Policy Trackers and Portals
    – Other trackers
    – Sources by Country
    – Collected articles, papers, analyses: Scientific contributions
    – Collected articles, papers, analyses: comments and debate
    – Finance, Taxes, Firms initiatives and info

    https://people.unipi.it/matteo_villa/jumper-tracker-coronavirus-policy-in-the-world

    –-> Une #compilation de #Matteo_Villa, que j’ai souvent cité ici pour ses analyses notamment statistiques sur les migrations...

    #coronavirus

    ping @simplicissimus

  • La ministra #Lamorgese vuole un nuovo codice di condotta per le ong

    Un nuovo codice di condotta per le ong: sarebbe questa la proposta della ministra dell’interno #Luciana_Lamorgese che il 25 ottobre ha convocato al Viminale le organizzazioni non governative attive nei soccorsi nel Mediterraneo centrale. La proposta ha sorpreso gli operatori umanitari, che avevano già sottoscritto un altro controverso codice di condotta nell’estate del 2017 al termine di una lunga campagna di criminalizzazione che li accusava di essere “taxi del mare”. Durante l’incontro, la ministra Lamorgese ha accusato le navi di soccorso delle ong di essere un fattore di attrazione (#pull_factor) per i migranti che scappano dalla Libia a bordo di imbarcazioni e gommoni.

    L’accusa di pull factor è particolarmente rilevante, perché era stata usata sia contro la missione umanitaria governativa Mare nostrum nel 2013 da parte di alcuni governi europei sia contro le navi umanitarie alla fine del 2016 e ha costituito il nucleo centrale intorno al quale si sono articolate tutte le accuse contro le ong del mare negli ultimi anni. Tuttavia è stata smentita da numerosi studi e ricerche universitarie come quella dell’università Goldsmith di Londra e quella di Matteo Villa dell’Istituto per gli studi di politica internazionale (Ispi). Secondo lo studio dell’università Goldsmith, le partenze dalla Libia sono aumentate nei primi quattro mesi del 2015, per esempio, quando in mare non c’erano navi di soccorso, né militari né civili.

    L’Ispi, che raccoglie i dati delle partenze dalla Libia dal 2014 e li mette in relazione con la presenza di navi di soccorso, ha escluso in maniera categorica che ci sia una relazione tra le partenze e la presenza delle navi. In un’intervista recente il ricercatore #Matteo_Villa aveva detto a Internazionale: “Dal 1 gennaio al 24 settembre 2019 sono partite dalla Libia una media di 46 persone al giorno in presenza di navi di soccorso e 45 persone al giorno in assenza di navi di soccorso. Un numero identico di persone”.

    Le crisi in mare
    All’incontro al Viminale, a cui hanno partecipato anche funzionari del ministero dell’interno, del ministero degli esteri e del Comando generale delle capitanerie di porto, erano presenti rappresentanti delle ong Medici senza frontiere, Mediterranea, Open Arms, Pilotes Volontaires, Sea Eye, Sea Watch e Sos Meditérranée che hanno portato alla ministra le loro richieste: rimettere al centro l’obbligo del soccorso in mare, evitare ritardi, omissioni di intervento e mancanza di comunicazione sulle imbarcazioni in difficoltà, sospendere la collaborazione con la cosiddetta guardia costiera libica che intercetta le persone in mare e le riporta indietro in Libia, violando il diritto internazionale, definire con l’Europa un sistema strutturale e condiviso di sbarco in un vicino porto sicuro, evitando giorni di stallo e attesa in mare in condizioni di difficoltà.

    Nel secondo governo Conte le crisi in mare sono continuate, ma sono durate in media di meno rispetto al primo governo Conte, quando il ministro dell’interno era Matteo Salvini: la crisi più lunga durante il Conte 1 è durata venti giorni, secondo i dati raccolti dall’Ispi. Mentre nel Conte 2 la crisi più lunga è durata undici giorni.

    Le ultime crisi in mare hanno riguardato la Ocean Viking, di Medici senza frontiere e Sos Meditérranée, che è attraccata nel porto di Pozzallo dopo undici giorni di stallo in mare; la nave Alan Kurdi, ancora in mare dopo sei giorni con 90 persone a bordo; e la nave Open Arms, che ha recentemente soccorso 15 persone.

    Il nuovo codice di condotta
    Il primo codice di condotta, imposto alle ong nell’estate del 2017, era un regolamento di tipo amministrativo, firmato dalla maggior parte delle ong attive in quel momento. Il codice vietava, tra le altre cose, alle navi umanitarie di entrare nelle acque territoriali libiche, di spegnere i transponder delle navi, di fare segnali luminosi e di fare trasbordi. Gli operatori umanitari giudicarono la maggior parte di quelle norme inutili, perché già previste dalle normative marittime internazionali e in generale dannose perché avrebbero potuto rallentare gli interventi di soccorso e rafforzare nell’opinione pubblica italiana l’idea che le ong stessero agendo non in linea con le leggi internazionali e che non si stessero coordinando con le autorità.

    Nella bozza di accordo di Malta – redatta dai ministri dell’interno di Italia, Germania, Francia, Malta e Finlandia alla fine di settembre del 2019 – è stata inglobata una parte delle regole del codice di condotta italiano del 2017. Questo elemento confermerebbe la volontà dell’attuale ministero dell’interno italiano di imporre un nuovo codice di condotta alle ong, in una situazione che però è radicalmente cambiata rispetto al passato, perché nel frattempo a coordinare i soccorsi non c’è più la Centrale operativa della guardia costiera italiana (Mrcc), come avveniva invece nel 2017. La Libia nel 2018 ha proclamato l’istituzione di una propria zona di ricerca e soccorso (Sar), che gli è stata concessa dalle autorità marittime internazionali. Nella bozza dell’accordo di Malta infatti si chiede alle ong di non interferire con l’attività della cosiddetta guardia costiera libica.

    E infine anche i libici hanno redatto un proprio codice di condotta per le ong, che è stato consegnato alle autorità italiane il 9 ottobre e che è allo studio di guardia di finanza, marina militare e guardia costiera. Il codice libico non è un semplice regolamento come quello italiano, bensì è un decreto firmato dal presidente Fayez al Serraj sulle “regole di comportamento relativo al lavoro delle organizzazioni internazionali e non governative nell’area Sar libica”. Il codice libico impone alle ong che vogliono operare nella Sar libica di coordinarsi obbligatoriamente con la Centrale operativa di Tripoli e di registrarsi presso le autorità dello stato nordafricano.

    Il codice, inoltre, impone alle navi umanitarie di chiedere l’autorizzazione a Tripoli per operare soccorsi e inoltre stabilisce il diritto dei guardacoste libici di salire a bordo delle imbarcazioni per motivi di ordine legale o inerenti alla sicurezza e di sequestrare le navi e portarle in Libia nel caso che sia riscontrata una violazione del codice libico. Uno scenario particolarmente allarmante e in contrasto con le leggi internazionali, se si considera che le ong finora hanno rifiutato quasi sempre il coordinamento dei soccorsi da parte della Libia, un paese considerato non sicuro. Resta quindi da capire in che modo il nuovo codice di condotta italiano terrà conto delle regole stabilite dai libici.

    https://www.internazionale.it/bloc-notes/annalisa-camilli/2019/10/31/lamorgese-codice-condotta-ong
    #code_de_conduite #code_de_conduite_bis (après celui de #Minniti, #2017) #ONG #sauvetage #asile #migrations #frontières #Méditerranée

  • Italy presents plan to accelerate expulsion of migrants

    Italy presented a scheme on Friday to accelerate the expulsion of migrants who have no right to stay in the country, cutting the time it takes to decide on whether an asylum seeker must return home.

    Immigration flows helped fuel the rise of Italy’s far-right League party, whose leader Matteo Salvini imposed a crackdown on arrivals while he was interior minister until August.

    Salvini closed Italy’s ports to migrant rescue ships, threatening the charities operating them with fines of up to 1 million euros ($1.10 million) if they tried to dock.

    After the League unexpectedly quit the government in a failed bid to trigger an early election, its former ally the 5-Star Movement formed a coalition with the center-left Democratic Party, ushering in a less aggressive approach to immigration.

    The new government has already agreed with four other EU states a scheme to distribute people saved in the Mediterranean, and it hopes its plan to send back those already in Italy will defuse accusations by Salvini that it is soft on immigration.

    “I do not believe that redistributing migrants to other European countries is the final solution”, 5-Star leader and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told a news conference.

    Under the new decree, the time to examine asylum requests of migrants who come from a list of 13 “safe” European and African countries, including Tunisia and Albania, will be reduced from two years to four months.

    If the request is rejected, the expulsion procedure will be immediately triggered.

    “More than one third of those who arrived in Italy in 2019 comes from these countries,” Di Maio said.

    Fewer than 8,000 migrants came to Italy by sea in 2019, down 62% from 2018 and down 92% compared to 2017, official data show. However, expulsions fell far short of Salvini’s electoral promises.

    The League leader said he would repatriate 100,000 migrants in his first year in power, followed by another 400,000 during the rest of his five-year term in office, but Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese told parliament this month that only 5,244 people had been repatriated this year up to Sept 22.

    Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte welcomed the new plan as “a great step forward” and said he was confident it would produce more rapid repatriations.

    “Italy has always been inefficient in this,” Conte said.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy-expulsion/italy-presents-plan-to-accelerate-expulsion-of-migrants-idUSKBN1WJ1YH
    #Italie #expulsions #migrations #réfugiés #machine_à_expulser #sans-papiers #déboutés #renvois

    • Analyse de Matteo Villa sur twitter

      Oggi l’Italia ha varato una lista di 13 paesi considerati sicuri.

      Non significa che sarà più semplice rimpatriare, ma che aumenteranno ulteriormente gli stranieri irregolari presenti in Italia.

      Seguitemi, ve lo spiego.

      Cos’è successo.

      Con un decreto interministeriale è stata varata una lista di 13 paesi (NON “porti”, come è stato detto) considerati sicuri.

      L’azione è consentita dal #DecretoSicurezza (oggi legge), varato dal precedente Governo a ottobre dell’anno scorso.

      Quali sono i 13 paesi che sono stati designati come “sicuri”?

      Tutti quelli dei Balcani occidentali, l’Ucraina, e alcuni paesi dell’Africa settentrionale e subsahariana.

      Li trovate in arancione su questa mappa (il giallo ve lo spiego tra poco).

      Tra i paesi dell’Unione europea, altri 12 hanno una loro lista di “paesi sicuri”.
      Li trovate in blu scuro in questa carta.

      Oggi, il tredicesimo diventa l’Italia.

      Insomma, siamo in buona compagnia.

      Tornando alla carta del mondo, in arancione ho indicato i 13 paesi extra-europei designati come sicuri dall’Italia.

      In giallo, invece, trovate tutti i paesi designati come sicuri da almeno un altro paese UE, ma non da noi.

      Poteva andare molto peggio (Turchia, Nigeria, Etiopia).

      Cosa succede se designi un paese come sicuro?

      Chi chiede asilo in Italia possedendo la nazionalità di uno dei «paesi sicuri» avrà davanti a sé molti più ostacoli.

      Di fatto, aumenterà ulteriormente il tasso di diniego delle protezioni.

      La conseguenza? Aumentano gli irregolari.

      L’aumento degli irregolari sarà probabilmente piccolo rispetto all’effetto dell’abolizione della protezione umanitaria nel 2018.

      Ma andrà a complicare una situazione già molto precaria, anziché regolarizzare parte di chi oggi è qui e qui resterà.

      https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/i-nuovi-irregolari-italia-21812

      Sì, ma i rimpatri?

      Sul fronte dei rimpatri, designare un paese come sicuro non cambia nulla.

      Se un paese terzo già collaborava con noi (per es.,
      🇹🇳
      Tunisia), continuerà a farlo.

      Se un paese terzo non collaborava (per es.,
      🇬🇭
      Ghana), continuerà a non farlo.

      Del resto, se c’entrassero in qualche modo i rimpatri sorgerebbe spontanea una domanda: perché includere nella lista dei «sicuri» paesi che, in media, hanno già un tasso di rimpatrio superiore rispetto a quelli esclusi dalla lista?

      La realtà è una: convincere i paesi dell’Africa subsahariana a collaborare sui rimpatri è difficile.

      L’Italia ha tassi in linea con quelli di altri grandi paesi, come Francia e Germania, che hanno «leve» (legami post-coloniali, commercio, aiuti) ben maggiori delle nostre.

      CONCLUSIONE.

      La lista di «paesi sicuri»:

      ☑️
      è consentita da un decreto adottato dal precedente governo;
      ☑️
      aumenterà il numero degli stranieri irregolari presenti in Italia;
      ☑️
      non avrà alcun effetto sui rimpatri.

      https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1180135437358243840?s=19
      #cartographie #visualisation #pays_sûrs #clandestinisation #illégalisation #statistiques #chiffres #Matteo_Villa

  • Accord de Malte

    Nelle bozze dell’accordo di Malta si chiede a chi fa soccorso in mare di «conformarsi alle istruzioni dei competenti Centri di Coordinamento del Soccorso», e di «non ostruire» le operazioni della «Guardia costiera libica».

    Primo: la formula vi suona già sentita?

    Già, quando l’anno scorso il governo italiano negoziò fino a tarda notte al Consiglio europeo di giugno, le conclusioni contenevano queste parole:

    «Le imbarcazioni (...) non devono ostruire le operazioni della Guardia costiera libica».

    Nella bozza dell’accordo di Malta si va persino oltre, perché alle imbarcazioni di ricerca e soccorso si chiedono due cose:

    (1) non ostruite la Guardia costiera libica;
    (2) conformatevi alle richieste dello RCC competente.

    Quanto all’ostruzione delle operazioni della Guardia costiera libica, non si ricorda un caso recente.

    Al contrario, è generalmente la Guardia costiera libica a usare comportamenti aggressivi.
    @VITAnonprofit metteva in fila un po’ di fatti nel 2017.

    http://www.vita.it/it/article/2017/11/08/mediterraneo-tutti-gli-attacchi-della-guardia-costiera-libica-alle-ong/145042

    Ovviamente, non è che la Guardia costiera libica sia sempre aggressiva. C’è chi fa il suo lavoro in maniera professionale, chi no.

    Il punto è un altro: spesso non sappiamo chi operi dove. Come spiega @lmisculin, la Guardia costiera libica non esiste: https://www.ilpost.it/2017/08/26/guardia-costiera-libica

    Passando al «conformarsi alle istruzioni dei competenti Centri di Coordinamento del Soccorso», il discorso diventa ancora più spinoso.

    Si arriva rapidamente a un paradosso clamoroso, consentito da un diritto internazionale che ha più buchi di un groviera.

    Questo: la Libia è l’unico paese al mondo ad avere costituito un proprio Centro di Coordinamento del Soccorso (a giugno 2018) e, allo stesso tempo, a non essere considerato da @Refugees
    un «luogo sicuro» per lo sbarco delle persone soccorse.

    Pensateci un attimo: se soccorro qualcuno in quel tratto di mare amplissimo che è la zona #SAR libica, il diritto internazionale mi obbliga a contattare lo RCC libico.

    Ma lo stesso diritto internazionale obbliga lo #RCC libico a NON INDICARE SÉ STESSO come luogo di sbarco!

    Cosa succede di solito, invece? Prendiamo #OceanViking.

    Il 17 settembre dopo un salvataggio, manda un’email allo RCC libico chiedendo un «luogo sicuro» di sbarco.

    Dopo diverse ore, dalla Libia rispondono: perfetto, venite da noi, ad al Khums.

    Sarebbe un respingimento.

    Non è un evento raro, anzi, accade costantemente: se e quando lo RCC libico risponde, indica un suo porto come «luogo sicuro».

    Da #OceanViking rispondono che non si può fare. Certo che no: sbarcare le persone in Libia sarebbe un respingimento.

    Notate l’estrema pazienza.

    In questa situazione di estrema incertezza, chiedere a chi effettua soccorsi nel tratto di mare in cui il coordinamento del soccorso è tecnicamente di competenza libica di «conformarsi» senza condizioni alle richieste di Tripoli rischia di legittimare i respingimenti.

    CONCLUSIONE /1.

    «Non ostruire» le operazioni della «Guardia costiera libica» è una richiesta corretta solo se molto qualificata.

    Dipende da molte condizioni, prima tra tutte di quale Guardia costiera libica stiamo parlando, e da come si stia comportando.

    CONCLUSIONE /2.

    Con il suo linguaggio tranchant, la bozza di Malta chiede a chi effettua un soccorso in zona SAR libica di «conformarsi» alle richieste libiche.

    Senza specificare altro, gli Stati europei stanno implicitamente chiedendo alle Ong di effettuare respingimenti.

    source : https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1177518357773307904?s=19
    #Matteo_Villa
    #accord_de_Malte #sauvetage #asile #migrations #réfugiés #frontières #Méditerranée #gardes_côtes_libyens #Méditerranée #port_sûr #pays_sûr #mer_Méditerranée

    ping @isskein

  • IL «PULL FACTOR» NON ESISTE. Con #SeaWatch3 da 12 giorni al largo di #Lampedusa, terzo aggiornamento. Tra l’1 maggio e il 21 giugno dalla #Libia sono partite almeno 3.926 persone. Con Ong al largo, 62 partenze al giorno. Senza Ong, 76 partenze.

    Se ci limitiamo ai soli giorni di giugno, il dato è ancora più eclatante. Con #SeaWatch3 al largo, dalla #Libia sono partite 52 persone al giorno. Senza Ong, 94 partenze.

    Tra l’1 maggio e il 21 giugno dalla #Libia sono partite almeno 3.962 persone. 431 partite quando le Ong erano al largo delle coste libiche. 3.495 partite senza nessun assetto europeo (pubblicamente) in mare a fare ricerca e soccorso.


    NB: non è che senza Ong in mare si parta di più — sarebbe un pull factor all’incontrario. La differenza tra le partenze al giorno dalla Libia, con o senza Ong, non è significativa. Semplicemente, non c’è alcuna correlazione tra attività Ong in mare e partenze.

    https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1142685495526395906

    #Matteo_Villa #pull-factor #facteur_pull #appel_d'air #statistiques #chiffres #fact-checking #2019 #Méditerranée #ONG #asile #migrations #réfugiés #frontières #démonstration #déconstruction #Libye #départs

    ping @isskein

    • "Lampedusa ha superato da tempo la sua capacità d’accoglienza: sull’isola ci sono già i 42 passeggeri della Sea-Watch 3, sbarcati dopo 17 giorni di attraversata, e altri cento arrivati senza creare scalpore. Su di loro il ministro dell’interno Matteo Salvini non ha speso nemmeno una parola. Però quando la Sea-Watch 3 ha fatto rotta verso la costa italiana Salvini ha scatenato il putiferio.
      (...)
      In effetti in Italia continuano ad arrivare i migranti: mille a giugno, più di 2500 all’inizio dell’anno. Certo, sono molti meno rispetto a un paio di anni fa, ma comunque troppi rispetto alle promesse fatte da Salvini agli elettori. Come deve presentare questi numeri? C’è sempre un’invasione da combattere, o si tratta di una cifra relativamente piccola e tollerabile? Nel primo caso avrebbe fallito, nel secondo caso il tema diventerebbe secondario. E forse per Salvini la seconda opzione è perfino peggiore della prima.
      (...)
      Il leader della Lega, infatti, deve assolutamente mantenere il tema dei migranti al centro del dibattito politico italiano, è il suo terreno di battaglia preferito, soprattutto in vista di eventuali elezioni anticipate a settembre. Salvini spera che la Lega si affermi come primo partito d’Italia e aspira a diventare presidente del consiglio. Fino ad allora deve tenere in vita l’immagine dell’uomo che sa imporsi, altrimenti le sue speranze di vittoria sono perdute. Un nuovo nemico, deve aver pensato Salvini, lo farebbe uscire dal vicolo cieco. E quale miglior nemico degli ’aiutanti dei trafficanti’, come spesso ha definito le navi gestite da volontari che salvano i naufraghi in mare? Grazie a loro arriva in Italia un numero irrilevante di profughi, ma sono la controparte perfetta per la sua messinscena. Per questo ha alzato il livello dello scontro con la Sea-Watch 3.

      Source: Hans-Jürgen Schlamp, «Una nemica perfetta», in Internazionale, n°1314, juillet 2019 (original: Der Spiegel), pp.19-20.
      https://www.internazionale.it/sommario/1314
      #Salvini #Carola_Rackete #Rackete #Matteo_Salvini

    • Con #OpenArms ancora al largo e #OceanViking che ha fatto un salvataggio, RECAP.

      Tra l’1 gennaio e il 9 agosto dalla #Libia sono partite almeno 8.551 persone.

      Con Ong al largo, 31 partenze al giorno.
      Senza Ong, 41 partenze al giorno.


      1.624 partite quando le Ong erano al largo delle coste libiche.
      6.927 partite senza nessun assetto europeo a fare ricerca e soccorso.

      https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1159814415950241792

    • Sea rescue NGOs : a pull factor of irregular migration?

      The argument that maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) operations act as a ‘pull factor’ of irregular seaborne migration has become commonplace during the Mediterranean ‘refugee crisis’. This claim has frequently been used to criticize humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) conducting SAR off the coast of Libya, which are considered to provide “an incentive for human smugglers to arrange departures” (Italian Senate 2017: 9). In this policy brief, we scrutinise this argument by examining monthly migratory flows from Libya to Italy between 2014 and October 2019. We find no relationship between the presence of NGOs at sea and the number of migrants leaving Libyan shores. Although more data and further research are needed, the results of our analysis call into question the claim that non-governmental SAR operations are a pull factor of irregular migration across the Mediterranean sea.

      https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/65024

    • Migrants from Libya not driven by hope of being rescued at sea – study

      No link found between number of Mediterranean crossings and level of NGO rescue ship activity.

      No valid statistical link exists between the likelihood that migrants will be rescued at sea and the number of attempted Mediterranean crossings, a study has found. The findings challenge the widespread claim in Europe that NGO search and rescue activity has been a pull factor for migrants.

      Fear that the NGOs’ missions attract immigrants has been the basis for measures restricting humanitarian ships including requiring them to sign up to codes of conduct or simply blocking them from leaving port.

      It is the first detailed study of NGOs’ proactive search and rescue activity between 2014 and October 2019, but the findings focus most closely on the first nine months of this year, a period when Europe had withdrawn from all search and rescue activity leaving only NGOs or the Libyan guard. The research was undertaken by two Italian researchers, Eugenio Cusumano and Matteo Villa, from the European University Institute (https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/65024).

      Drawing on official statistics and examining three-day averages, the study showed the numbers rescued depend on the numbers leaving. It found a stronger link this year between the number of migrant crossings and either political stability in Libya or the weather, rather than NGO ships at sea.

      The study found that in 2015, the total number of departures from Libya slightly decreased relative to 2014 even though migrants rescued by NGOs increased from 0.8 to 13% of the total number of people rescued at sea. After July 2017, the number of migrants departing from Libya plummeted even though NGOs had become far and away the largest provider of search and rescue by far.

      It also found that in the 85 days in which the NGOs were present in the search and rescue mission there were no more departures than the 225 days in which there were Libyan patrol boats.

      Instead, the study showed the big decline in crossings in 2017 was linked to the deal struck between the Italian government and various Libyan militia to keep migrants from attempting sea crossings.

      The study looks at figures from the International Organisation for Migration, the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the Italian coastguard.

      Over the five years the humanitarian ships have rescued a total of 115,000 migrants out of 650,000 with an average of 18%. In 2019 alone, at least 1,078 migrants have died or gone missing, according to the UN, while trying to reach safety in Europe.

      While the EU recognises the Libyan coastguard and is also funding and training its work, there is no overall agreement about how asylum seekers should be dealt with in an equitable and EU-wide manner.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/18/migrants-from-libya-not-driven-by-hope-of-being-rescued-at-sea-study

    • ONG en Méditerranée : les secours en mer ne créent pas d’« appel d’air »

      Deux chercheurs italiens contestent, dans une étude parue lundi, la corrélation parfois suggérée par les politiques entre présence des ONG en mer Méditerranée et nombre de départs de bateaux clandestins des côtes libyennes.

      Marine Le Pen, députée française, le 12 juin 2018 : « Derrière le vernis humanitaire, les ONG ont un rôle objectif de complices des mafias de passeurs. […] Accepter que les bateaux de migrants accostent crée un appel d’air irresponsable ! » Christophe Castaner, ministre de l’Intérieur français, le 5 avril 2019 : « Les ONG ont pu se faire complices [des passeurs]. » Matteo Salvini, alors ministre de l’Intérieur italien, le 7 juillet 2019 : « Je n’autorise aucun débarquement à ceux qui se moquent totalement des lois italiennes et aident les passeurs. » Cette rengaine selon laquelle en menant des opérations de recherches et de sauvetages (SAR) en mer Méditerranée les organisations non gouvernementales provoqueraient des départs massifs d’immigrés clandestins vers l’Europe, a la vie dure.

      De SOS Méditerranée à Proactiva Open Arms en passant par SeaWatch, les ONG contestent ce lien – surtout fait par des politiques de droite et d’extrême droite – mais rien ne permettait jusqu’ici de trancher la question d’une éventuelle relation de cause à effet entre présence des ONG en mer et nombre de départs des côtes libyennes. Deux chercheurs ont rendu publique ce lundi une étude, réalisée pour l’European University Institute de Florence (Italie), qui étudie ce phénomène. La conclusion de Matteo Villa et Eugenio Cusumano, qui précisent que les données sont peu nombreuses, est claire : « Notre analyse suggère que les opérations de SAR non gouvernementales n’ont pas de corrélation avec le nombre de migrants quittant la Libye par la mer. »

      En 2015, le nombre de départs de Libye a même un peu baissé par rapport à 2014, alors que la part des ONG dans le nombre total de sauvetages a augmenté, passant de 0,8% des opérations à 13%. Entre janvier et octobre 2019, le nombre de départs par jour était, lui, légèrement supérieur lorsqu’il n’y avait sur la zone pas d’ONG – lesquelles sont soumises à des pressions gouvernementales et peinent à être autorisées à débarquer les rescapés en Europe. « Par contraste, une grosse corrélation existe entre les départs de migrants et les conditions météorologiques sur la côte libyenne, autant qu’avec la très forte instabilité politique en Libye depuis avril 2019 », indiquent les chercheurs.

      https://www.liberation.fr/amphtml/planete/2019/11/18/ong-en-mediterranee-les-secours-en-mer-ne-creent-pas-d-appel-d-air_176409

    • "Non è vero che la presenza delle Ong in mare fa aumentare le partenze dei migranti dalla Libia"

      Due ricercatori italiani firmano per lo European University Institute la prima analisi sui soccorsi in mare dal 2014 al 2019. Il crollo dei viaggi provocato dagli accordi con Tripoli.

      Il «pull factor delle Ong» sui flussi migratori dalla Libia non esiste. L’affermazione che, da tre anni a questa parte è alla base dei provvedimenti che hanno ormai messo all’angolo le navi umanitarie, buona parte delle quali sotto sequestro da mesi, è una favola. A provarlo è il primo studio sistemico, su dati ufficiali dalle agenzie delle Nazioni unite ma anche dalle guardie costiere italiana e libica, firmato da due ricercatori italiani, Eugenio Cusumano e Matteo Villa, per lo European University Institute. La ricerca, che prende in esame, mensilmente, cinque anni di sbarchi in Italia (da ottobre 2014 a ottobre 2019) dimostra che non vi è alcuna relazione tra la presenza nel Mediterraneo delle navi umanitarie e il numero delle partenze dalle coste libiche.

      In questi cinque anni, le navi umanitarie hanno soccorso complessivamente 115.000 migranti su 650.000, con una media del 18 per cento, la più parte nel 2016 e nel 2017 dopo la fine dell’operazione Mare Nostrum. Poi il codice di condotta voluto da Marco Minniti nell’estate 2017 e il decreto sicurezza di Matteo Salvini hanno condizionato pesantemente l’attività delle Ong.

      Il lavoro dei due ricercatori italiani smonta l’assunto secondo il quale più alto è il numero delle persone salvate, più alto è il numero di quelle che partono. Cusumano e Villa rovesciano l’approccio e dimostrano che il numero dei salvati dipende dal numero di coloro che partono. E a sostegno dell’analisi portano due dati: nel 2015, l’anno in cui le Ong dispiegano la flotta in mare aumentando i loro soccorsi dallo 0,8 al 13 per cento, il numero complessivo delle partenze risulta in calo rispetto all’anno precedente. E ancora, nella seconda metà del 2017, nonostante le tante navi umanitarie presenti, il numero degli sbarchi crolla.

      Dunque, è la conclusione della ricerca, ad avere un forte impatto sulle partenze sono stati gli accordi tra Italia e Libia che hanno decisamente portato ad un abbattimento del numero delle imbarcazioni messe in mare. E ancora nel 2019, quando sparite le navi militari, il peso dei soccorsi è rimasto solo sulle navi umanitarie, i due ricercatori hanno rilevato giorno per giorno partenze e salvataggi senza trovare alcune evidenza che negli 85 giorni in cui erano presenti le Ong in zona Sar ci siano state più partenze rispetto ai 225 giorni in cui c’erano solo le motovedette libiche. E con tutta evidenza i giorni con più partenze sono stati quelli di bel tempo o ad aprile in coincidenza con gli attacchi del generale Haftar.

      https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2019/11/18/news/migranti_i_dati_di_uno_studio_confermano_non_e_vero_che_la_presenza_delle

    • Das Märchen von den Rettern und vom «Pull-Faktor»

      Die Studie zweier italienischer Migrationsforscher widerlegt das beliebteste Argument rechter NGO-Kritiker.

      Kein anderer Vorwurf wird gegenüber privaten Seenotrettern auf der zentralen Mittelmeerroute häufiger erhoben als jener, sie seien ein «Pull-Faktor». Dass NGO-Schiffe wie die Sea-Watch oder die Open Arms vor der libyschen Küste Migranten aus Gummibooten retten und nach Italien bringen, so die Anschuldigung, verleite Flüchtlinge erst recht zum Aufbruch und trage deshalb dazu bei, die Zahl der Überfahrten zu steigern – und dadurch auch die Zahl der Ertrunkenen.

      Das Argument hat eine unbestreitbare intuitive Plausibilität: Je sicherer jemand sein kann, aus einer riskanten Situation befreit zu werden, desto grösser dürfte seine Bereitschaft sein, das Risiko einzugehen. 2017 schrieb die europäische Küstenwache Frontex, Rettungsaktionen von NGOs trügen dazu bei, dass Schlepperbanden «ihr Ziel mit minimalem Aufwand erreichen», was das «Business-Modell» der Kriminellen stärke.

      Zwei englische Studien aus dem Jahr 2017 kamen indessen zum Schluss, dass es keinen Zusammenhang zwischen der Präsenz von Rettungsschiffen vor der libyschen Küste und der Zahl der Überfahrten gebe. Beide Untersuchungen beruhten jedoch auf geringem Datenmaterial.

      Das Wetter spielt eine Rolle, Rettungsschiffe nicht

      Eine neue Studie gelangt nun zum selben Ergebnis: Der Pull-Faktor ist, um einen Modeausdruck zu verwenden, Fake News. Die italienischen Migrationsforscher Eugenio Cusumano und Matteo Villa haben für das in Fiesole beheimatete Europäische Hochschulinstitut sämtliche verfügbaren internationalen und italienischen Daten zwischen Oktober 2014 und Oktober 2019 auf einen Pull-Effekt untersucht, mit negativem Resultat.

      Laut der italienischen Zeitung «Repubblica» gab es bisher keine so umfassende und systematische Auswertung. Besonders genau untersuchten die Forscher den Zeitraum vom 1. Januar bis zum 27. Oktober 2019. Sie überprüften Tag für Tag, ob private Rettungsschiffe vor den libyschen Küsten unterwegs waren und wie viele Flüchtlingsboote jeweils die Überfahrt versuchten. Auch hier wieder: Keine Korrelation zwischen NGO-Schiffen und angestrebten Überfahrten. Kein Pull-Faktor. Stark sei hingegen die Korrelation mit dem Wetter.

      Obwohl die Autoren weitere Untersuchungen anmahnen, fordern sie, die Seenotretter nicht mehr zu behindern.

      Die Denkschablone vom «Gutmenschen»

      Das dürfte sich als Illusion erweisen, passt doch die Pull-Faktor-These in eine der beliebtesten rechten Denkschablonen: jene vom «Gutmenschentum». Gutmenschen sind demnach Moralisten, die in ihrer Naivität das Gute wollen, nämlich, im Falle der Seenotretter, Menschen vor dem Ertrinken zu bewahren. Die aber das Schlechte bewirken, weil ihretwegen die Zahl der Toten steige. Das Argument lässt sich scheinbar auf das Wertesystem der Kritisierten ein, um sie genau dadurch an ihrer empfindlichsten Stelle zu treffen. Es verkehrt das angeblich Gute in sein Gegenteil, und je intensiver die Gutmenschen nach dieser Logik ihre Ziele verfolgen, desto verheerender das Resultat.

      Um die Anschuldigung zu verschärfen, braucht man bloss den Anteil des angeblich «Gutgemeinten» zu verringern und jenen der kriminellen Energie zu erhöhen. Diese verleite Seenotretter im Namen einer höheren Moral dazu, das Gesetz zu brechen, indem sie etwa widerrechtlich in einen Hafen einlaufen. Oder – eine weitere Verschärfung des Vorwurfs – indem sie direkt mit den Schlepperbanden zusammenarbeiten, womöglich sogar aus finanziellen Interessen.

      Keine Komplizenschaft mit Schleppern

      Trotz intensiver Ermittlungen ist es der italienischen Staatsanwaltschaft bisher nicht gelungen, Beweise für die angebliche Komplizenschaft zwischen NGOs und libyschen Schlepperbanden zu finden. Und noch nie hat die italienische Justiz Seenotretter verurteilt. Stattdessen ist sie – etwa im Fall der Cap Anamur vor zehn Jahren oder diesen Sommer bei der deutschen Kapitänin Carola Rackete – zu Freisprüchen gelangt, aufgrund des internationalen Seerechts, der Genfer Flüchtlingskonventionen sowie verfassungsrechtlicher Bestimmungen. Oder sie hat die Verfahren eingestellt.

      Zwar gibt es noch laufende Prozesse. Schon jetzt aber lässt sich sagen, dass es verlogen ist, wenn NGO-Kritiker auf Recht und Gesetz pochen, um dann unter krasser Missachtung der Unschuldsvermutung und bisheriger Gerichtsurteile sowie aufgrund herbeifantasierter Pull-Effekte irgendwelche haltlosen Anschuldigungen in die Welt zu setzen.

      https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/ausland/europa/das-maerchen-von-den-rettern-und-vom-pullfaktor/story/10027861

    • New Research Demonstrates that Search and Rescue is Not a Pull Factor

      New research published by the European University Institute suggests that Search and Rescue (SAR) activities in the Mediterranean, especially those carried out by NGOs, are not incentivizing departures of boats from Libyan shores.

      Combining data from UNHCR, IOM and the Italian Coast Guard, the report finds that there is no significant relationship between NGO’s SAR activity and the departures from the Libyan coast between 2014 and 2018. A closer analysis on presence of NGO ships in the first ten months of 2019, where NGOs remained the only actor conducting SAR, similarly concludes that there is no evidence to suggest that departures increased when NGO ships were at sea during the period considered. Instead, the research finds that the agreement between Italy and the Libyan militias from July 2017, weather conditions and violent conflict in Libya in April 2019 had an impact on departures from Libya.

      The research contributes to the critical analysis of the ‘pull factor’ argument used by European governments as a justification to curb SAR efforts. As defined by the authors, the pull factor hypothesis holds that, all else equal, the higher the likelihood that migrants will be rescued at sea and disembarked in Europe, the higher will be the number of attempted crossings.

      The authors call on the need for more data and further research on this issue. They recommend reconsidering government policies disincentivising SAR operations and restoring EU-led missions combining SAR and border enforcement, like Mare Nostrum. They call for effective, lawful and ethically defensible migration governance across the Central Mediterranean.

      https://www.ecre.org/new-research-demonstrates-that-search-and-rescue-is-not-a-pull-factor

    • Lunedì scorso abbiamo pubblicato un paper (https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/65024/PB_2019_22_MPC.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y) che dimostra che la presenza delle navi Ong non spinge i migranti a partire di più dalla Libia.

      Poi sono arrivate tre Ong, e sono partiti in centinaia.

      «Pull factor»? No.

      Un thread.

      Una cosa vera: negli ultimi giorni dalla Libia sono partiti in tanti, tantissimi.

      Era dal 2 novembre che non si registrava alcuna partenza dalle coste libiche.

      Poi, tra il 19 e il 23 novembre, sono partite quasi 1.200 persone.

      Come vi ho già raccontato, la ripresa delle partenze era nuovamente collegata a un miglioramento delle condizioni atmosferiche.

      Però la presenza delle Ong permette di mettere alla prova il nostro modello.

      Cosa che ho fatto.

      Cosa ho scoperto?

      Primo: le condizioni atmosferiche restano fondamentali.

      Come potete vedere dalle curve qui sotto, conta più il vento della temperatura.

      Messe insieme, le due variabili sono ancora più forti: con tanto vento e temperature in discesa, non parte nessuno.

      Secondo: le Ong continuano a non essere «pull factor».

      L’effetto della presenza in mare delle Ong resta non significativo.

      Inoltre, il risultato non si discosta per nulla dai risultati ottenuti con i dati del nostro paper, che si fermavano a fine ottobre.

      Terzo: ma quindi con il governo Conte II riprendono le partenze?

      Pare di no.

      A parità di altri fattori, meteo incluso, le partenze dalla Libia dopo il cambio di governo sono (a oggi) statisticamente indistinguibili dal periodo del Conte I.

      CONCLUSIONE.

      Quando qualcuno vi mostra una piccola fetta di realtà (alte partenze di migranti con Ong in mare), sta oscurando tutto ciò che succede quando non guardate.

      Per questo i dati e i modelli sono così importanti: rimettono in riga il nostro sguardo strabico.

      https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1198935231857909760

    • Policy Brief (EUI) | Les secours en mer des ONG constituent-ils un facteur attractif pour les migrations irrégulières ?

      L’argument selon lequel les ONG qui pratiquent les sauvetages en mer Méditerranée constitueraient un facteur attractif pour les migrations irrégulières fait partie depuis 2015 d’une rhétorique communément admise. Elle a servi à délégitimer les missions de secours en mer au large de la Libye qui soi-disant encourageraient les passeurs à organiser des départs. Pour cet article, les auteurs ont étudié les flux migratoires entre la Libye et l’Italie entre 2014 et octobre 2019. Aucun lien de cause a effet n’a pu être identifié entre les départs de la côte libyenne et la présence de navires de sauvetage des ONG. Bien que d’autres recherches doivent être encore menées, cette étude remet en question le fait que la présence de bateau de sauvetage puisse constituer un facteur attractif.

      La recherche menée par Eugenio Cusumano (Migration Policy Center, EUI) et Matteo Villa (Instituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale, ISPI) intitulée ” Sea Rescue NGOs : a Pull Factor of Irregular Migration” a été publiée en anglais en novembre 2019. Elle est entièrement disponible sur le site de l’institut European University Institute (EUI) ou en cliquant sur l’image ci-dessus.

      Le journal Libération du 18 novembre 2019 lui a consacré un article ” ONG en Méditerannée : les secours en mer ne créent pas d’”appel d’air”” rédigé par Kim Hulot-Guiot.

      Nous proposons ci-dessous un bref résumé des principales conclusions des deux chercheurs :

      En 2013, en réponse aux nombreuses disparitions lors des traversées de la mer Méditerranée, l’Union européenne avait mis en place l’opération Mare Nostrum habilitant ainsi des garde-côtes à sauver des personnes migrantes dans la zone internationale au large des côtes libyennes. Une année plus tard cette opération fut suspendue par crainte que cela ait contribué à augmenter le nombre de tentatives de traversée de la Méditerranée centrale. Les missions suivante Triton, Themis ou Eunafovor n’ont presque plus effectué de sauvetage en mer. Ce manque a été comblé par des navires d’ONG qui ont assisté plus de 115’000 migrants entre 2014 et octobre 2019.

      Ce tableau issu de l’article montre l’évolution du nombre enregistré de personnes disparues en Méditerranée (centrale, est et ouest) entre 2014-2019 :

      En 2017, l’Italie a développé une nouvelle approche de cette question. Elle a conclu un accord avec les garde-côtes libyens pour qu’ils réduisent le nombre de départ depuis leurs côtes. De plus, l’Italie a progressivement fermé ses ports aux navires de sauvetage des ONG et entrepris la confiscation progressive de navires qui auraient enfreint ses interdictions. Ce procédé a eu comme conséquence de faire diminuer le nombre de navire de sauvetage d’ONG en mer Méditerranée. Le nouveau gouvernement italien n’a pas infléchi les règles et la rencontre européenne de Valletta en septembre 2019 suggérait encore entre les lignes que la présence des navires de sauvetage des ONG pourrait être responsable des départs continus de personnes migrantes depuis la Libye.

      En réalité, peu de recherches empiriques détaillent ce lien. Cette étude est une volonté d’y pallier. Elle utilise des indices statistiques qui permettent de mettre en corrélation les départs non-contrôlés des côtes libyennes et les activités de sauvetage au large de ces côtes par les ONG. Elle conclue à un manque de lien significatif entre ces deux facteurs :

      En 2015, le nombre total de départ depuis la Libye a légèrement baissé en comparaison à 2014 bien que les nombre de personnes sauvées par des ONG ait augmenté de 0.8 à 13% du nombre total de personnes sauvées dans cette zone ; après juillet 2017, le nombre de migrants quittant la Libye a diminué même si les ONG sont devenues les plus importantes actrices des sauvetages en mer. Cela suggère que l’accord passé entre les milices libyennes et l’Italie conclut en juillet 2017 a un impact beaucoup plus grand pour réduire les départs que les activités menées par les bateaux des ONG.

      Vu le manque de données disponibles, de telles recherches devraient continuer d’être entreprises. Néanmoins les premiers résultats significatifs servent à éclairer le débat politique. En ce sens, les auteurs suggèrent des recommandations :

      Le fait que la présence des ONG constitue un facteur attractif pour le départ des migrants à partir des côtes libyennes pour se rendre en Italie est ici infirmé. Par conséquent, les restrictions législatives portées aux opérations de sauvetage en mer par ces ONG a conduit à une augmentation des morts lors de ces traversées sans réduire significativement les départs. Ces décisions devraient donc être reconsidérées.
      Le retrait de cette zone des forces armées européennes en secours aux migrants a été décidé sur des présupposés hasardeux. S’il est clair que les ONG ne constituent par un attrait aux départs irréguliers des côtes libyennes, les navires militaires européens ne le constitueraient pas non plus, mais pourraient bien au contraire sauver des vies et détecter des arrivées non détectées. Il serait donc important de redéployer ces forces en Méditerranée.
      Les mesures visant à empêcher les migrations dans les pays de transit ou de départ ont un impact beaucoup plus grand sur les processus migratoires que la présence des navires de sauvetages en mer des ONG. Néanmoins, ce processus d’externalisation de la gestion des migrations est très problématique vu les conditions de vie et détention dont souffrent les personnes migrantes en Libye. Il faudrait donc réussir à combattre le trafique d’être humains sur la terre tout en réduisant les facteurs attractifs d’immigration et en améliorant les conditions de vie et les possibilités de protection en Libye.

      https://asile.ch/2019/11/25/policy-brief-eui-les-secours-en-mer-des-ong-constituent-ils-un-facteur-attract

    • Ammiraglio #Giuseppe_De_Giorgi:

      “Il dato più interessante, sottolinea De Giorgi, è che con la chiusura di Mare Nostrum gli sbarchi non sono affatto diminuiti, anzi sono aumentati. E di molto. Basta un dato a smontare le accuse mosse dai teorici dell’equazione ‘più soccorsi uguale più sbarchi’. Nel novembre del 2013, in piena Mare Nostrum, erano arrivati in Italia 1883 migranti. Nel novembre dell’anno successivo, cioè subito dopo la conclusione dell’operazione, sono stati registrati 9134 arrivi, con un aumento netto del 485 per cento.
      ‘Di questi,’ continua l’ammiraglio, ‘3810 migranti sono stati soccorsi dalla Marina e sottoposti a controllo sanitario prima dello sbarco. I restanti 5324 sono arrivati direttamente sul territorio nazionale senza controllo sanitario. Di questi ultimi, infatti, 1534 sono stati intercettati e soccorsi dalla Capitaneria di porto e 2273 da mercantili commerciali non attrezzati per quel tipo di attività, ma obbligati dal diritto del mare a intervenire.’
      Insomma, gli sbarchi continuano, ma in maniera più caotica e disordinata. La frontiera è di nuovo arretrata: da acquatica è tornata a essere terrestre e a coincidere con le coste italiane.”

      (Alessandro Leogrande, La frontiera, 2017 : pp. 186-187)

  • EU to end ship patrols in scaled down Operation Sophia

    The European Union will cease the maritime patrols that have rescued thousands of migrants making the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing from North Africa to Europe, but it will extend air missions, two diplomats said on Tuesday (26 March).

    A new agreement on the EU’s Operation Sophia was hammered out after Italy, where anti-migrant sentiment is rising, said it would no longer receive those rescued at sea.

    Operation Sophia’s mandate was due to expire on Sunday but should now continue for another six months with the same aim of deterring people smugglers in the Mediterranean. But it will no longer deploy ships, instead relying on air patrols and closer coordination with Libya, the diplomats said.

    “It is awkward, but this was the only way forward given Italy’s position, because nobody wanted the Sophia mission completely shut down,” one EU diplomat said.

    A second diplomat confirmed a deal had been reached and said it must be endorsed by all EU governments on Wednesday.

    The tentative deal, however, could weaken Operation Sophia’s role in saving lives in the sea where nearly 2,300 people perished last year, according to United Nations figures.

    From the more than one million refugees and migrants who made it to the bloc during a 2015 crisis, sea arrivals dropped to 141,500 people in 2018, according to the United Nations.

    Still, Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, has said his country would no longer be the main point of disembarkation for people trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat and rescued by Sophia’s patrol ships.

    Rome called for other countries to open up their ports instead, but no other EU states came forward. Diplomats said countries including Spain, France and Germany signalled they were not willing to host more rescued people – most of whom are fleeing wars and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

    However, EU governments did want the mission to continue because they felt it had been effective in dissuading smugglers.

    The compromise discussion in Brussels did not discuss military aspects of the role of air patrols. But the new arrangement will involve more training of the coast guard in Libya, where lawlessness has allowed smugglers to openly operate sending people to Europe by sea.

    But it would be in line with the EU’s policy of turning increasingly restrictive on Mediterranean immigration since the surge in 2015 and discouraging people from risking their lives in the sea in trying to cross to Europe where governments do not want them.

    The bloc has already curbed operations of EU aid groups in the part of the Mediterranean in question and moved its own ships further north where fewer rescues take place.

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/news/eu-to-end-ship-patrols-in-scaled-down-operation-sophia
    #opération_sophia #méditerranée #asile #réfugiés #sauvetage #missions_aériennes #migrations #frontières #contrôles_frontaliers #mer_Méditerranée #sauvetages

    • Commissioner calls for more rescue capacity in the Mediterranean

      I take note of the decision taken by the EU’s Political and Security Committee with regards to Operation Sophia. I regret that this will lead to even fewer naval assets in the Mediterranean, which could assist the rescue of persons in distress at sea. Lives are continuing to be lost in the Mediterranean. This should remind states of the urgency to adopt a different approach, one that should ensure a sufficiently resourced and fully operational system for saving human lives at sea and to safeguard rescued migrants’ dignity.

      Whilst coastal states have the responsibility to ensure effective coordination of search and rescue operations, protecting lives in the Mediterranean requires concerted efforts of other states as well, to begin with the provision of naval assets specifically dedicated to search and rescue activities, deployed in those areas where they can make an effective contribution to saving human lives. Furthermore, I reiterate my call to all states to refrain from hindering and criminalising the work of NGOs who are trying to fill the ever-increasing gap in rescue capacity. States should rather support and co-operate with them, including by ensuring that they can use ports for their life-saving activities.

      Finally, the decision to continue only with aerial surveillance and training of the Libyan Coast Guard further increases the risks that EU member states, directly or indirectly, contribute to the return of migrants and asylum seekers to Libya, where it is well-documented, in particular recently by the United Nations, that they face serious human rights violations. So far, calls to ensure more transparency and accountability in this area, including by publishing human rights risk assessments and setting up independent monitoring mechanisms, have not been heeded. The onus is now on EU member states to show urgently that the support to the Libyan Coast Guard is not contributing to human rights violations, and to suspend this support if they cannot do so.

      https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/commissioner-calls-for-more-rescue-capacity-in-the-mediterranean
      #droits_humains #gardes-côtes_libyens #Libye

    • EU to end ship patrols in scaled down migrant rescue operation: diplomats

      The European Union will cease the maritime patrols that have rescued thousands of migrants making the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing from North Africa to Europe, but it will extend air missions, two diplomats said on Tuesday.
      A new agreement on the EU’s Operation Sophia was hammered out after Italy, where anti-migrant sentiment is rising, said it would no longer receive those rescued at sea.

      Operation Sophia’s mandate was due to expire on Sunday but should now continue for another six months with the same aim of detering people smugglers in the Mediterranean. But it will no longer deploy ships, instead relying on air patrols and closer coordination with Libya, the diplomats said.

      “It is awkward, but this was the only way forward given Italy’s position, because nobody wanted the Sophia mission completely shut down,” one EU diplomat said.

      A second diplomat confirmed a deal had been reached and said it must be endorsed by all EU governments on Wednesday.

      The tentative deal, however, could weaken Operation Sophia’s role in saving lives in the sea where nearly 2,300 people perished last year, according to United Nations figures.

      From the more than one million refugees and migrants who made it to the bloc during a 2015 crisis, sea arrivals dropped to 141,500 people in 2018, according to the United Nations.

      Still, Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, has said his country would no longer be the main point of disembarkation for people trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat and rescued by Sophia’s patrol ships.

      Rome called for other countries to open up their ports instead, but no other EU states came forward. Diplomats said countries including Spain, France and Germany signaled they were not willing to host more rescued people - most of whom are fleeing wars and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

      However, EU governments did want the mission to continue because they felt it had been effective in dissuading smugglers.

      The compromise discussion in Brussels did not discuss military aspects of the role of air patrols. But the new arrangement will involve more training of the coast guard in Libya, where lawlessness has allowed smugglers to openly operate sending people to Europe by sea.

      But it would be in line with the EU’s policy of turning increasingly restrictive on Mediterranean immigration since the surge in 2015 and discouraging people from risking their lives in the sea in trying to cross to Europe where governments do not want them.

      The bloc has already curbed operations of EU aid groups in the part of the Mediterranean in question and moved its own ships further north where fewer rescues take place.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-sophia/eu-weighs-up-awkward-migration-compromise-on-mediterranean-mission-idUSKCN1

    • En Méditerranée, l’UE retire ses navires militaires qui ont sauvé 45.000 migrants

      Les États membres de l’Union européenne ont décidé, mercredi 27 mars, de retirer leurs navires militaires engagés en Méditerranée dans le cadre de l’opération militaire dite « Sophia », au moins temporairement. Depuis 2015, ces bateaux ont pourtant permis de sauver 45 000 migrants environ.

      https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/280319/en-mediterranee-l-ue-retire-ses-navires-militaires-qui-ont-sauve-45000-mig

    • #EUNAVFOR_MED Operation Sophia : mandate extended until 30 September 2019

      The Council today extended the mandate of EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia until 30 September 2019.

      The Operation Commander has been instructed to suspend temporarily the deployment of the Operation’s naval assets for the duration of this extension for operational reasons. EU member states will continue to work in the appropriate fora on a solution on disembarkation as part of the follow-up to the June 2018 European Council conclusions.

      The Operation will continue to implement its mandate accordingly, strengthening surveillance by air assets as well as reinforcing support to the Libyan Coastguard and Navy in law enforcement tasks at sea through enhanced monitoring, including ashore, and continuation of training.

      The operation’s core mandate is to contribute to the EU’s work to disrupt the business model of migrant smugglers and human traffickers in the Southern Central Mediterranean. The operation has also supporting tasks. It trains the Libyan Coastguard and Navy and monitors the long-term efficiency of the training and it contributes to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya. In addition, the operation also conducts surveillance activities and gathers information on illegal trafficking of oil exports from Libya, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. As such, the operation contributes to EU efforts for the return of stability and security in Libya and to maritime security in the Central Mediterranean region.

      EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia was launched on 22 June 2015. It is part of the EU’s comprehensive approach to migration. The Operation Commander is Rear Admiral Credendino, from Italy. The headquarters of the operation are located in Rome.

      Today’s decision was adopted by the Council by written procedure.

      https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2019/03/29/eunavfor-med-operation-sophia-mandate-extended-until-30-september-2

    • Un bon article de #Matteo_Villa qui résume ces questions, paru en septembre 2018 :

      Outsourcing European Border Control : Recent Trends in Departures, Deaths and Search and Rescue Activities in the Central Mediterranean

      In our previous blog post ‘Border Deaths in the Mediterranean: what we can learn from the latest data?’ on Border Criminologies (March 2017) we discussed the existing data sources on Mediterranean Sea migration and provided an analysis of key patterns and trends. We found that Search and Rescue (SAR) has little or no effect on the number of arrivals, and it is rather the absence of SAR that leads to more deaths. These results, which are in line with other research, were covered by various European media outlets and also resulted in a peer reviewed publication in Sociology (also available as a free preprint).

      These findings covered the period until December 2016. Since then, however, the context of European border policy has changed considerably:

      Through a mix of political pressure, financial incentives and military assistance, the EU has tried to induce transit countries in the Sahel to close their borders to Europe-bound migrants. According to European parliament president Tajani, this resulted in a 95% drop in crossings through Niger, a key transition point for migrants on the way to Libya, although it cannot be excluded that migrants are taking different, more dangerous routes in order to reach Northern African countries (either via Niger or through Algeria).
      From the beginning of 2017 onwards, the Italian government backed by the EU has increasingly cooperated with Libyan authorities to block depatures in exchange for financial and logistical support. The UN-backed government in Libya in turn, has allegedly forged deals with a number of militias.
      Increased European support for the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG), resulting in an increase in interceptions and the declaration of a Libyan SAR zone.
      Increasing legal and political attacks on NGOs engaged in SAR have culminated in Italy’s decision to declare its ports to be “closed” to NGO vessels and (temporarily) to EU rescue ships in June 2018.

      Each of these developments can be seen as part of a broader strategy to close the European borders by externalizing border control to third countries, a practice that was tried earlier with Turkey, and to relax commitments enshrined in international law, such as search and rescue at sea and non refoulement.

      In view of these recent developments, we document estimated trends in arrivals, deaths, mortality rates and rescue activities covering the most recent period, between January 2016 and July 2018. In doing so, we strongly rely on detailed statistical analyses conducted by the Italian research institute ISPI. Our analyses are based on publicly available data from the IOM and the UNHCR for arrivals and interceptions, and IOM’s Missing Migrants Project for deaths. It is important to note that recorded deaths are a lower bound estimate of the actual death toll, because some deaths are likely to remain unreported. We provide an extensive discussion of data sources, data quality and challenges for their interpretation in our academic article on the issue. Since most of the above developments relate to the situation in Libya, we focus on migrants departing from that country. Libya is also the only Northern African country where interceptions at sea by the Coast Guard are independently monitored by both IOM and UNHCR personnel at disembarkation points.

      Although each of these individual developments have been reported elsewhere, together they paint a picture of Europe’s resolve to close its external borders and deter irregular migration, regardless of the (human) cost.

      Trend #1: A sharp drop in departures

      Figure 1 plots trends in the number of migrants departing irregularly from Libya by sea since January 2016. Until mid-2017, migrant departures show a remarkably regular seasonal pattern, with around 20,000 departures during the summer months. As of July 2017, however, the number of arrivals dropped dramatically, and it has stayed at comparatively low levels up to the present. The decrease in arrivals occurred after alleged ’deals’ between Libyan authorities and the militias in Western Libya that control the smuggling networks, and a few months after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Italy and Libya. Convergent diplomatic action induced some militias to switch from smuggling to preventing departures. Other factors, such as the activity of the LCG, private and public SAR providers, or dynamics in the rate of dead and missing along the route, are relevant per se but appear to play no significant role in the decrease in arrivals to Europe. Europe’s efforts to block migrants passing though transit countries may have played a role as well, but evidence is still too sparse to be reliably assessed.

      Trend #2: An increased risk of interception by the Libyan Coast Guard

      The Libyan Coast Guard plays a pivotal role in Europe’s strategy of externalizing migration control to third countries. A report by Human Rights Watch suggests that in recent months “the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (IMRCC) has routinized a practice, tested since at least May 2017, of transferring responsibility to Libyan coast guard forces in international waters even when there are other, better-equipped vessels, including its own patrol boats or Italian navy vessels, closer to the scene.” This practice has been termed ’refoulement by proxy’ because the LCG is financed, equipped and instructed by the Italian and European authorities, as described in this recent investigative report. Migrants who are forcibly returned to Libya are imprisoned in detention centres for indefinite periods, and they face systematic violence—including torture and rape—as has been documented in numerous reports.

      The new Italian government intensified and formalized the policy of transferring responsibility to the LCG. Since June, it has instructed ships undertaking rescues in the Libyan SAR zone to refer all emergency calls to the Libyan authorities, who will then arrange their interception and pull-back to Libya. The declarations that Italian ports are “closed” to NGO ships are also part of this strategy, as their operations are considered to interfere with LCG interceptions. In late July, this practice resulted in the first instance of a non-Libyan vessel, the Asso Ventotto, being instructed to coordinate with the Tripoli Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC). The ship ultimately disembarked the rescued persons on Libyan territory and thus effectively engaged in refoulement and collective expulsion of migrants.

      The practice of outsourcing European border control to the Libyan Coast Guard has brought about a sharp increase in its activity: by the end of July 2018, the LCG had intercepted 12,490 migrants at sea compared to 8,851 during the same period in the previous year, which amounts to a 41% increase. In combination with the drop in departures, this policy has resulted in a rapid increase in the risk of interception. To illustrate this fact, in July 2017 just 6% of migrants leaving Libya by sea ended up being caught and brought back, while almost 94% made it to Europe. In July 2018, instead, 71% of migrants leaving Libya’s shores were intercepted and brought back, while just 24% arrived safely in a European country (see Figure 2).

      Trend #3: An increase in the absolute and relative mortality rate between mid-June and July 2018

      In this section, we look at trends in absolute mortality (the number of dead and missing people at sea) and relative mortality (the risk of crossing) of migrants departing from Libya. In particular, we analyse the widely reported spike in deaths that occurred in late June 2018, after virtually all SAR NGOs had been prevented from operating as a result of policies introduced by the new Italian Minister of Interior Salvini from the far-right Lega and the continued denial by the Maltese authorities to offer Valetta as a port of entry. On June 10, Italy unilaterally decided to declare its ports to be “closed” to NGO rescue ships, as well as (temporarily) to commercial and EU vessels carrying rescued migrants. Also Malta tightened its position on rescue activities and cracked down on two SAR NGOs in early July. Since then, rescue operations close to the Libyan coast have been almost entirely delegated to the LCG.

      First, we look at trends in the absolute mortality rate. Figure 3 shows a reduction in the monthly number of deaths since July 2017, commensurate with the reduction in the number of departures described above. For example, 20 deaths were recorded in April 2018, and 11 in May (Figure 3). In June, however, an estimated 451 migrants died on their way from Libya to Europe—of which 370 between 16 and 30 June. It is important to note that these deaths occurred during a time when departures were comparatively low. As a result, the risk of crossing has increased from 2.8% in the previous months to a staggering 7% since mid-June 2018 (Figure 4). These findings are also robust to using different time frames for the pre-NGO absence period, including the entire period since the drop of arrivals in July 2017 until the NGO ban. Whereas relative mortality has fluctuated in recent years, 7% constitute an extraordinary spike.

      Figure 5 maps shipwreck events occurring between 16 June and 31 July 2018 with at least estimated 15 dead or missing persons, using geocoded data provided by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project. While the precise location of each shipwreck is only an estimate, as “precise locations are not often known” (as explained in the “Methodology” section of the Missing Migrants Project), such estimates do provide an indication of where such shipwrecks have taken place. In particular, IOM data shows that shipwrecks between 16 June and 31 July took place well within 50 nautical miles from Libya’s shores, an area which used to be patrolled by either the LCG or NGO vessels. Yet, during the time when deaths spiked, only two NGO vessels had been operating, and only discontinuously.

      These observations are reminiscent of what happened in 2015, when the withdrawal of competent SAR providers (the Italian mission Mare Nostrum) similarly created the conditions for avoidable loss of life. Although these findings are based on a relatively short time period, they are suggestive of the risk of leaving the Libyan SAR zone to the operations of the LCG alone. Continuous monitoring of the situation remains of utmost importance.

      Conclusion

      In combination, the three trends described above highlight the harsh realities of recent European migration policies, which seek to limit irregular migration regardless of the moral, legal and humanitarian consequences. The current European obsession with reducing migration at all costs is even less comprehensible when considering that arrivals decreased drastically prior to the most recent escalation of rhetoric and externalization of migration control. Arrivals to Italy in the first half of 2018 were down by 79% compared to the same time frame in 2017. Although increasingly inhumane policies are often cloaked in a rhetoric about reducing deaths at sea, it is important to remember that those who are prevented from crossing or forcibly returned are generally not safe but remain subject to precarious and often lethal conditions in countries of transit. Rather than providing a sustainable response to the complex challenges involved in irregular migration, Europe has outsourced the management of its migration ’problem’ to countries like Libya and Niger, where violence and death often remains hidden from the public view.

      https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder-criminologies/blog/2018/09/outsourcing

    • Arrivées en Europe via la Méditerranée :
      2018 :
      https://seenthis.net/messages/705781
      Arrivées en Europe toute frontière confondue :
      https://seenthis.net/messages/739902
      –-> attention, c’est les « crossings »... rappelez-vous de la question des doubles/triples contages des passages :
      https://seenthis.net/messages/705957

      Pour #2016 #2017 et #2018, chiffres de Matteo Villa :
      https://seenthis.net/messages/768142
      database : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ncHxOHIx4ptt4YFXgGi9TIbwd53HaR3oFbrfBm67ak4/edit#gid=0
      #base_de_données #database

    • Arrivées par la #Méditerranée en #2019 :
      Europe : plus de 21.000 migrants et réfugiés arrivés par la Méditerranée depuis janvier

      Selon l’Agence des Nations Unies pour les migrations (OIM ), les arrivées de migrants en Méditerranée ont dépassé le seuil des 21.000, ce qui constitue une baisse d’environ un tiers par rapport aux 32.070 arrivés au cours de la même période l’an dernier.

      Ce sont exactement 21.301 migrants et réfugiés qui sont entrés en Europe par voie maritime à la date du 29 mai. Les arrivées en Espagne et en Grèce représentent 85% du total des arrivées, le reste des migrants et réfugiés de cette année ont pris la direction de l’Italie, de Malte et de Chypre.

      La Grèce a désormais surpassé l’Espagne au titre de première destination des migrants et des réfugiés rejoignant l’Europe via la Méditerranée. Selon l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM), le nombre total d’arrivées par mer cette année est de 10.200 dont 2.483 arrivées signalées entre le 1er et le 29 mai dernier.

      Le Bureau de l’OIM en Grèce a indiqué mercredi dernier que les garde-côtes helléniques ont confirmé que pendant plus de 48 heures entre le 28 et le 29 mai, il y eu sept incidents nécessitant des opérations de recherche et sauvetage au large des îles de Lesbos, Leros, Samos, Symi Kos et le port d’Alexandroupolis. Ils ont ainsi sauvé 191 migrants qui ont été transférés par la suite dans les ports respectifs grecs.

      De plus, à la date du 30 avril, ce sont 3.497 migrants qui ont réussi à atteindre la Grèce via sa frontière terrestre avec la Turquie.
      519 décès de migrants, dont plus de la moitié sur la route de la Méditerranée centrale

      L’Espagne reste la deuxième porte d’entrée des réfugiés en Méditerranée, avec 7.876 arrivées dont 1.160 hommes, femmes et enfants pour le seul mois de mai. Sur la même période l’an dernier, Madrid a comptabilisé 8.150 migrants et réfugiés ayant réussi à franchir la route de la Méditerranée occidentale. En outre, plus de 2.100 ont atteint l’Espagne via sa frontière terrestre avec le Maroc.

      Par ailleurs, l’OIM rappelle que les arrivées ont considérablement baissé en Italie où seuls 1.561 migrants ont réussi à franchir les côtes siciliennes.

      Mais la route de la Méditerranée centrale (Italie et Malte) reste tout de même la plus meurtrière avec 321 décès, soit plus de la moitié du total de migrants et réfugiés ayant péri en tentant d’atteindre l’Europe. Les décès enregistrés sur les trois principales routes de la mer Méditerranée pendant près de cinq mois en 2019 s’élèvent à 519 personnes, soit un quart de moins que les 662 décès confirmés au cours de la même période en 2018.

      A cet égard, l’OIM rappelle que dans l’ouest de la Méditerranée, l’organisation non gouvernementale Alarme Phone a signalé qu’un jeune Camerounais avait disparu le 21 mai dernier. Selon les témoignages des huit survivants qui l’accompagnaient, il serait tombé en mer avant que leur navire ne soit intercepté par la marine marocaine. Son corps n’a pas été retrouvé.

      En Méditerranée centrale, des migrants interceptés et renvoyés en Libye le 23 mai ont également indiqué aux équipes de l’OIM que cinq hommes s’étaient noyés au cours de leur voyage. « Aucun autre détail concernant l’identité, le pays d’origine ou d’autres informations personnelles concernant les disparus n’est disponible », a souligné l’OIM dans une note à la presse.

      https://news.un.org/fr/story/2019/05/1044671

  • Autour des #gardes-côtes_libyens... et de #refoulements en #Libye...

    Je copie-colle ici des articles que j’avais mis en bas de cette compilation (qu’il faudrait un peu mettre en ordre, peut-être avec l’aide de @isskein ?) :
    https://seenthis.net/messages/705401

    Les articles ci-dessous traitent de :
    #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Méditerranée #push-back #refoulement #externalisation #frontières

    • Pour la première fois depuis 2009, un navire italien ramène des migrants en Libye

      Une embarcation de migrants secourue par un navire de ravitaillement italien a été renvoyée en Libye lundi 30 juillet. Le HCR a annoncé mardi l’ouverture d’une enquête et s’inquiète d’une violation du droit international.

      Lundi 30 juillet, un navire battant pavillon italien, l’Asso Ventotto, a ramené des migrants en Libye après les avoir secourus dans les eaux internationales – en 2012 déjà l’Italie a été condamnée par la Cour européenne des droits de l’Homme pour avoir reconduit en Libye des migrants secourus en pleine mer en 2009.

      L’information a été donnée lundi soir sur Twitter par Oscar Camps, le fondateur de l’ONG espagnole Proactiva Open Arms, avant d’être reprise par Nicola Fratoianni, un député de la gauche italienne qui est actuellement à bord du bateau humanitaire espagnol qui sillonne en ce moment les côtes libyennes.

      Selon le quotidien italien La Repubblica, 108 migrants à bord d’une embarcation de fortune ont été pris en charge en mer Méditerranée par l’Asso Ventotto lundi 30 juillet. L’équipage du navire de ravitaillement italien a alors contacté le MRCC à Rome - centre de coordination des secours maritimes – qui les a orienté vers le centre de commandement maritime libyen. La Libye leur a ensuite donné l’instruction de ramener les migrants au port de Tripoli.

      En effet depuis le 28 juin, sur décision européenne, la gestion des secours des migrants en mer Méditerranée dépend des autorités libyennes et non plus de l’Italie. Concrètement, cela signifie que les opérations de sauvetage menées dans la « SAR zone » - zone de recherche et de sauvetage au large de la Libye - sont désormais coordonnées par les Libyens, depuis Tripoli. Mais le porte-parole du Conseil de l’Europe a réaffirmé ces dernières semaines qu’"aucun navire européen ne peut ramener des migrants en Libye car cela serait contraire à nos principes".

      Violation du droit international

      La Libye ne peut être considérée comme un « port sûr » pour le débarquement des migrants. « C’est une violation du droit international qui stipule que les personnes sauvées en mer doivent être amenées dans un ‘port sûr’. Malgré ce que dit le gouvernement italien, les ports libyens ne peuvent être considérés comme tels », a déclaré sur Twitter le député Nicola Fratoianni. « Les migrants se sont vus refuser la possibilité de demander l’asile, ce qui constitue une violation des accords de Genève sur les sauvetages en mer », dit-il encore dans le quotidien italien La Stampa.

      Sur Facebook, le ministre italien de l’Intérieur, Matteo Salvini, nie toutes entraves au droit international. « La garde-côtière italienne n’a ni coordonné, ni participé à cette opération, comme l’a faussement déclarée une ONG et un député de gauche mal informé ».

      Le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR) a de son côté annoncé mardi 31 juillet l’ouverture d’une enquête. « Nous recueillons toutes les informations nécessaires sur le cas du remorqueur italien Asso Ventotto qui aurait ramené en Libye 108 personnes sauvées en Méditerranée. La Libye n’est pas un ‘port sûr’ et cet acte pourrait constituer une violation du droit international », dit l’agence onusienne sur Twitter.

      http://www.infomigrants.net/fr/post/10995/pour-la-premiere-fois-depuis-2009-un-navire-italien-ramene-des-migrant

    • Nave italiana soccorre e riporta in Libia 108 migranti. Salvini: «Nostra Guardia costiera non coinvolta»

      L’atto in violazione della legislazione internazionale che garantisce il diritto d’asilo e che non riconosce la Libia come un porto sicuro. Il vicepremier: «Nostre navi non sono intervenute nelle operazioni». Fratoianni (LeU): «Ci sono le prove della violazione»

      http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/07/31/news/migranti_nave_italiana_libia-203026448/?ref=RHPPLF-BH-I0-C8-P1-S1.8-T1
      #vos_thalassa #asso_28

      Commentaire de Sara Prestianni, via la mailing-list de Migreurop:

      Le navire commerciale qui opere autour des plateformes de pétrole, battant pavillon italien - ASSO 28 - a ramené 108 migrants vers le port de Tripoli suite à une opération de sauvetage- Les premiers reconstructions faites par Open Arms et le parlementaire Fratoianni qui se trouve à bord de Open Arms parlent d’une interception en eaux internationales à la quelle a suivi le refoulement. Le journal La Repubblica dit que les Gardes Cotes Italiennes auraient invité Asso28 à se coordonner avec les Gardes Cotes Libyennes (comme font habituellement dans les derniers mois. Invitation déclinés justement par les ong qui opèrent en mer afin de éviter de proceder à un refoulement interdit par loi). Le Ministre de l’Interieur nie une implication des Gardes Cotes Italiens et cyniquement twitte “Le Garde cotes libyenne dans les derniers heures ont sauvé et ramené à terre 611 migrants. Les Ong protestent les passeurs font des affaires ? C’est bien. Nous continuons ainsi”

    • Départs de migrants depuis la Libye :

      Libya : outcomes of the sea journey

      Migrants intercepted /rescued by the Libyan coast guard

      Lieux de désembarquement :


      #Italie #Espagne #Malte

      –-> Graphiques de #Matteo_Villa, posté sur twitter :
      source : https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1036892919964286976

      #statistiques #chiffres #2016 #2017 #2018

      cc @simplicissimus

    • Libyan Coast Guard Takes 611 Migrants Back to Africa

      Between Monday and Tuesday, the Libyan Coast Guard reportedly rescued 611 migrants aboard several dinghies off the coast and took them back to the African mainland.

      Along with the Libyan search and rescue operation, an Italian vessel, following indications from the Libyan Coast Guard, rescued 108 migrants aboard a rubber dinghy and delivered them back to the port of Tripoli. The vessel, called La Asso 28, was a support boat for an oil platform.

      Italian mainstream media have echoed complaints of NGOs claiming that in taking migrants back to Libya the Italian vessel would have violated international law that guarantees the right to asylum and does not recognize Libya as a safe haven.

      In recent weeks, a spokesman for the Council of Europe had stated that “no European ship can bring migrants back to Libya because it is contrary to our principles.”

      Twenty days ago, another ship supporting an oil rig, the Vos Thalassa, after rescuing a group of migrants, was preparing to deliver them to a Libyan patrol boat when an attempt to revolt among the migrants convinced the commander to reverse the route and ask the help of the Italian Coast Guard. The migrants were loaded aboard the ship Diciotti and taken to Trapani, Sicily, after the intervention of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.

      On the contrary, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has declared Tuesday’s operation to be a victory for efforts to curb illegal immigration. The decision to take migrants back to Africa rather than transporting them to Europe reflects an accord between Italy and Libya that has greatly reduced the numbers of African migrants reaching Italian shores.

      Commenting on the news, Mr. Salvini tweeted: “The Libyan Coast Guard has rescued and taken back to land 611 immigrants in recent hours. The NGOs protest and the traffickers lose their business? Great, this is how we make progress,” followed by hashtags announcing “closed ports” and “open hearts.”

      Parliamentarian Nicola Fratoianni of the left-wing Liberi and Uguali (Free and Equal) party and secretary of the Italian Left, presently aboard the Spanish NGO ship Open Arms, denounced the move.

      “We do not yet know whether this operation was carried out on the instructions of the Italian Coast Guard, but if so it would be a very serious precedent, a real collective rejection for which Italy and the ship’s captain will answer before a court,” he said.

      “International law requires that people rescued at sea must be taken to a safe haven and the Libyan ports, despite the mystification of reality by the Italian government, cannot be considered as such,” he added.

      The United Nations immigration office (UNHCR) has threatened Italy for the incident involving the 108 migrants taken to Tripoli, insisting that Libya is not a safe port and that the episode could represent a breach of international law.

      “We are collecting all the necessary information,” UNHCR tweeted.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/santiago-anti-abortion-women-stabbed-chile-protest-a8469786.html
      #refoulements #push-back

    • Libya rescued 10,000 migrants this year, says Germany

      Libyan coast guards have saved some 10,000 migrants at sea since the start of this year, according to German authorities. The figure was provided by the foreign ministry during a debate in parliament over what the Left party said were “inhumane conditions” of returns of migrants to Libya. Libyan coast guards are trained by the EU to stop migrants crossing to Europe.

      https://euobserver.com/tickers/142821

    • UNHCR Flash Update Libya (9 - 15 November 2018) [EN/AR]

      As of 14 November, the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) has rescued/intercepted 14,595 refugees and migrants (10,184 men, 2,147 women and 1,408 children) at sea. On 10 November, a commercial vessel reached the port of Misrata (187 km east of Tripoli) carrying 95 refugees and migrants who refused to disembark the boat. The individuals on board comprise of Ethiopian, Eritrean, South Sudanese, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Somali nationals. UNHCR is closely following-up on the situation of the 14 individuals who have already disembarked and ensuring the necessary assistance is provided and screening is conducted for solutions. Since the onset, UNHCR has advocated for a peaceful resolution of the situation and provided food, water and core relief items (CRIs) to alleviate the suffering of individuals onboard the vessel.

      https://reliefweb.int/report/libya/unhcr-flash-update-libya-9-15-november-2018-enar
      #statistiques #2018 #chiffres

    • Rescued at sea, locked up, then sold to smugglers

      In Libya, refugees returned by EU-funded ships are thrust back into a world of exploitation.

      The Souq al Khamis detention centre in Khoms, Libya, is so close to the sea that migrants and refugees can hear waves crashing on the shore. Its detainees – hundreds of men, women and children – were among 15,000 people caught trying to cross the Mediterranean in flimsy boats in 2018, after attempting to reach Italy and the safety of Europe.

      They’re now locked in rooms covered in graffiti, including warnings that refugees may be sold to smugglers by the guards that watch them.


      This detention centre is run by the UN-backed Libyan government’s department for combatting illegal migration (DCIM). Events here over the last few weeks show how a hardening of European migration policy is leaving desperate refugees with little room to escape from networks ready to exploit them.

      Since 2014, the EU has allocated more than €300 million to Libya with the aim of stopping migration. Funnelled through the Trust Fund for Africa, this includes roughly €40 million for the Libyan coast guard, which intercepts boats in the Mediterranean. Ireland’s contribution to the trust fund will be €15 million between 2016 and 2020.

      Scabies

      One of the last 2018 sea interceptions happened on December 29th, when, the UN says, 286 people were returned to Khoms. According to two current detainees, who message using hidden phones, the returned migrants arrived at Souq al Khamis with scabies and other health problems, and were desperate for medical attention.


      On New Year’s Eve, a detainee messaged to say the guards in the centre had tried to force an Eritrean man to return to smugglers, but others managed to break down the door and save him.

      On Sunday, January 5th, detainees said, the Libyan guards were pressurising the still-unregistered arrivals to leave by beating them with guns. “The leaders are trying to push them [to] get out every day,” one said.

      https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/rescued-at-sea-locked-up-then-sold-to-smugglers-1.3759181

    • Migranti, 100 persone trasferite su cargo e riportate in Libia. Alarm Phone: “Sono sotto choc, credevano di andare in Italia”

      Dopo l’allarme delle scorse ore e la chiamata del premier Conte a Tripoli, le persone (tra cui venti donne e dodici bambini, uno dei quali potrebbe essere morto di stenti) sono state trasferite sull’imbarcazione che batte bandiera della Sierra Leone in direzione Misurata. Ma stando alle ultime informazioni, le tensioni a bordo rendono difficoltoso lo sbarco. Intanto l’ong Sea Watch ha salvato 47 persone e chiede un porto dove attraccare

      https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2019/01/21/migranti-100-persone-trasferite-su-cargo-e-riportate-in-libia-alarm-phone-sono-sotto-choc-credevano-di-andare-in-italia/4911794

    • Migrants calling us in distress from the Mediterranean returned to Libya by deadly ‘refoulement’ industry

      When they called us from the sea, the 106 precarious travellers referred to their boat as a white balloon. This balloon, or rubber dinghy, was meant to carry them all the way to safety in Europe. The people on board – many men, about 20 women, and 12 children from central, west and north Africa – had left Khoms in Libya a day earlier, on the evening of January 19.

      Though they survived the night at sea, many of passengers on the boat were unwell, seasick and freezing. They decided to call for help and used their satellite phone at approximately 11am the next day. They reached out to the Alarm Phone, a hotline operated by international activists situated in Europe and Africa, that can be called by migrants in distress at sea. Alongside my work as a researcher on migration and borders, I am also a member of this activist network, and on that day I supported our shift team who received and documented the direct calls from the people on the boat in distress.

      The boat had been trying to get as far away as possible from the Libyan coast. Only then would the passengers stand a chance of escaping Libya’s coastguard. The European Union and Italy struck a deal in 2017 to train the Libyan coastguard in return for them stopping migrants reaching European shores. But a 2017 report by Amnesty International highlighted how the Libyan authorities operate in collusion with smuggling networks. Time and again, media reports suggest they have drastically violated the human rights of escaping migrants as well as the laws of the sea.

      The migrant travellers knew that if they were detected and caught, they would be abducted back to Libya, or illegally “refouled”. But Libya is a dangerous place for migrants in transit – as well as for Libyan nationals – given the ongoing civil conflict between several warring factions. In all likelihood, being sent back to Libya would mean being sent to detention centres described as “concentration-camp like” by German diplomats.

      The odds of reaching Europe were stacked against the people on the boat. Over the past year, the European-Libyan collaboration in containing migrants in North Africa, a research focus of mine, has resulted in a decrease of sea arrivals in Italy – from about 119,000 in 2017 to 23,000 in 2018. Precisely how many people were intercepted by the Libyan coastguards last year is unclear but the Libyan authorities have put the figure at around 15,000. The fact that this refoulement industry has led to a decrease in the number of migrant crossings in the central Mediterranean means that fewer people have been able to escape grave human rights violations and reach a place of safety.
      Shifting responsibility

      In repeated conversations, the 106 people on the boat made clear to the Alarm Phone activists that they would rather move on and endanger their lives by continuing to Europe than be returned by the Libyan coastguards. The activists stayed in touch with them, and for transparency reasons, the distress situation was made public via Twitter.

      Around noon, the situation on board deteriorated markedly and anxiety spread. With weather conditions worsening and after a boy had fallen unconscious, the people on the boat expressed for the first time their immediate fear of dying at sea and demanded Alarm Phone to alert all available authorities.

      The activists swiftly notified the Italian coastguards. But both the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, and in turn the Maltese authorities, suggested it was the Libyan coastguard’s responsibility to handle the distress call. And yet, eight different phone numbers of the Libyan coastguards could not be reached by the activists.

      In the afternoon, the situation had come across the radar of the Italian media. When the Alarm Phone activists informed the people on board that the public had also been made aware of the situation by the media one person succinctly responded: “I don’t need to be on the news, I need to be rescued.”

      And yet media attention catapulted the story into the highest political spheres in Italy. According to a report in the Italian national newspaper Corriere della Sera, the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, took charge of the situation, stating that the fate of the migrant boat could not be left to Alarm Phone activists. Conte instructed the Italian foreign intelligence service to launch rapid negotiations with the Libyan coastguards. It took some time to persuade them, but eventually, the Libyans were convinced to take action.

      In the meantime, the precarious passengers on the boat reported of water leaking into their boat, of the freezing cold, and their fear of drowning. The last time the Alarm Phone reached them, around 8pm, they could see a plane in the distance but were unable to forward their GPS coordinates to the Alarm Phone due to the failing battery of their satellite phone.
      Sent back to Libya

      About three hours later, the Italian coastguards issued a press release: the Libyans had assumed responsibility and co-ordinated the rescue of several boats. According to the press release, a merchant vessel had rescued the boat and the 106 people would be returned to Libya.

      According to the survivors and Médecins Sans Frontières who treated them on arrival, at least six people appeared to have drowned during the voyage – presumably after the Alarm Phone lost contact with them. Another boy died after disembarkation.

      A day later, on January 21, members of a second group of 144 people called the Alarm Phone from another merchant vessel. Just like the first group, they had been refouled to Libya, but they were still on board. Some still believed that they would be brought to Europe.

      Speaking on the phone with the activists, they could see land but it was not European but Libyan land. Recognising they’d been returned to their place of torment, they panicked, cried and threatened collective suicide. The women were separated from the men – Alarm Phone activists could hear them shout in the background. In the evening, contact with this second group of migrants was lost.

      During the evening of January 23, several of the women of the group reached out to the activists. They said that during the night, Libyan security forces boarded the merchant vessel and transported small groups into the harbour of Misrata, where they were taken to a detention centre. They said they’d been beaten when refusing to disembark. One of them, bleeding, feared that she had already lost her unborn child.

      On the next day, the situation worsened further. The women told the activists that Libyan forces entered their cell in the morning, pointing guns at them, after some of the imprisoned had tried to escape. Reportedly, every man was beaten. The pictures they sent to the Alarm Phone made it into Italian news, showing unhygienic conditions, overcrowded cells, and bodies with torture marks.

      Just like the 106 travellers on the “white balloon”, this second group of 144 people had risked their lives but were now back in their hell.
      Profiteering

      It’s more than likely that for some of these migrant travellers, this was not their first attempt to escape Libya. The tens of thousands captured at sea and returned over the past years have found themselves entangled in the European-Libyan refoulement “industry”. Due to European promises of financial support or border technologies, regimes with often questionable human rights records have wilfully taken on the role as Europe’s frontier guards. In the Mediterranean, the Libyan coastguards are left to do the dirty work while European agencies – such as Frontex, Eunavfor Med as well as the Italian and Maltese coastguards – have withdrawn from the most contentious and deadly areas of the sea.

      It’s sadly not surprising that flagrant human rights violations have become the norm rather than the exception. Quite cynically, several factions of the Libyan coastguards have profited not merely from Europe’s financial support but also from playing a “double game” in which they continue to be involved in human smuggling while, disguised as coastguards, clampdown on the trade of rival smuggling networks. This means that the Libyan coastguards profit often from both letting migrant boats leave and from subsequently recapturing them.

      The detention camps in Libya, where torture and rape are everyday phenomena, are not merely containment zones of captured migrants – they form crucial extortion zones in this refoulement industry. Migrants are turned into “cash cows” and are repeatedly subjected to violent forms of extortion, often forced to call relatives at home and beg for their ransom.

      Despite this systematic abuse, migrant voices cannot be completely drowned out. They continue to appear, rebelliously, from detention and even from the middle of the sea, reminding us all about Europe’s complicity in the production of their suffering.

      https://theconversation.com/migrants-calling-us-in-distress-from-the-mediterranean-returned-to-

    • Libya coast guard detains 113 migrants during lull in fighting

      The Libyan coast guard has stopped 113 migrants trying to reach Italy over the past two days, the United Nations said on Wednesday, as boat departures resume following a lull in fighting between rival forces in Libya.

      The western Libyan coast is a major departure point for mainly African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty and trying to reach Italy across the Mediterranean Sea with the help of human traffickers.

      Smuggling activity had slowed when forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to take the capital Tripoli, home to Libya’s internationally recognized government.

      But clashes eased on Tuesday after a push by Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) back by artillery failed to make inroads toward the center.

      Shelling audible in central Tripoli was less intense on Wednesday than on previous days. Three weeks of clashes had killed 376 as of Tuesday, the World Health Organization said.

      The Libyan coast guard stopped two boats on Tuesday and one on Wednesday, carrying 113 migrants in all, and returned them to two western towns away from the Tripoli frontline, where they were put into detention centers, U.N. migration agency IOM said.

      A coast guard spokesman said the migrants were from Arab and sub-Saharan African countries as well as Bangladesh.

      Human rights groups have accused armed groups and members of the coast guard of being involved in human trafficking.

      Officials have been accused in the past of mistreating detainees, who are being held in their thousands as part of European-backed efforts to curb smuggling. A U.N. report in December referred to a “terrible litany” of violations including unlawful killings, torture, gang rape and slavery.

      Rights groups have also accused the European Union of complicity in the abuse as Italy and France have provided boats for the coast guard to step up patrols. That move has helped to reduce migrant departures.

      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security/libya-coast-guard-detains-113-migrants-during-lull-in-fighting-idUSKCN1S73R

    • Judgement in Italy recognizes that people rescued by #Vos_Thalassa acted lawfully when opposed disembarkation in #Libya. Two men spent months in prison, as Italian government had wished, till a judge established that they had acted in legitimate defence.
      Also interesting that judge argues that Italy-Libya Bilateral agreement on migration control must be considered illegitimate as in breach of international, EU and domestic law.

      https://dirittopenaleuomo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/GIP-Trapani.pdf

      Reçu via FB par @isskein :
      https://www.facebook.com/isabelle.saintsaens/posts/10218154173470834?comment_id=10218154180551011&notif_id=1560196520660275&n
      #justice

    • The Commission and Italy tie themselves up in knots over Libya

      http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-344-Commission-and-Italy-tie-themselves-up-in-knots-over-libya.pdf

      –-> analyse de #Yasha_Maccanico sur la polémique entre Salvini et la Commission quand il a déclaré en mars que la Commission était tout a fait d’accord avec son approche (le retour des migrants aux champs logiques), la Commission l’a démenti et puis a sorti la lettre de Mme. Michou (JAI Commission) de laquelle provenaient les justifications utilisées par le ministre, qui disait à Leggeri que la collaboration avec la garde côtière libyenne des avions européennes était legale. Dans la lettre, elle admit que les italiens et la mission de Frontex font des activités qui devrait être capable de faire la Libye, si sa zone SAR fuisse authentique et pas une manière pour l’UE de se débarrasser de ses obligations légales et humanitaires. C’est un acte de auto-inculpation pour l’UE et pour l’Italie.

    • Returned to War and Torture: Malta and Frontex coordinate push-back to Libya

      On Saturday, 14 March 2020, RCC Malta coordinated a push-back operation from the Maltese Search and Rescue (SAR) zone to Libya in cooperation with the EU border agency Frontex and the so-called Libyan coastguards.[1] Similar to the events we documented on 18 October 2019, the Maltese authorities instructed the so-called Libyan coastguards to enter a European SAR zone in order to abduct about 49 people and force them back to Libya.[2] Instead of complying with refugee and human rights conventions, the Maltese authorities coordinated a grave violation of international law and of the principle of non-refoulment, as the rescued must be disembarked in a safe harbour.[3] Clearly, Libya is not a safe harbour but a place of war and systemic human rights abuses. Every week, the Alarm Phone receives testimonies of torture, rape and other forms of violence against migrants detained in Libyan camps and prisons.

      On the same day, we alerted the Armed Forces of Malta to a second boat in distress in the Maltese SAR zone with 112 people on board.[4] Before their eventual rescue, the people spent about 48 hours at sea. Malta delayed the rescue for more than 18 hours, putting 112 lives at severe risk. Non-assistance, delays, and pushbacks are becoming the norm in the Central Mediterranean, causing trauma in survivors, disappearances and deaths, both at sea and in Libya.

      Europe continues to delegate border enforcement to the Libyan authorities to evade their responsibility to rescue the distressed to Europe. We hold Europe accountable for the abuses and suffering inflicted on migrants at sea and in Libya. We condemn the role of European institutions and member states, including Malta and Italy, in these human rights violations through bilateral agreements as well as the financing, equipping, and training of the so-called Libyan coastguards.

      Summary of the push-back by proxy case:

      On Saturday 14 March 2020, at 15:33h CET, the Alarm Phone received a distress call from 49 people, including one pregnant woman and three children, who were trying to escape from the war in Libya. They had left Tripoli the evening before on a white fiberglass boat. They shared their GPS position with us, which clearly showed them within the Maltese SAR zone (34° 26′ 39 ” N, 14° 07′ 86″ E, at 15:33h). The people on board told us that they had lost their engine and that water was entering the boat. We immediately informed RCC Malta and the Italian coastguard via email. We received updated GPS positions from the people in distress at 16:22h (34° 26 81′ N, 014° 08′ 56″ E) and at 17:07h (N 34° 27′ 12″, E 014° 09′ 37″), both confirming once more that they were drifting within the Maltese SAR zone.

      At 17:42h, RCC Malta confirmed via phone that they had sent two patrol boats for the two SAR events in the Maltese SAR zone to which we had alerted them: one for the boat of 49 people and another one for the rubber boat with 112 people on board. Soon after, at 17:45h, we talked to the 49 people on the boat who told us that they could see a boat heading in their direction. Unfortunately, the conversation broke off and we were not able to clarify further details. This was our last contact to the people in distress after which we could not reach them any longer. Since then, we have tried to obtain further details from RCC Malta, but they claim to not have any information.

      However, confidential sources have informed us that a Frontex aerial asset had spotted the migrant boat already at 6:00h when it was still in the contested Libyan SAR zone. At 18.04h, the Libyan coastguard vessel Ras Al Jadar intercepted the boat in the Maltese SAR zone at the position N34° 26’, E 14° 07’. This means that the European border agency Frontex, MRCC Rome as well as RCC Malta were all aware of this boat in distress and colluded with the Libyan authorities to enter Maltese SAR and intercept the migrant boat.

      On Sunday 15 March 2020, at 7:00h, we were called by relatives of the people on board who told us that the people in distress had just informed them that they had been abducted by a Libyan vessel from within the Maltese SAR zone and returned to Libya, where, according to their testimonies, they were imprisoned and battered. In the afternoon, we were called by the people who were on the boat, and they testified that before the push-back occurred they saw a helicopter circling above them. About 30 minutes later, according to their testimonies, a vessel of the so-called Libyan coastguard arrived on scene. The people stated that the Libyan officers behaved brutally toward them, beating them repeatedly. They also stated that they were prevented from filming and documenting these abuses as their phones were confiscated. Moreover, the people reported that they had travelled together with another boat, a white rubber boat with around 60 people on board (including 7 women and 1 woman with a nine-month-old infant). Also this second boat[5] was intercepted and returned to Libya and its passengers experienced similar forms of violence and abuse.

      https://alarmphone.org/en/2020/03/15/returned-to-war-and-torture/?post_type_release_type=post

  • Over 200 Migrants Drown in Three Days in Mediterranean — Death Toll for 2018 Passes 1,000

    This weekend, some 204 migrants have died at sea off Libya, pushing the total number of migrant drownings in the entire Mediterranean so far this year to over 1,000 people.

    Today (1/07), a small rubber boat packed with migrants capsized off AlKhums, east of Tripoli, with an estimated 41 people surviving after rescue. On Friday (28/06), three babies were among the 103, who died in a shipwreck similar to Sunday’s incident, also caused by smugglers taking migrants to sea in completely unsafe vessels.

    So far this year, the Libyan Coast Guard has returned some 10,000 people to shore from small vessels.

    “I am traveling to Tripoli once again this week and will see firsthand the conditions of migrants who have been rescued as well as those returned to shore by the Libya Coast Guard,” said William Lacy Swing, IOM Director General. “IOM is determined to ensure that the human rights of all migrants are respected as together we all make efforts to stop the people smuggling trade, which is so exploitative of migrants,” said Swing.

    IOM staff were deployed to provide support and first aid to the the 41 migrants who survived the capsize of their small rubber vessel that capsized off AlKhums. This is the second major shipwreck in as many few days. On Friday, a rubber dinghy capsized north of Tripoli and the 16 survivors (young men from Gambia, Sudan, Yemen, Niger and Guinea) were rescued by the Libyan Cost Guard. However, an estimated 103 people lost their lives.

    Adding to grim and tragic scene, the bodies of three babies were taken from the sea by the Libyan Coast Guard. IOM provided assistance at the disembarkation point, including provision of food and water and health assistance. IOM is also in the process of providing psychosocial aid at Tajoura detention centre where the survivors have been transferred. The need for physcosocial support is high as the survivors spent traumatizing time in the water as their engine broke only 30 minutes after departing Garaboli. The survivors have received psychosocial first aid at the detention centre and IOM continues to monitor their condition.
    From Friday to Sunday, close to 1,000 migrants were returned to Libyan shore by the Libyan Coast Guard, who intercepted small crafts as they made their way towards the open sea. Upon disembarkation to shore, migrants have received emergency direct assistance, including food and water, health assistance and IOM protection staff has provided vulnerability interviews. Those rescued and returned by the Libyan Coast Guard are transferred by the Libyan authorities to the detention centres where IOM continues humanitarian assistance.
    “There is an alarming increase in deaths at sea off Libya Coast,” said IOM Libya Chief of Mission Othman Belbeisi, adding: “Smugglers are exploiting the desperation of migrants to leave before there are further crackdowns on Mediterranean crossings by Europe.”

    “Migrants returned by the coast guard should not automatically be transferred to detention and we are deeply concerned that the detention centres will yet again be overcrowded and that living conditions will deteriorate with the recent influx of migrants,” added Belbeisi.

    https://www.iom.int/news/over-200-migrants-drown-three-days-mediterranean-death-toll-2018-passes-1000
    #Méditerranée #asile #migrations #réfugiés #mourir_en_mer #morts #décès #statistiques #chiffres #2018 #mer_Méditerranée

    en français:
    https://news.un.org/fr/story/2018/07/1018032

    • Dopo l’allontanamento delle ONG è strage quotidiana sulla rotta del Mediterraneo centrale

      Nel giorno in cui il ministro dell’interno e vice-presidente del Consiglio rilancia da Pontida l’ennesimo attacco contro le ONG, che vedranno “solo in cartolina” i porti italiani, e mentre tre navi umanitarie sono bloccate nel porto de La Valletta, per decisione del governo maltese, nelle acque del Mediterraneo Centrale si continua a morire. Si continua a morire nell’indifferenza della maggior parte della popolazione italiana, schierata con chi ha promesso che, chiudendo i porti, e le vie di fuga, ai migranti da soccorrere in mare, le condizioni di vita degli italiani colpiti dalla crisi potranno migliorare. Una tragica illusione. Il vero pericolo per tutti oggi non viene dal mare, ma dalla costituzione di un fronte sovranista ed identitario europeo, che potrebbe cancellare lo stato di diritto e la democrazia rappresentativa. E allora non ci sarà più spazio nè per i diritti umani nè per i diritti sociali. i più forti imporranno le loro leggi ai più deboli.

      Questa volta nessuno potrà accusare le navi umanitarie, come hanno fatto fino a oggi direttori di giornali in Italia ed esponenti della sedicente Guardia costiera libica. Adesso i libici, in assenza delle navi umanitarie, sono costretti ad avvalersi delle navi commerciali in navigazione nelle loro acque, per operazioni di soccorso che da soli non sono in grado di garantire, salvo poi attaccare le ONG. Per le persone “soccorse” in mare da questi mezzi il destino è segnato, lo sbarco avviene a Tripoli, porto più vicino ma non “place of safety“, e dopo poche ore, per coloro che sono trasferiti dal centro di prima accoglienza al porto, ai vari centri di detenzione gestiti dalle milizie, il destino è segnato.

      Si ripetono intanto attacchi scomposti contro gli operatori umanitari, che rilanciano la macchina del fango che da oltre un anno si rivolge contro le ONG, accusate di tutti i possibili reati, per il solo fatto di salvare vite umane in mare. Si vogliono eliminare tutti i testimoni dell’Olocausto nel Mediterraneo. Senza un voto del Parlamento si è cercato di introdurre in via surrettizia il reato di solidarietà, in spregio al principio di legalità, affermato dalla Costituzione italiana.

      Questa striscia di morte, che si allunga giorno dopo giorno, con una cadenza mai vista prima, deriva direttamente dalla eliminazione delle navi umanitarie e dall’arretramento degli assetti militari italiani ed europei che in passato, anche se si verificavano gravi stragi, riuscivano tuttavia a garantire più solleciti interventi di soccorso. Il blocco di tre navi umanitarie a Malta, come il sequestro della Juventa lo scorso anno, potrebbero essere stati causa di una forte riduzione della capacità di soccorso in acque internazionali, tra la Libia e ‘Europa, una capacità di soccorso che gli stati non hanno voluto mantenere negli standards imposti dalle Convenzioni internazionali a ciascun paese responsabile di una zona SAR ( ricerca e soccorso). La presenza delle navi umanitarie è stata bollata come un fattore di attrazione delle partenze, se non come vera e propria complicità con i trafficanti, come ha ripetuto in più occasioni Salvini. Ne vediamo oggi le conseguenze mortali.

      Anche l’UNHCR ha espresso la sua preoccupazione per la diminuzione degli assetti navali in grado di operare interventi di soccorso nelle acque del Mediterraneo centrale. Secondo l’OIM negli ultimi tre giorni sono annegate oltre 200 persone, una serie di stragi ignorate dall’oipinione pubblica italiana e nascoste dai politici concentrati nel rinnovato attacco contro le ONG. La “banalità” della strage quotidiana in mare costituisce la cifra morale del governo Salvini-Di Maio. Con il sommarsi delle vittime, e l’allontanamento dei testimoni, si vuole produrre una totale assuefazione nella popolazione italiana. Per alimentare altro odio ed altra insicurezza, utili per le prossime scadenze elettorali.

      Nelle prime settimane di insediamento del nuovo governo, ed in vista del Consiglio europeo di Bruxelles del 28-29 giugno scorso, il ministero dell’interno ha disposto in modo informale la chiusura dei porti ed il divieto di ingresso nelle acque territoriali, per alcune imbarcazioni delle Organizzazioni non governative che avevano effettuato soccorsi nelle acque internazionali antistanti le coste libiche. Sono state anche ritardate le operazioni di sbarco di centinaia di persone, soccorse da unità militari ( come la nave americana Trenton), o commerciali ( come il cargo Alexander Maersk), che, solo dopo lunghi giorni di attesa, hanno potuto trasbordare i naufraghi che avevamo a bordo e proseguire per la loro rotta. In molti casi si sono trasferite le responsabilità di coordinamento dei soccorsi alle autorità libiche, con i risultati che sono sotto gli occhi di tutti.

      Le ultime vicende delle navi umanitarie Acquarius , Lifeline e Open Arms, dopo il sequestro, lo scorso anno, della nave Juventa, ancora bloccata a Trapani, hanno aperto una nuova fase di tensioni anche a livello internazionale, in particolare con il governo maltese e con le autorità spagnole. Il governo italiano ha chiuso i porti alle poche navi umanitarie ancora impegnate nelle attività di ricerca e salvataggio (SAR) sulla rotta del Mediterraneo centrale, mentre si è rilanciata la criminalizzazione delle Ong, e più in generale di chiunque rispetti il dovere di salvare vite umane in mare, malgrado importanti decisioni della magistratura (di Ragusa e di Palermo) riconoscessero come lecite, anzi doverose, le attività di soccorso umanitario delle stesse Ong sotto inchiesta.

      Da ultimo si è appreso che ci sarebbero motivi “di ordine pubblico” alla base della decisione del ministro dell’Interno Matteo Salvini di vietare l’accesso ai porti italiani alla Open Arms.
Questi motivi, stando a informazioni che non sono state formalizzate in un provvedimento notificato agli interessati, sarebbero costituiti dalle “vicende giudiziarie” in cui è stata coinvolta la nave delle Ong spagnola, dissequestrata con una sentenza del Gip poi confermata dal tribunale di Ragusa, e dalle “manifestazioni”(rischio proteste) che si sono verificate in occasione del sequestro preventivo alla quale era stata sottoposta nel porto di Pozzallo.

      Si configura così come problema di “ordine pubblico” il doveroso espletamento di una operazione SAR che si è svolta nel pieno rispetto della legge e del diritto internazionale, per legittimare un provvedimento, ancora segretato, forse una circolare probabilmente da redigere, del ministro Toninelli, che vieta l’ingresso alle navi delle Ong nelle acque territoriali e nei porti italiani .

      L’allontanamento delle ONG per effetto delle “chiusure” informali dei porti, e la istituzione unilaterale di una zona SAR libica, oltre al blocco imposto alle navi umanitarie dalle autorità maltesi, riducono la presenza dei mezzi di soccorso nel Mediterraneo centrale e hanno già comportato un aumento esponenziale delle vittime.

      La realizzazione del progetto italiano di istituire una zona SAR , completata con una forte pressione sull’IMO a Londra, sta producendo tutti i suoi effetti mortali, considerando che la Guardia costiera “libica” non può coprire tutte le azioni di soccorso che è chiamata ad operare (spesso da assetti italiani), avendo a disposizione soltanto sei motovedette. Si tratta di mezzi ceduti dai precedenti governi italiani, oggi abbastanza logorati malgrado siano stati curati nella manutenzione dai marinai delle unità italiane, di stanza nel porto di Tripoli, nell’ambito della missione NAURAS. Non si sa come e quando arriveranno in Libia le 12 motovedette promesse alla Guardia costiera di Tripoli da Salvini, che doveva fare approvare la sua proposta in Consiglio dei ministri, approvazione che ancora non c’e’ stata. Una iniziativa che potrebbe infuocare ancora di più lo scontro tra le milizie libiche per il controllo dei porti, e del traffico di gas e petrolio.
      La creazione fittizia di una zona SAR libica, che sembra sia stata notificata anche all’IMO, sta legittimando gli interventi più frequenti della Guardia costiera di Tripoli, che arrivano a minacciare anche gli operatori umanitari mentre sono impegnati negli interventi di soccorso in acque internazionali. Interventi di soccorso che sono sempre monitorati dalle autorità militari italiane ed europee, che però non intervengono con la stessa tempestività che permetteva in passato il salvataggio di migliaia di vite.

      Il cerchio si chiude. Adesso arriva anche il supporto europeo alla chiusura contro le ONG, anche se non si traduce in alcun atto dotato di forza normativa vinclante. Tutte le politiche europee sull’immigrazione, anche i respingimenti, avverranno “su base volontaria”. Ma le navi di Frontex ( e di Eunavfor Med) rimangono vincolate agli obblighi di soccorso previsti dai Regolamenti europei n.656 del 2014 e 1624 del 2016. Atti normativi, vincolanti anche per i ministri,che subordinano le azioni contro i trafficanti alla salvaguardia della vita delle vittime, non esternazioni di leader sull’orlo di una crisi di nervi alla fine di un Consiglio europeo estenuante ed inconcludente.

      L’illegalità di scelte politiche e militari che vanno contro il diritto internazionale viene giustificata con lo spauracchio di manifestazioni democratiche di protesta. Non e’ a rischio soltanto la libertà di manifestazione o il diritto a svolgere attività di assistenza e di soccorso umanitario. Il messaggio lanciato dal governo italiano, e ripreso dal governo maltese, è chiaro, riguarda tutti, non solo i migranti. E’ la strategia mortale della dissuasione, rivolta ai migranti ed agli operatori umanitari. Altro che “pacchia”. Per chi si trova costretto a fuggire dalla Libia, senza alternative sicure per salvare la vita, il rischio del naufragio si fa sempre più concreto. Anche se gli “sbarchi” sono drasticamente calati, rispetto allo scorso anno, è in forte aumento il numero delle vittime, morti e dispersi, abbandonati nelle acque del Mediterraneo.

      In questa situazione la magistratura italiana è chiamata a fare rispettare le regole dello stato di diritto e gli impegni assunti dall’Italia con la firma e la ratifica delle Convenzioni internazionali di diritto del mare. Ma è anche importante il contributo della società civile organizzata, delle associazioni, di tutto quel mondo del volontariato che in questi ultimi mesi è stato messo sotto accusa con lo slogan della “lotta al business dell’immigrazione”. Quando erano state proprio le Organizzazioni non governative a denunciare chi faceva affari sulla pelle dei migranti e chi ometteva i controlli, denunce fatte in Parlamento e nel lavoro quotidiano di tanti cittadini solidali. L’attacco contro il sistema di accoglienza è stato utilizzato per delegittimare e bloccare chi portava soccorso in mare, mentre gli stati venivano meno ai loro obblighi di salvataggio. Verranno dalla società civile europea e dagli operatori umanitari le denunce che inchioderanno i responsabili delle stragi per omissione.

      Rispetto alle richieste di soccorso, e persino rispetto alle istanze che si stanno proponendo per avere chiarite le basi normative e i contenuti dei provvedimenti amministrativi, sulla base dei quali si sta interdicendo l’ingresso nelle acque territoriali e nei porti italiani alle navi delle ONG, impegnate in attività SAR nelle acque internazionali a nord delle coste libiche, silenzi e ritardi. Si può riscontrare silenzio e ritardo nell’attività delle pubbliche amministrazioni riconducibili al Ministero delle infrastrutture ( quanto al divieto di ingresso) e dell’interno (quanto alle note di rilevazione ed alla dichiarazione di una situazione di pericolo per l’ordine pubblico). Le decisioni dei ministri, su materie così importanti che incidono sulla vita ( e sulla morte) delle persone, non possono essere comunicate sui social, con messaggi Twitter o attraverso Facebook.

      Se gli avvistamenti iniziali ed il coordinamento “di fatto” (come rilevato dalla magistratura) della Guardia costiera “libica” sono effettuati da parte di autorità militari italiane, in sinergia con gli assetti aero-navali europei delle missioni Themis di Frontex ed Eunavfor MED, le autorità italiane non possono dismettere la loro responsabilità di soccorso.

      In questi casi il ministero dell’interno italiano ha l’obbligo di indicare un porto sicuro (place of safety) di sbarco in Italia, dal momento che la Libia non offre porti sicuri, e che Malta ha negato in diverse occasioni l’attracco a navi commerciali o umanitarie, che avevano operato soccorsi nelle acque del Mediterraneo centrale.

      Contro la scelta di chiudere i porti e di interdire l’ingresso delle navi delle ONG nelle acque territoriali, tanto per sbarcare naufraghi soccorsi in alto mare, quanto per effettuare rifornimenti e cambi di equipaggio, occorre rilanciare una forte iniziativa sul piano sociale, politico e legale. Per affermare il diritto alla vita, un diritto incondizionato, che non può essere piegato a finalità politiche o giudiziarie. Per battere quell’ondata di disinformazione e di rancore sociale che sta disintegrando il tessuto umano della nostra Repubblica, e la stessa Unione Europea, indicando nei migranti e in chi li assiste la ragione di tutti i mali che affliggono i cittadini italiani. Come se si trattasse di nemici interni da eliminare. Di fronte a tutto questo, la resistenza è un dovere.

      https://www.a-dif.org/2018/07/01/dopo-lallontanamento-delle-ong-e-strage-quotidiana-sulla-rotta-del-mediterran

    • La rotta più pericolosa del mondo

      Nel primo weekend in cui Tripoli ha coordinato i soccorsi in mare ci sono stati tre naufragi che hanno portato il numero complessivo dei morti e dei dispersi nel solo mese di giugno a 679. Secondo l’Alto commissariato delle Nazioni Unite per i rifugiati (Unhcr), il dato in meno di un mese è più che raddoppiato. Matteo Villa, un ricercatore dell’Ispi, ha elaborato i dati dell’Unhcr e dell’Organizzazione internazionale delle migrazioni (Oim) sulle morti registrate in relazione alle partenze dalla Libia e ha stabilito che dal 1 giugno la rotta del Mediterraneo è diventata la più pericolosa al mondo: “Muore una persona ogni dieci”.
      Un dato allarmante che riporta il tasso di mortalità e il numero assoluto dei morti ai livelli di quelli registrati prima della riduzione delle partenze nel luglio del 2017. “Dopo la repentina diminuzione delle partenze dal 16 luglio 2017, il numero assoluto dei morti e dei dispersi si è ridotto, ma ora siamo tornati incredibilmente ai livelli di prima”, afferma Villa (il tasso di mortalità invece era comunque aumentato nell’ultimo anno). Per il ricercatore questo fattore è legato a tre elementi: “Le ong sono coinvolte sempre di meno nei salvataggi, i mercantili non intervengono perché temono di essere bloccati per giorni in attesa di avere indicazioni sul porto di sbarco (come è successo al cargo danese Maersk) e la guardia costiera libica non ha né i mezzi né la competenza per occuparsi dei salvataggi”.


      https://www.internazionale.it/bloc-notes/annalisa-camilli/2018/07/03/morti-migranti-mediterraneo-libia
      #mortalité

    • Les tweet de Matteo Villa sur les morts en 2018 :

      Since June 1st, #migrant attempted crossings from #Libya have become THE RISKIEST since accurate public recordings started in 2016. ALMOST 1 IN 10 died or went missing upon departure from the Libyan coast bettween June 1st and July 2nd.

      After the sudden drop in #migrant departures from #Libya since 16 July 2017, the absolute number of dead and missing had abated. Astoundingly, we are now BACK to pre-drop levels. 679 persons have died or gone missing upon leaving Libya since June 1st.

      n 2018 so far, only about HALF of those departing from #Libya has made it to Italy (vs 86% last year). 44% have been brought back by the Libyan Coast Guard (vs 12% last year). 4.5% have died or gone missing (vs 2.3% last year).

      The increase in absolute dead and missings and in the risk of journey has occurred WHILE the Libyan Coast Guard rescued the highest number of persons in a single month since May 2016.

      Why is this happening: - NGOs carry out less and less SARs, may stop altogether; - commercial ships fear high losses if they do SARs and are held for days waiting for port; - Libyan Coast Guard understaffed and underequipped.

      https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1014068492872704000

      data set
      https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ncHxOHIx4ptt4YFXgGi9TIbwd53HaR3oFbrfBm67ak4/edit#gid=0
      (si @simplicissimus n’a rien à faire dans les prochains jours...)

      MAJOR CORRECTION: dead and missing from Libya since 1 June amount to 565, not 679 as previously stated. Risk of journey skyrocketed from 2.3% in Jan-May 2018 to 7.6% (NOT 9.0%). Absolute levels are still maximum since drop in sea arrivals in July 2017.

      https://twitter.com/emmevilla/status/1014266248094474240

    • Record deaths at sea: will ‘regional disembarkation’ help save lives?

      Never has it been more dangerous for people in search of protection to make the crossing to Europe. The estimated death rate on boat migration journeys across the Mediterranean has risen from 4 per 1000 in 2015 to 24 per 1000 in the first four months of 2018, according to available data.

      While the death rate is higher than ever, the size of migration flows across the Mediterranean has shrunk dramatically. The number of refugees and other migrants who crossed the Mediterranean in June was down 94% compared to the peak of the migration and refugee crisis in 2015. This means that migration policy-makers now have an opportunity to move on from crisis response to a search for long-term solutions.

      Yet, Mediterranean boat migration is an increasingly thorny issue for intra-European relations, and a new surge in arrivals remains imaginable. It still dominates the political discourses of all major European countries. In Germany, Angela Merkel’s coalition remains wobbly due to disagreements over migration policy. Anxiety about migration is therefore much higher than the current number of border-crossings would suggest, and continues to shape policy-making. This was evident in the fraught discussions in the lead-up to the agreement reached by the European Council on 29 June. In fact, the pressure to reach agreement and deliver action seems to have overshadowed concerns about the feasibility of the proposed schemes.


      https://blogs.prio.org/2018/07/record-deaths-at-sea-will-regional-disembarkation-help-save-lives
      #mortalité
      signalé par @isskein

    • Responsibility for surging death toll in Central Med laid squarely at Europe’s door

      The number of people drowning in the Central Mediterranean or being taken back to squalid detention centres in Libya has surged as a result of European policies aimed at closing the central Mediterranean route, Amnesty International said in a new briefing published today.


      https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/08/surging-death-toll-in-central-med
      #responsabilité

      Lien vers le briefing:
      https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur30/8906/2018/en

      #rapport #Amnesty_international

    • Combien de migrants sont morts en Méditerranée ? Où sont-ils enterrés ?
      L’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) recense près de 17000 morts et disparus en Méditerranée depuis 2014

      Bonjour,

      Votre question renvoie vers un tweet de Pierre Sautarel (administrateur de Fdesouche, revue de presse consacrée aux thèmes favoris de l’extrême droite - immigration, sécurité, identité, etc.) qui s’appuie sur une erreur de chiffre dans une dépêche Reuters pour remettre en cause le décompte du nombre de migrants décédés en Méditerranée.

      « Plus de 100 000 migrants sont morts noyés [entre la Libye et l’Italie] depuis 2014, selon l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) », lit-on dans l’extrait du texte de l’agence que poste Sautarel. Et celui-ci de commenter : « Mais pas trace d’un cadavre sur une plage ou dans un filet de pêche… Plus c’est gros plus ça passe… »

      De fait, il y a un « 0 » de trop dans la dépêche Reuters dont Sautarel reproduit un extrait. Il s’agit probablement d’une erreur de traduction, puisque sur le site de Reuters, le texte en français fait état de « plus 100 000 morts », mais la version originale en anglais, en compte « more than [plus de] 10 000 ». Cette erreur a donné l’occasion à Pierre Sautarel (et à d’autres) de remettre en cause le décompte des migrants morts, s’appuyant par ailleurs sur le fait que (selon lui) il n’y a aucune trace des cadavres.

      Comment, et par qui, sont comptés les morts ? Où sont-ils enterrés ?
      16862 morts et disparus en Méditerranée depuis 2014, selon l’OIM

      La source de Reuters (et de quasiment tous les médias) sur ce sujet est l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM). Entre le 1er janvier 2014 et le 30 juillet 2018, l’OIM, rattachée à l’ONU, a recensé 5773 « morts », dont on a retrouvé les corps, et 11089 « disparus », dont les dépouilles n’ont pas été récupérées immédiatement après les naufrages mais qui ont généralement été signalés par des survivants.

      Au total, l’OIM comptabilise donc 16 862 victimes en Méditerranée en quatre ans et demi.

      Selon l’organisation, dans leur immense majorité, ces décès et ces disparitions surviennent en Méditerranée centrale, entre la Libye, la Tunisie, Malte et l’Italie : 14587 morts et disparus dans cette zone selon l’OIM (on retrouve les « plus de 10 000 » dont parle Reuters).

      Cela représente plus de 86% du total méditerranéen. Il s’agit de la route migratoire la plus meurtrière au monde, selon l’OIM.
      Des sources essentiellement secondaires

      L’Organisation internationale pour les migrants collecte ces chiffres via le Missing Migrants Project (Programme des migrants disparus). Dans une publication de 2017, des chercheurs en charge du MMP précisent (en anglais) la méthodologie de cette comptabilité : « La base de données du MMP fournit une vue d’ensemble des données sur les morts des migrants, mais il dépend premièrement de sources secondaires d’information. » Ces sources secondaires sont évaluées en fonction de leurs avantages et de leurs inconvénients.

      Dans chaque cas (CheckNews a isolé ceux survenus en Méditerranée) l’OIM recense la date, le « nombre de morts », le « nombre minimum estimé de disparus », « le nombre de survivants ». Et renvoie vers des sources en ligne. A chaque type de source un chiffre (voir la méthodologie de collecte des données) : 1 quand un seul média a rapporté l’événement, 2 pour des témoignages de migrants à l’OIM, 3 quand plusieurs médias en font état, 4 si une organisation non-gouvernementale ou internationale en atteste, et 5 s’il y a au moins une source officielle (étatique ou gardes-côtes notamment) ou plusieurs sources humanitaires.

      Par exemple, le 30 juillet une personne meurt et deux survivent dans un naufrage près de Tanger selon un média local arabophone (indice : 1). Autre exemple : le 18 juillet, l’OIM enregistre 19 morts et (au moins) 25 disparus dans un naufrage au nord de Chypre, dont 103 personnes réchappent. Elle s’appuie sur Reuters, CNN en turc et un média turc, qui tiennent leurs infos des gardes-côtes turcs (indice : 5).

      L’OIM estime que le décompte n’est pas exhaustif, des cas de décès pouvant ne pas être portés à la connaissance des médias, ONG ou autorités locales. « Dans la plupart des régions, les chiffres sont probablement largement sous-estimés par rapport au nombre de vies perdues », selon un de ses rapports (en anglais).
      « Mortes sans laisser de traces »

      Autre source pour prendre la mesure des morts sur les routes migratoires : le réseau United for intercultural action. Se fondant également sur les articles de presse et les rapports d’ONG, une équipe basée à Amsterdam a compté, entre 1993 et 2018, 34 361 migrants morts lors de leur voyage vers l’Europe ou après leur arrivée. La liste a été publiée dans le quotidien britannique The Guardian, le 20 juin 2018, journée mondiale des réfugiés. Près de 80% de ces personnes sont mortes en mer.

      Le Guardian précise que cette liste non plus n’a pas de prétention exhaustive : « le vrai nombre pourrait être beaucoup plus élevé, puisqu’au fil des ans plusieurs milliers de personnes sont mortes sans laisser de traces lors de leur voyage par la terre ou la mer. »
      « Les Etats ne semblent pas faire d’efforts »

      Vous nous demandez aussi où sont les dépouilles des noyés de la Méditerranée. Comme nous l’écrivions plus haut, une majorité des corps ne sont pas retrouvés. Interrogée par CheckNews, Julia Black, qui coordonne le Missing Migrants Project à l’OIM fait le point : « 5773 corps et 11 089 disparus ont été enregistrés par le MMP depuis 2014, ce qui veut dire qu’à peu près 34% des migrants morts sont effectivement retrouvés. » Mais, l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations « n’a malheureusement pas de données sur où sont enterrées ces personnes », regrette Julia Black.

      « En général, les corps sont récupérés quand cela peut être fait sans compromettre les efforts de sauvetage », résume pour CheckNews Simon Robins, chercheur à l’université de York et responsable du projet Mediterranean Missing (auquel prend part l’OIM), qui vise à retrouver et identifier les morts en mer. Et de déplorer : « Les Etats ne semblent pas faire du tout d’effort pour recenser et publier des données concernant les corps qu’ils récupèrent. Cela est fait par la société civile et l’OIM. »
      « Cadavres traités comme des déchets »

      D’abord, donc, une majorité des victimes n’est pas retrouvée après les naufrages. Mais quand des corps arrivent sur des plages, la gestion s’avère compliquée. D’autant que « renvoyer une dépouille coûte cher et nécessite de la documentation. Cela n’est fait que si la famille est prête à investir la somme nécessaire et à remplir les papiers administratifs. Surtout, il faut que le corps soit identifié », souligne Simon Robins.

      Il incombe donc aux locaux de s’occuper des dépouilles non réclamées. Mediterranean Missing a consacré des rapports à la gestion des corps en Sicile (Italie) et à Lesbos (Grèce). Dans de nombreux cas, impossible d’identifier les migrants. Début 2016, la BBC publiait une enquête rapportant l’existence (d’au moins) 1278 tombes anonymes réparties dans 70 sites entre la Turquie, la Grèce et l’Italie (à l’époque, l’OIM recensait 8412 morts et disparus depuis 2014). Et le média britannique d’écrire : « En Turquie et en Grèce, les autorités locales, qui ont du mal à faire face à l’afflux de migrants et à la quantité inédite de corps qui s’échouent sur leurs plages, ont reconnu ne pas pouvoir tenir un compte précis des enterrements. » Des cimetières anonymes existent aussi en Tunisie, a constaté La Croix, et en Espagne, remarque RFI.

      En Libye, l’existence de fosses communes a même été rapportée (ici ou là). Les fondateurs de l’association Last Rights, qui veut donner un nom et une sépulture à tous les morts des migrations, Syd Bolton et Catriona Jarvis, confirment à CheckNews avoir recueilli « plusieurs témoignages » allant dans ce sens : « En Afrique, les autorités sont débordées et on entend parfois parler de cadavres traités comme des déchets. Ce n’est pas le cas, à notre connaissance, en Europe. »
      « Catastrophe »

      Cependant, « l’Union européenne n’a pas de politique vis-à-vis des migrants morts. C’est un problème qui incombe à chaque Etat, en fonction de sa loi et de ses pratiques nationales et régionales. Ces lois ne sont pas coordonnées ou harmonisées », détaille auprès de CheckNews la juriste Stefanie Grant, qui a rédigé un mémo juridique sur la question (en anglais) pour Mediterranean Missing. En revanche, au mois de juillet 2018, tous les Etats membres à l’exception de la Hongrie ont signé un engagement auprès de l’ONU sur les migrations. Le chapitre « Sauver des vies et faire des efforts coordonnés pour les migrants disparus » impose aux signataires de :

      Collecter, centraliser et systématiser les données concernant les corps, et assurer la traçabilité après l’enterrement […] établir des chaînes de coordination au niveau transnational pour faciliter l’identification et l’information des familles […] faire tous les efforts, y compris au travers de la coopération internationale pour retrouver, identifier et rapatrier les restes des migrants décédées à leurs pays d’origine […] et dans le cas d’invididus non identifiés, faciliter l’identification et la récupération des restes mortuaires.

      « Il ne manque plus qu’aux dirigeants de faire preuve de bonne volonté, c’est un processus très long », estiment les fondateurs de Last Rights, Syd Bolton et Catriona Jarvis. Ils expliquent à CheckNews que pour l’heure « les municipalités européennes doivent enterrer les morts qui arrivent sur leur territoire », mais qu’en termes de statistiques et de décompte, les pratiques varient d’une ville à l’autre.

      Pour les militants de Last Rights, cette situation explique pour partie le scepticisme de certains citoyens devant le drame des migrants : « Si l’Europe avait pris le parti de recenser exactement les disparus en mer et de s’occuper des dépouilles, personne ne pourrait douter de la catastrophe qui se déroule en Méditerranée. »

      http://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2018/08/09/combien-de-migrants-sont-morts-en-mediterranee-ou-sont-ils-enterres_16713

    • « La traversée de la Méditerranée se révèle plus mortelle que jamais »

      Plus de 1600 personnes ont trouvé la mort durant les premiers mois de 2018 lors de leur traversée de la Méditerranée. Selon un nouveau rapport publié lundi par le Haut-Commissariat des Nations unies pour les réfugiés (HCR), la route maritime « est plus mortelle que jamais pour les migrants ».

      Le rapport, intitulé Voyages désespérés, constate que, même si le nombre de migrants tentant de rejoindre l’Europe a diminué, le taux des décès a augmenté vertigineusement. Entre janvier et juillet 2018, une personne sur 18 tentant la traversée est morte ou a disparu en mer. Au cours de la même période en 2017, on enregistrait un décès pour 42 personnes s’entassant dans les embarcations de fortune.

      « Le rapport confirme une fois de plus que la route méditerranéenne est l’un des passages maritimes les plus meurtriers du monde », affirme Pascale Moreau, directrice du bureau du HCR pour l’Europe, dans un communiqué.
      Mesures sécuritaires en ligne de mire

      Les mesures européennes de contrôle qui visent l’immigration irrégulière, les restrictions infligées aux ONG qui limitent les opérations de secours, ainsi que l’accès restreint aux ports italiens, en particulier depuis le changement de gouvernement dans la Péninsule, ont certes conduit à une diminution du flux migratoire. Mais le HCR tient à souligner que ces mesures entraînent une hausse du taux de mortalité.

      Comme solution, le HCR appelle les pays européens à s’engager en faveur de la mise en place de voies d’accès alternatives, légales et sécurisées pour les personnes fuyant la guerre et les persécutions. L’organisation onusienne suggère aussi aux Européens de s’entendre sur des ports de débarquement dans plusieurs pays, afin que l’accueil des migrants ne repose pas uniquement sur l’Espagne, la Grèce et l’Italie.

      https://www.letemps.ch/monde/traversee-mediterranee-se-revele-plus-mortelle-jamais

    • La traversée de la Méditerranée est plus meurtrière que jamais, selon un nouveau rapport du HCR

      Trois ans après la diffusion des images choquantes d’Alan Kurdi, cet enfant syrien dont le corps sans vie avait été retrouvé échoué sur une plage turque, la traversée de la mer Méditerranée est un itinéraire encore plus meurtrier qu’auparavant, indique un nouveau rapport du HCR, l’Agence des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés.

      Selon le nouveau rapport « Voyage du désespoir », plus de 1600 personnes ont déjà perdu la vie ou ont disparu cette année en tentant de rejoindre l’Europe.

      Si le nombre de personnes arrivées en Europe est en diminution, le taux de décès, surtout parmi ceux qui rejoignent le continent par la Méditerranée, a considérablement augmenté, souligne le rapport. En Méditerranée centrale, pour chaque groupe de 18 personnes ayant entrepris la traversée entre janvier et juillet 2018, une personne est décédée ou a disparu, contre une sur 42 au cours de la même période en 2017.

      « Ce rapport confirme une fois de plus que la traversée de la Méditerranée est l’une des voies les plus meurtrières au monde », a déclaré Pascale Moreau, la Directrice du bureau du HCR pour l’Europe. « Alors même que le nombre d’arrivants sur les côtes européennes diminue, il ne s’agit plus de tester la capacité de l’Europe à gérer les chiffres mais à faire preuve de l’humanité nécessaire pour sauver des vies. »

      Ces derniers mois, le HCR et l’Organisation internationale pour les migrations (OIM) ont appelé à une approche prévisible et régionale afin de garantir le sauvetage et le débarquement des personnes en détresse en mer Méditerranée.

      Le HCR exhorte également l’Europe à accroître les possibilités de voies d’accès légales et sûres pour les réfugiés, notamment en augmentant le nombre de places de réinstallation et en éliminant les obstacles au regroupement familial – ce qui permettrait de fournir d’autres options à des périples dont l’issue risque d’être fatale.

      Le rapport souligne également les dangers auxquels sont confrontés les réfugiés lorsqu’ils voyagent le long des routes terrestres vers l’Europe ou lorsqu’ils traversent celle-ci. Notant les mesures prises par certains pour empêcher les réfugiés et les migrants d’accéder à leur territoire, le rapport exhorte les États à faire en sorte que les personnes cherchant la protection internationale puissent facilement accéder aux procédures d’asile. Il lance également un appel aux États afin que ceux-ci renforcent les mécanismes de protection des enfants qui voyagent seuls et demandent l’asile.

      L’auteur à succès et Ambassadeur de bonne volonté du HCR, Khaled Hosseini, lui-même réfugié afghan, a publié un livre illustré dont la parution coïncide avec le tragique troisième anniversaire de la mort d’Alan Kurdi. Intitulé « Sea Prayer », l’ouvrage rend hommage aux milliers de réfugiés qui ont perdu la vie en fuyant la guerre, la violence et les persécutions à travers le monde.

      « Quand j’ai vu ces images épouvantables du corps d’Alan Kurdi, j’ai eu le cœur brisé », a déclaré Khaled Hosseini. « Pourtant, trois ans plus tard et malgré le fait que des milliers d’autres personnes perdent la vie en mer, notre mémoire collective et l’urgence que nous avions à vouloir faire mieux semblent s’être estompées. »

      En juin et juillet 2018, Khaled Hosseini s’est rendu au Liban et en Italie, où il a pu constater les conséquences désastreuses pour les familles qui ont perdu des proches alors que ceux-ci tentaient de rejoindre l’Europe.

      « En Sicile, j’ai vu un cimetière isolé et mal entretenu qui était rempli de tombes d’anonymes, dont de nombreux enfants, qui se sont noyés durant leur périple ces dernières années, comme Alan Kurdi », a-t-il expliqué. « Chacune de ces personnes n’est plus qu’un chiffre, un code sur une tombe, mais il s’agissait d’hommes, de femmes et d’enfants qui ont osé rêver d’un avenir plus prometteur. Trois ans après le décès d’Alan, il est temps d’unir nos forces pour éviter d’autres tragédies et rappeler à nos amis, nos familles, nos communautés et nos gouvernements que nous sommes solidaires avec les réfugiés. »

      L’intégralité du rapport (en anglais) est disponible à l’adresse : http://www.unhcr.org/desperatejourneys

      Faits marquants

      Le long de l’itinéraire de la Méditerranée centrale, dix incidents ont eu lieu depuis le début de l’année, au cours desquels 50 personnes, voire davantage, sont décédées. La plupart d’entre elles étaient parties de Libye. Parmi ces incidents, sept se sont déroulés depuis juin.
      Depuis l’Afrique du Nord vers l’Espagne, plus de 300 personnes ont perdu la vie jusqu’à présent, soit déjà une nette augmentation par rapport au total de l’année 2017, durant laquelle 200 décès avaient été enregistrés.
      En avril dernier, lorsque 1200 personnes ont rejoint l’Espagne par la mer, le taux de décès est passé à une personne qui trouve la mort pour chaque groupe de 14 personnes qui arrive en Espagne par la mer.
      Plus de 78 décès de réfugiés et de migrants ont été enregistrés jusqu’à présent le long des routes terrestres en Europe ou aux frontières de celle-ci, contre 45 au cours de la même période l’an dernier.

      http://www.unhcr.org/fr/news/press/2018/9/5b8ccee9a/traversee-mediterranee-meurtriere-jamais-nouveau-rapport-hcr.html

      Lien vers le #rapport :
      http://www.unhcr.org/desperatejourneys

    • En septembre, près d’un migrant sur 5 partant de Libye aurait disparu en Méditerranée

      Sur les six premiers mois de 2018, une personne sur 18 qui tentait de traverser la Méditerranée y a disparu. D’après un chercheur italien, en septembre ce chiffre a radicalement augmenté, passant à un mort ou disparu sur cinq.

      Ils sont plus de 30 000. Trente mille hommes, femmes et enfants, qui ont trouvé la mort en Méditerranée en essayant d’atteindre l’Europe sur des embarcations de fortune. Depuis le début de l’année, et encore plus au cours des quatre derniers mois, la mortalité du trajet a explosé. Et ce, même si le nombre de personnes qui tentent la traversée a chuté.

      En septembre, le Haut commissariat aux réfugiés de l’ONU (HCR) révélait qu’en 2017, une personne qui essayait d’atteindre l’Europe sur 42 trouvait la mort en Méditerranée et qu’en 2018, ce chiffre était passé à une personne sur 18. En septembre, ce chiffre a encore grimpé : ils étaient un sur cinq à perdre la vie ou à « disparaître » entre la Libye et l’Europe, selon le chercheur Matteo Villa, de l’Institut italien pour les études de politique internationale. Il a compilé, sur la base des chiffres officiels du HCR, de l’Organisation internationale des migrations (OIM), des récits publiés dans la presse et de témoignages récoltés lui-même, les données concernant les départs de Libye, les arrivées en Europe et les interceptions réalisées par les garde-côtes libyens (1). Il en ressort, pour le mois de septembre, qu’une personne sur dix a réussi à atteindre l’Europe, sept sur dix ont été interceptées par les Libyens et ramenées sur la rive sud de la Méditerranée, et deux sur dix ont disparu.
      « Politiques de dissuasion »

      « La chose la plus importante est qu’autant le risque de mourir que les décès avérés ont considérablement augmenté si vous comparez deux périodes : celle allant de juillet 2017 à mai 2018, soit avant l’arrivée du gouvernement actuel et le durcissement des politiques de dissuasion contre les ONG, et celle allant de juin à septembre 2018, soit après le changement de gouvernement italien et le début des politiques de dissuasion », explique Matteo Villa à Libération.

      Selon le chercheur, l’effet du durcissement de la politique migratoire du gouvernement italien, en particulier, est tangible : « Avant les politiques menées par Minniti [l’ancien ministre de l’Intérieur italien, en poste entre décembre 2016 et juin 2018, ndlr] ne fassent effet, à peu près 12 migrants mouraient chaque jour. Pendant les politiques de Minniti, il y en avait 3 par jour. Depuis Salvini [le nouveau ministre de l’Intérieur italien d’extrême droite, ndlr], le chiffre est monté à 8 morts par jour », détaille encore le chercheur.
      « Navires sous-équipés »

      Peut-on pour autant faire le lien direct entre la fermeture des ports italiens, depuis cet été, aux ONG qui portent secours aux migrants en mer, ou les difficultés rencontrées notamment par l’Aquarius, que le Panama ne veut plus immatriculer, et la hausse de la mortalité ? « C’est difficile à dire, mais à mon avis, oui. Les données racontent une histoire spécifique : sans les ONG en mer, les seuls navires qui restent sont ceux des garde-côtes libyens, qui sont sous-équipés et sous-staffés, donc ils ne pourront pas éviter un grand nombre de décès en mer », explique Matteo Villa.

      Dans le même temps, les départs de Libye n’ont jamais été aussi peu nombreux, depuis 2012, signale-t-il : « C’est plus difficile de trouver une place dans un bateau aujourd’hui. » Pour autant, la politique de dissuasion menée envers les migrants ne peut être considérée comme satisfaisante, selon lui : « L’hypothèse était que, étant donné le risque de mourir, les gens ne tenteraient plus de traverser la mer depuis la Libye. Mais les gens essaient toujours, et cela débouche sur un nombre très haut de morts avérées. »


      https://www.liberation.fr/planete/2018/10/01/en-septembre-pres-d-un-migrant-sur-5-partant-de-libye-aurait-disparu-en-m
      #mortalité

    • Migrant Deaths in Western Mediterranean This Year Double Those Recorded in 2017: UN Migration Agency

      IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP) team, based at IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) in Berlin, has confirmed that two migrant boats were lost in the Alboran Sea in late August and early September and at least 113 people lost their lives. Since the beginning of the year, 547 people are estimated to have died in these waters, more than double the 224 deaths documented in all of 2017.

      On 30 August, a boat carrying 52 migrants, including six women (one of whom was pregnant) disappeared, according to the NGO Alarm Phone. The boat left on 29 August from Nador, Morocco, and both Spanish and Algerian authorities were involved in the unsuccessful search for the lost boat.

      Days later, on 3 September, another boat, with 61 migrants on board, went missing in the Alboran Sea after it departed for mainland Spain. The bodies of 13 people were found on the shores of Morocco and Algeria in the following days.

      “What’s concerning is that we’ve seen a consistent increase in the number of migrant deaths recorded in the Western Mediterranean each year since IOM began keeping track,” said Frank Laczko, Director of IOM’s Data Analysis Centre. “These numbers, however, tell only a partial story of the tragedy unfolding in the Western Mediterranean. For each person lost at sea, families are left wondering if their loved one is dead or alive.”

      The families of the 113 people who disappeared in these two shipwrecks are forced to live in limbo, not knowing the fate of their loved ones. They will have no place to mourn and lay their loved ones to rest.

      Unfortunately, deaths in the waters between North Africa and the Spain are not a new phenomenon. The Andalusian Association for Human Rights has documented the deaths of over 6,000 people on this route since 1997.

      Laczko noted, “The increase in recorded deaths in 2018 is linked to the increase in attempted sea crossings from North Africa to Spain compared with the past five years, as well as the number of fatalities in each shipwreck.” Of the 547 deaths and disappearances recorded so far in 2018, more than half (289) occurred in seven shipwrecks in which more than 20 people died or were lost at sea. Between 2014 and 2017, two or fewer such incidents were recorded each year.

      There are also strong indications that many migrants have been lost without a trace in the Western Mediterranean this year. The remains of more than 60 people have been found on beaches in Spain, Morocco and Algeria in 2018 that are not associated with any known shipwreck.

      Furthermore, non-governmental organizations operating in Spain and Morocco have received numerous requests from family members reporting loved ones lost in the Alboran Sea in shipwrecks which cannot be confirmed.

      IOM’s Missing Migrants Project collects data on migrant deaths from various sources, including coast guards, non-governmental and civil society organizations, and media reports. However, reports on migrant deaths are scattered and incomplete, and there are no complete data on border deaths released by Spanish or Moroccan authorities.

      In general, Missing Migrants Project data on migrant deaths and disappearances are best understood as minimum estimates: the true number of fatalities during migration is likely much higher. This lack of data reinforces the marginality and invisibility of migrant deaths and leads to an environment in which deaths seem to be tolerated as an assumed risk of irregular migration.


      https://reliefweb.int/report/spain/migrant-deaths-western-mediterranean-year-double-those-recorded-2017-un-m
      #mortalité #Méditerranée #asile #migrations #réfugiés #statistiques #chiffres #mourir_en_mer #2017 #morts #décès #2014 #2015 #2016 (et estimations #2018)

      Pour télécharger le pdf:
      https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Migrant%20Deaths%20in%20Western%20Mediterranean%20This%20Year%20Double%20

      ping @isskein @reka

    • #Méditerranée_occidentale : les décès de migrants ont doublé cette année par rapport à 2017 (OIM)

      Selon l’Agence des Nations Unies pour les migrations (OIM), la mer Méditerranée reste l’une des voies les plus meurtrières pour les migrants, malgré la baisse du trafic sur la partie centrale. D’après le Projet de l’OIM sur les migrants disparus (MMP), en date du 24 octobre, 1.969 migrants « irréguliers » sont morts en Méditerranée, dont plus des deux tiers dans les eaux entre l’Afrique du Nord et la Sicile.

      Mais la voie de la Méditerranée occidentale reste la plus meurtrière parmi les routes méditerranéennes menant en Europe.

      « Depuis le début de l’année, 547 personnes ont péri dans la Méditerranée occidentale. Ce chiffre s’élevait à 224 pour toute l’année 2017 », a déclaré le porte-parole de l’OIM, Joel Millman, lors d’un point de presse vendredi à Genève.

      Selon Joel Millman, l’illustration de cette tragédie est le naufrage de deux bateaux sur la mer d’Alboran qui ont fait au moins 113 morts entre fin août et début septembre.

      Le 30 août, un bateau transportant 52 migrants, dont six femmes (une enceinte), a disparu, selon l’ONG Alarm Phone. Le bateau est parti le 29 août de Nador (Maroc) et les autorités espagnoles et algériennes ont participé à la recherche infructueuse de l’embarcation portée disparue.

      Le 3 septembre, un autre bateau, avec 61 migrants à bord, a disparu à une centaine de kilomètres au sud de l’île espagnole d’Alboran. Les corps de 13 personnes ont été retrouvés par la suite sur les côtes marocaines et algériennes.

      L’OIM rappelle que les décès dans les eaux entre l’Afrique du Nord et l’Espagne ne sont pas « malheureusement un phénomène nouveau ». « L’Association andalouse des droits de l’homme a documenté le décès de plus de 6.000 personnes sur cette route depuis 1997 », a ajouté M. Millman.
      L’Espagne reste la porte d’entrée en Europe des migrants arrivées par la Méditerranée en 2018

      « L’augmentation des décès enregistrés en 2018 est liée à l’augmentation du nombre de tentatives de traversées par la mer entre l’Afrique du Nord et l’Espagne par rapport aux cinq dernières années, ainsi que par le nombre de morts dans chaque naufrage », a déclaré de son côté Franck Laczko, le Directeur du Centre mondial d’analyse des données sur la migration (CMADM) de l’OIM. Sur les 547 décès et disparitions enregistrés à ce jour en 2018, plus de la moitié (289) ont eu lieu lors de sept naufrages au cours desquels plus de 20 personnes sont mortes ou portées disparuesen mer. Entre 2014 et 2017, deux incidents de ce type ou moins ont été enregistrés chaque année.

      Il existe également de fortes indications selon lesquelles de nombreux migrants sont portés disparus cette année, sans laisser de traces dans la Méditerranée occidentale. Les restes de plus de 60 personnes ont été retrouvés sur des plages en Espagne, au Maroc et en Algérie en 2018, qui ne sont pas pourtant associés à des naufrages connus.

      Malgré une traversée périlleuse en Méditerranée, les migrants continuent d’emprunter cette voie pour tenter de rejoindre l’Espagne, l’Italie ou la Grèce. D’après l’OIM, 95.909 migrants et réfugiés sont arrivés en Europe cette année par la mer en date du 24 octobre, dont 45.976 rien qu’Espagne, la principale destination de débarquement cette année.

      En réalité, depuis les arrivées de fin septembre, l’Espagne a accueilli, en 2018, plus de migrants irréguliers qu’elle ne l’a fait pour toutes les années 2015, 2016 et 2017 combinées. En comparaison, ils étaient 147.170 à la même période dans la région l’an dernier et 324 267 au même moment en 2016.

      Recensant 46% de toutes les arrivées irrégulières cette année, l’Espagne (45.976 arrivées par la mer en plus de 5.202 par voie terrestre) continue de recevoir près de trois fois plus de migrants que la Grèce (26.340) et huit fois et demi de plus que l’Italie (21.935).

      https://news.un.org/fr/story/2018/10/1027622

    • Plus de 2.260 migrants sont morts en tentant de traverser la Méditerranée en 2018

      Des arrivées en baisse, mais plus de 2.260 morts : la Méditerranée est restée l’an dernier la voie maritime la plus meurtrière pour les migrants, selon le HCR qui a appelé les pays européens à « sortir de l’impasse ».

      Un total de 2.262 migrants sont « morts ou portés disparus » en tentant de traverser la Méditerranée en 2018, contre 3.139 l’année précédente, selon les chiffres publiés par le Haut commissariat de l’ONU aux réfugiés (HCR) sur son site internet.

      https://www.courrierinternational.com/depeche/plus-de-2260-migrants-sont-morts-en-tentant-de-traverser-la-m

      Sur le site de l’HCR (04.01.2019) :


      https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean

    • Méditerranée : forte baisse des traversées en 2018 et l’Espagne en tête des arrivées (HCR)

      C’est toujours la voie maritime la plus meurtrière au monde pour les migrants : plus de 2 260 personnes sont mortes en tentant de traverser la Méditerranée en 2018, selon les chiffres publiés par le Haut-Commissariat de l’ONU aux réfugiés (HCR), jeudi 3 janvier.

      https://news.un.org/fr/story/2019/01/1032962

    • Irregular migration death, disappearance toll exceeds 30,000 during 2014-2018: IOM

      At least 30,510 deaths occurred between 2014 and 2018 during irregular migration around the world, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a report Friday.

      More than 19,000 deaths and disappearances were recorded due to drowning, not only in the Mediterranean Sea but also in the Rio Grande, the Bay of Bengal and many other overseas routes, said the IOM citing data gathered by its Missing Migrants Project.

      Nearly half of the five-year total fatalities of at least 14,795 men, women and children were recorded on the central Mediterranean route between North Africa and Italy.

      The Missing Migrants Project estimates that at least 17,644 lives were lost at sea on all three trans-Mediterranean routes in the last five years, equivalent to roughly 10 times the number of people who drowned when the luxury liner Titanic sank in 1912.

      “Irregular migration poses significant risks to those who undertake such journeys, and safe, legal pathways are urgently needed so that fewer people resort to this option,” said Dr. Frank Laczko, director of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre.

      “Even though many focus on the Mediterranean, the truth of the matter is that people die on migratory routes worldwide,” he said.

      Due to the lack of official information on deaths during migration, and a lack of detail on most of those who die during migration, the IOM said the figures are best understood as a minimum estimate.

      Deaths recorded during migration throughout Africa comprise the second-largest regional total of the 30,000 deaths logged since 2014, with 6,629 fatalities recorded since 2014.

      Nearly 4,000 of those deaths occurred in northern Africa, where a lack of reliable data and extensive anecdotal reports indicate that many more migrants have died than are recorded.

      In Asia, where data are similarly scarce, the deaths of more than 2,900 people were recorded during migration, including 2,191 in Southeast Asia and 531 in the Middle East.

      At least 2,959 people died migrating in the Americas in the last five years, more than 60 percent of whom (at least 1,871) lost their lives on the border between Mexico and the United States.

      There were more than 1,000 deaths in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean between 2014 and 2018, although the difficulty in obtaining reliable reports — particularly at sea or through remote jungle areas — means that migrant deaths were likely far higher, said the IOM.

      http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-01/12/c_137737134.htm

  • BLAMING THE RESCUERS. CRIMINALISING SOLIDARITY, RE-ENFORCING DETERRENCE

    Aiming to deter migrants from crossing the Mediterranean, the EU and its member states pulled back from rescue at sea at the end of 2014, leading to record numbers of deaths. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were forced to deploy their own rescue missions in a desperate attempt to fill this gap and reduce casualties. Today, NGOs are under attack, wrongly accused of ‘colluding with smugglers’, ‘constituting a pull-factor’ and ultimately endangering migrants. This report refutes these accusations through empirical analysis. It is written to avert a looming catastrophe: if NGOs are forced to stop or reduce their operations, many more lives will be lost to the sea.

    https://blamingtherescuers.org

    #Charles_Heller #rapport #Lorenzo_Pezzani #Méditerranée #asile #migrations #réfugiés #blaming_the_rescuers #ONG #sauvetage #dissuasion #collusion #smugglers #passeurs #pull-factor #facteur_pull #appel_d'air #mortalité #mourir_en_mer

    • Mehr Retter, mehr Flüchtlinge - warum das so nicht stimmt

      Wegen Helfern wie Carola Rackete gibt es mehr Flüchtlinge - das behaupten Politiker immer wieder. Stimmt das wirklich? Wissenschaftler haben den sogenannten Pull-Faktor untersucht.

      Fliehen Menschen, weil sie wissen, dass sie sich auf die Retter im Mittelmeer verlassen können?

      Politiker wie der ehemalige österreichische Bundeskanzler Sebastian Kurz behaupten das. Kurz bezeichnete die Rettungsaktionen im Mittelmeer 2017 als „NGO-Wahnsinn“. Bruno Kahl, Chef des Bundesnachrichtendiensts warnt, die Hilfseinsätze setzten Anreize für die Fahrt über das Mittelmeer.

      Italiens Innenminister Matteo Salvini führt eine politische Kampagne gegen Nichtregierungsorganisationen, die im Mittelmeer Migranten bergen. Seine Regierung hat die Häfen für Rettungsschiffe geschlossen; Kapitänen, die, wie die Deutsche Carola Rackete, trotzdem Italien ansteuern, drohen Geld- und Haftstrafen.

      Diese Woche kündigte Salvini weitere Gesetzesverschärfungen an. Wenn es nach ihm geht, sollen Seenotretter künftig Strafen von bis zu einer Million Euro zahlen.

      Welchen Effekt hat Seenotrettung auf Migrationsbewegungen?

      Immer wieder haben Politiker Flüchtlingshelfer drangsaliert. Das Drama um Sea-Watch-Kapitänin Carola Rackete und ihre Festnahme hat diese Attacken nun in den Mittelpunkt der Migrationsdebatte gerückt.

      Welchen Effekt hat Seenotrettung auf Migrationsbewegungen? Anhänger der sogenannten Pull-Theorie meinen: Sie verstärkt sie. Private Seenotretter wie Sea-Watch dagegen sagen: Wir retten nur jene, die ohnehin fast da sind - und die sonst womöglich ertrinken würden.

      Der „Pull-Faktor“ ist zum Kampfbegriff geworden. Dahinter steckt der Wunsch, eine einzige Ursache für Migration zu finden - und damit auch ein Gegenmittel: Einen Schalter, den man nur umlegen muss, und schon kommen keine Flüchtlinge mehr. Doch schon der Begriff ist umstritten. Genauso wie die Frage, ob er ein real existierendes Phänomen beschreibt.

      Vertreter der „Pull-Theorie“ argumentieren mit einer scheinbar zwingenden Logik: Wenn Menschen wissen, dass sie mithilfe der Retter einfacher über das Mittelmeer flüchten können, machen sie sich eher auf den Weg, als wenn das nicht der Fall ist. Das Problem ist jedoch: Es gibt keinen empirischen Beleg für diese These.

      Matteo Villa, Migrationswissenschaftler am „Italian Institut for International Political Studies“, hat erfasst, wie viele Migranten von der libyschen Küste ablegen und an wie vielen dieser Tage Boote von privaten Seenotrettungsorganisationen in der Nähe sind.

      Die Daten dazu sammelt er unter anderem von den Vereinten Nationen, aus der Presse und dem italienischen Innenministerium. Sein Ergebnis für die Zeit von Anfang Januar bis Ende Juni 2019: An den 31 Tagen mit NGOs in der Nähe schickten Schlepper im Schnitt 32,8 Menschen aufs Meer. An den 150 Tagen, an denen keine NGOs in der Nähe der libyschen Küste fuhren, legten im Schnitt 34,6 Menschen ab. Villa selbst fasst seine Ergebnisse, die bislang noch nicht veröffentlicht wurden, so zusammen: „Der Pull-Faktor existiert nicht.“

      In einer vielbeachteten anderen Studie verglichen Sozialwissenschaftler der Universität Oxford und der Scuola Normale Superiore in Florenz drei verschiedene Jahre miteinander. Ihre Auswertung zeigt: In Jahren, in denen die EU sich stark in der Seenotrettung engagierte, kamen nicht mehr Menschen in Europa an, als in einem Jahr, in dem kaum Seenotrettung stattfand. „Trotz weniger Seenotrettung erreichten nicht weniger Menschen die EU“, sagt Elias Steinhilper, einer der beiden Verfasser der Studie, der mittlerweile am Deutschen Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung tätig ist.

      Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, zu ertrinken, ist gestiegen

      Die Erhebung, die zu den meistzitierten gehört, scheint einen kurzfristigen Pull-Effekt zu widerlegen. Doch sie untersucht nur Korrelation, keine Kausalität. Auch ob Seenotrettung langfristig zu mehr Migration führt, können die Soziologen nicht beantworten. Franck Düvell vom Deutschen Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung sieht dafür allerdings keinen Hinweis: „Der Hauptgrund für Migration ist die Lage in den Heimatländern.“

      Das Phänomen Migration sei zu komplex, als dass es sich in einfache Formeln pressen ließe, sagt auch David Kipp, Migrationsexperte der Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP). Warum genau jemand seine Heimat verlässt, lässt sich nicht so einfach berechnen.

      Gut belegt ist allerdings die Tatsache, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeit, auf der Flucht zu sterben, gestiegen ist, seit es weniger Seenotretter gibt. 2015 kamen 4 von 1000 Migranten, die die Odyssee über das Mittelmeer wagten, ums Leben. Inzwischen sind es 25 von 1000.

      Da insgesamt kaum noch Migranten nach Europa gelangen, sinkt die absolute Zahl der Ertrunkenen zwar: 2016 starben mehr als 5000 Menschen bei der Überfahrt, 2018 etwa 2300. Für jeden einzelnen Flüchtling wird die Reise jedoch immer gefährlicher. Und viele, die es vorher nach Europa geschafft hätten, sitzen nun unter entsetzlichen Zuständen in Libyen fest.

      „Man muss handeln, ganz egal, ob die Rettung mehr Menschen nach Europa bringt oder nicht“, sagt der österreichische Migrationsexperte Belachew Gebrewold. „Es ist rechtlich und moralisch geboten. Ob Europa ihnen danach Asyl gewährt, ist eine andere Frage.“

      https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/seenotrettung-warum-die-rettung-migration-nicht-foerdert-a-1277025.html