Afghans raise alarm after vessel vanishes
18 January 2010
The Australian

A BOAT carrying asylum-seekers from Indonesia to Australia is feared missing, according to reports from the Afghan refugee community.

Hassan Ghulam, of Brisbane, said relatives of a man who boarded a boat along with other ethnic Hazaras on October 2 had heard nothing from it since its departure.

He said checks with the Department of Immigration, and Customs and Border Protection, had revealed nothing.

``A young gentleman, he had a brother on that boat, he contacted me (saying) that the boat departed Indonesia on October 2 with 105 Hazaras on it," Mr Ghulam said. Other Hazaras in Australia who had learnt their relatives were on the boat had also become anxious.

However, a spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority yesterday said the authority had not been notified of a missing boat.

Reports of the boat come as calls grow to move asylum-seekers from the crowded facilities on Christmas Island to the mainland. A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Evans said yesterday expansion of the centre to house 2200 people would not be completed until the end of March.

Senator Evans' spokesman said the government would move detainees to Darwin for the final stage of processing, if necessary.

Pamela Curr, of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said overcrowding on Christmas Island was untenable.

IMO statistics point to rise in stowaways
16 April 2010
Tradewinds

New official statistics show stowaways continue to be a problem for shipowners despite new security measures.

According to figures compiled by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)'s Facilitation Committee, in 2009 there were 317 cases uncovered involving a total of 1,070 stowaways.

The majority of stowaways, accounting for nearly half, boarded from the Belgium port of Zeebrugge and 16% at Oostende.

The two ports have traditionally proved popular with Pakistani, Indian and West African economic migrants seeking transit to the UK and other European countries.

Two hundred of the stowaways discovered were heading for Venice in Italy.

Although West Africa is considered to be one of the most active regions for stowaways, the biggest trouble spot in the region turned out to be the port of Abidjan in the Cote d'Ivoire but that only accounted for nine stowaways or 4.3% of the total.

Afghans were the largest single nationality among stowaways caught last year, accounting for 34.2%.

Containerships have generally been the most popular mode of seaborne transport among illegal travellers. Eight stowaways managed to board ships dressed as stevedores.

The introduction of the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) code saw an initial blip in stowaway figures but it appears the figures are growing again.

And the total number of migrants using shipping to move around the globe might be under-reported as the IMO figures are based solely on information from member states and only represent the officially reported cases.

Insurers are uncovering higher levels of stowaway activity. The Standard Club alone has reported an average of 228 stowaways annually over the past nine years. The total cost to the insurer for handling the cases was a whopping $9.2m.

In an attempt to spread the financial burden to shipowners, the Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco) recently announced a new clause in its standard charter party, which increases the liability of charterers for stowaway cases.

Until now, shipowners and their protection-and-indemnity (P&I) insurers have been largely liable for the costs of care, detention and repatriation of stowaways. Larger costs are also incurred from delays to the vessel.

Migrant smuggling ship nears Canadian coast

VANCOUVER, Aug 11 (Reuters) - A cargo ship that may be carrying as many 500 migrants from Sri Lanka was nearing Canada's Pacific coast, the government said on Wednesday.

The M.V. Sun Sea entered an economic zone that Canada claims within 200 miles (320 km) of Vancouver Island and was being tracked by a Canadian navy warship that will intercept it as it nears land, officials said.

Officials believe there are between 400 and 500 people on the boat, but the exact number and where they are from will not be known until the ship is boarded by Canadian authorities, said the officials.

The ship would likely be escorted to Victoria, British Columbia, and could arrive there as early as late Thursday or early Friday.

Reports have circulated for weeks that a vessel carrying Tamil migrants fleeing Sri Lanka was headed to Canada. A boat with 76 Tamils seeking refugee status arrived on Canada's Pacific coast in October.

"I can advise you that we have been watching this boat for 2 1/2 months or perhaps even longer, and we have some idea of who is on board," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told CTV News on Wednesday.

The issue has created a quandary for the Canadian government, which has treaty agreements to protect people fleeing persecution but also wants to prevent large-scale human smuggling of Tamils leaving Sri Lanka.

"Those responsible for migrant smuggling will be pursued, investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of Canadian law and in accordance with the provisions of international conventions and protocols," the Foreign Affairs Department said on Wednesday.

There is also concern that some of those on board may be members of the Tamil Tigers, which fought an independence war against Sri Lankan government forces. Canada considers the group an illegal terrorist organization.

Similar accusations were made about migrants on the ship that arrived on the West Coast last October. All 76 people on board were eventually allowed to make refugee claims in Canada, which are still being processed.

The Canadian Tamil Congress says the people on the Sun Sea are likely civilians fleeing persecution and that the Sri Lankan government claims they are Tamil Tigers to make their refugee claims in Canada more difficult.

"They try to paint them with a bad brush right off the bat," David Poopalapillai, a spokesman for the Tamil group, said in an interview.

Toews would not confirm if the government believes Tamil Tigers are involved with the boat, but hinted it was prepared for the possibility.

"We are quite aware of potential issues that might arise when this boat enters our territorial waters," he said.

Migrant ship docks in Canada, refugee debate flares
By Allan Dowd

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2010/08/14/tamils-migrants-584-cp-9203.jpg
Migrants leave the MV Sun Sea after it was escorted into CFB Esquimalt on Friday. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

VANCOUVER, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Canadian authorities unloaded a cramped cargo ship on Friday of nearly 500 Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka whose arrival has sparked a national debate over the country's immigration and refugee laws.

The sun was just rising on Pacific Coast when MV Sun Sea sailed under escort into a Canadian Navy base near Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, and docked next to a makeshift camp set up to process the men, women and children on board.

Officials said the ship was in good condition, but they would not describe the accommodations of the estimated 490 people who may have spent more than two months housed in the cargo hold of the 59-metre-long (194-foot-long) vessel.

Several people were taken to a Victoria hospital to be checked out, but officials were not aware of any major medical problems. The crew was "compliant" when navy personnel boarded the ship on Thursday, the military said.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews warned that Canada will be taking a tough line with the Thai-owned ship, which he said was believed to be carrying terrorists and may be part of a larger, international human smuggling operation.

"Canada has very generous refugee laws, and my concern is that individuals not take advantage of the existing laws in order to further criminal or terrorist activities," Toews told a news conference.

The people on the Sun Sea are believed to be Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka, but Canada fears some are members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which fought a bloody independence war that was crushed last year.

The military wing of the Tamil independence movement is considered a terrorist organization by Ottawa, which would make it illegal for members or supporters of the Tamil Tigers to immigrate to Canada.

RENEWED DEBATE

The Sun Sea is the second ship carrying Tamil migrants to arrive in Canada in less than a year, and officials fear more are on the way. A cargo ship carrying 76 Tamil refugee claimants docked on the West Coast last October, but arrivals of boat people are a relatively rare occurrence.

At least four boats arrived on Canada's Pacific Coast in the late 1990s carrying Chinese migrants, who experts familiar with the incident believe were actually being smuggled though Canada to the United States.

Canada received 34,000 refugee applications last year, with most made by people after arriving by air or by driving in from the United States.

An estimated 250,000 people of Tamil decent live in Canada, primarily in the Toronto area. It is said to be the largest Tamil population outside Sri Lanka and India.

The arguments in Canada over immigration have never reached the fevered pitch heard in the United States, but the Sun Sea incident has set off a front-page debate in the media over whether its rules are too lax.

Opposition parties and some refugee experts warned the government not to jump to conclusions about who the migrants are, and said each person's case should be judged individually.

"Obviously, in the aftermath of the war in Sri Lanka, a great deal hardship was experienced and there are a lot of people who want to get out of Sri Lanka," Bob Rae, the Liberal Party's foreign affairs critic told CBC.

The government is looking at toughening immigration laws so that boat people are treated differently from other refugee-seekers, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

"We can improve the laws to reduce the likelihood of something occurring, and that is essentially what we are doing," Toews said.

Canadian law now prevents its warships from boarding vessels on the high seas that are thought to be smuggling people to Canada, although they do conduct boardings as part of anti-piracy efforts off Somalia.

($1=$1.04 Canadian)

Boat people: Refuge or refuse?
The recent arrival of the MV Sun Sea reignites debate on Canada's refugee policy
21 August 2010
The Toronto Star

http://media.thestar.topscms.com/images/64/ad/72fa8609465b90bd8f51b4925332.jpeg
A man looks out from the MV Sun Sea cargo ship after he and an estimated 490 suspected Tamil refugees arrived on Vancouver Island. Authorities boarded the ship in Canadian waters after it sailed from Sri Lanka. ANDY CLARK/REUTERS

JOHN MOORE, Newstalk 1010: "As the countries of origin of our newcomers became more diverse, each new wave was regarded as lazy, grasping, unwashed and unwanted. Trace your family's roots and not only are you guaranteed to find an immigrant but also likely an ethnic or cultural community that was denigrated in its time. And how soon we forget it."

ROB BREAKENRIDGE, 770 CHQR Calgary: "We can certainly sympathize - if not directly relate to - those who are fleeing persecution in their homelands, and wish to come here as a refugee. Canada, of course, is quite welcoming of legitimate refugees - as we should be. However, we do not want to see our generosity abused and our country exploited. In order to prevent that from happening, we may need to take a much tougher stance than we're currently prepared to take."

DAVID WARREN, Ottawa Citizen: "The poor souls aboard the Sun Sea were unlikely to have much, if any understanding of the Canadian circumstances into which they were projecting themselves. Nor can they be blamed for receiving all kinds of material assistance at the expense of the Canadian taxpayer, for which they did not specifically ask. Their own interests are immediate, and exclude those of their new host nation; after all, their first choice for landing was Australia. Yet the whole process by which they were delivered was a cynical manipulation, of an immigration system designed to be cynically manipulated."

LORNE GUNTER, Edmonton Journal: "At the end of the day, then, it will be too hard to tell the good guys from the bad. And the risk of guessing wrong is too great for Canada. So we have no choice but to send them back, quickly."

JON FERRY, Vancouver Province: "I think the overall cynicism among Canadians about the system is now so great, it needs a complete overhaul. In fact, I'd like to see Canada accept as refugees only those who are languishing in United Nations refugee camps around the world - folks clearly deserving of our support. As for the others, we should treat them as well as we can while they're here. Then we should find a quick, effective way to send them, kindly but firmly, home."

ETHAN BARON, Vancouver Province: "What we have here is a boatload of brown people expecting to be taken into a country where racism is entrenched from the B.C. suburbs to the federal government. The Tamils are being accused of 'queue-jumping' because they had the nerve to get on a crappy boat and endure months of misery so they could apply to live a better life in Canada."

CALGARY HERALD: "To prevent a repeat, future vessels could be turned back short of Canadian waters. Authorities knew the Sun Sea was approaching long in advance but did not directly intervene until the ship was well within our maritime borders. But this alone will not deter people. Immigration policy must be tightened to send a clear message about what Canada will and will not tolerate."

BARRIE EXAMINER: "Providing safe refuge to those in need is one of the hallmarks of Canada's reputation as a progressive nation that fights tyranny through compassion."

VICTORIA TIMES COLONIST: "The extreme reaction to the ship is especially puzzling because the actual number of people involved is so small. In a typical week, some 650 people arrive in Canada and claim refugee status. The fact that this group came by boat doesn't make their arrival more significant."

DON MARTIN, National Post: "Sound the alarm! Deploy the navy, air force, RCMP and battalions of border security guards for tracking, escort and apprehension purposes! Then hold a big news conference! Census controversy? What census controversy?"

Forget tough. Let's get smart about refugees
21 August 2010
National Post

The arrival of 490 Tamil migrants last week in Canadian waters aboard the rustbucket MV Sun Sea has provoked all manner of proposed solutions, including from this newspaper: turn them back; detain them on an offshore or extraterritorial island until their claims are heard; put them all on a plane back to Colombo. The Sun Media newspapers even ran an odious editorial advocating a "lock and load" approach to incoming vessels. Clearly, and with good reason, the influx has touched a nerve. It has exposed, yet again, the horrendous inadequacies of Canada's refugee system.

Terrorism concerns aside, however, this is not really a Tamil issue or a Sri Lankan issue. The equivalent of two-and-a-half boatloads of asylum-seekers arrived here in the first six months of this year from Hungary -- we just didn't notice them because they didn't all arrive at once on national television. We have commented before on the absurdity of this situation, but it bears repeating: The single largest source of refugee claimants to Canada -- 1,125 people, which is 11% of the total and 45% more than the second-largest source, China--is Hungary, a full-freight member of the European Union. It's a tremendous waste of resources. And it's illogical to focus ire on Sri Lankan refugee claimants, who had an 85% success rate in the first six months of 2010, and ignore Hungarian claimants, who had a 99.5% rejection rate. Accusations of Tamil "queue-jumping" miss the point. There is no refugee "queue" for Sri Lankans. It's literally first-come, first-served. If they "jumped the queue," then so did every one of the 34,000 asylum-seekers who arrived in Canada last year.

Speaking of which, Canadians were confronted this week with another absurdity: CBC News reports that a transgendered woman from Northern Ireland, Tanya Bloomfield, who has lived in Nova Scotia since 2006, will be allowed to apply for refugee status on grounds she'd be persecuted back home. Is the rest of the European Union, in which U.K. citizens have full mobility and employment rights, not good enough? "We will probably argue that she shouldn't be obliged to live in another country," her lawyer told CBC.

Even setting aside the ridiculous idea that any people in Northern Ireland are persecuted to such an extent that they might be legitimate refugees, and the ridiculous reality that one can apply for refugee status four years after arriving in Canada, consider this: The whole idea of seeking asylum is to do so in the first safe country you can get to, not in the country in which you'd most like to live. The latter is called immigration. This is one of many basic principles that we have lost in Canada thanks in part to the Supreme Court's 1985 decision in Singh vs. Minister of Employment and Immigration, which ruled foreign nationals, including refugee claimants, are protected by the Charter of Rights. Whereas other countries can simply send asylum-seekers home, detain them indefinitely pending a hearing or declare moratoria on claims from certain countries, Canada is obliged to hear every single claim, no matter how manifestly bogus it is.

Recently passed legislation promises to expedite the system enormously, aiming to finalize claims from designated safe countries within 120 days. We hope it works. Speedy resolution and quick deportation of failed claimants will be a huge disincentive to potential migrants with weak or non-existent claims to asylum, who can now count on years of gainful employment (or social assistance) and Canadian citizenship for any children born during their stay. But again, this hardly applies to Tamil arrivals to Canada, the vast majority of whom we accept as refugees. And it won't diminish the resources we devote to no-hope claimants from EU nations and even the United States (165 claimants in the first six months of this year) -- resources which would be far better spent on the world's truly neediest and most oppressed refugees living in UN camps.

If the government really wants to crack down on people abusing the system, as it says it does, most experts agree it will need to get around the Singh decision. Only then would any of the solutions proposed over the past two weeks be available to it. If that means using the notwithstanding clause, so be it -- it's there to be used. As yet the government has shown no sign of even considering it, and as such, its claims to be "getting tough" on the Tamils, or any other group of refugees, ring resoundingly false.

Italy demands Europe share burden of N.Africa exodus

ROME, March 21 (Reuters) - Italy urged its European partners on Monday to take a greater share of the immigrants pouring across from North Africa as hundreds more people arrived in boats in the southern island of Lampedusa.

"We ask all the countries of the European Union to take their fair share of the burden," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told a news conference after a cabinet meeting on Libya.

He said nearly 15,000 immigrants, most of them Tunisians, had entered Italy illegally since January 1 with numbers surging as the turmoil in North Africa swept away the barriers which regional governments kept in place previously to hold them back.

Maroni, a senior member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, said that by contrast only 25 Tunisians had arrived on the coasts of Italy during the whole of 2010.

"That shows that if the controls don't work, you see what happens," he said.

Lampedusa, a tiny island to the south of Sicily which is just 150 km from the Tunisian coast, has borne the brunt of the flood of illegal immigrants over the past months.

"It is a neverending flood, we're getting 12-13 boats arriving every day, on average with 80-100 people on board each time, and there is growing tension with the inhabitants of Lampedusa," Edoardo Faiella, a spokesman for the local customs police, said by telephone.

Local inhabitants have complained bitterly of being abandoned by politicians in Rome and the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has made the same complaint to its European partners.

RESOLUTION

Italy, which has joined the coalition conducting air operations against Libya and made 7 air bases available, says it faces the risk of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing instability in the region.

The fears were underlined on Monday morning when the first boat carrying Libyans since the recent crisis began arrived in Sicily with 200 people on board.

Maroni said the parties in Berlusconi's coalition would present a resolution to parliament asking the government to take up the issue with other countries.

"All the countries of the alliance, of the European Union have to accept the burden of these refugees which risk arriving in Italy, in Greece and Malta because they are the closest countries," he said.

"It is not fair that only these countries have to deal with it when we're talking about tens of thousands of people."

Controls would also be increased to thwart infiltration by "criminals or terrorists" who may try to enter Italy with the immigrants, Maroni said.

Many of those arriving, mostly young men unable to find work at home and risking the often perilous crossing in search of jobs in Europe, have been moved to other parts of Italy but a reception centre in Lampedusa has been filled to overflowing.

Maroni said the government would compensate Lampedusa residents for the damage to their economy, based mostly on tourism and fishing.

FEATURE-North African migrant crisis pressures Berlusconi

LAMPEDUSA, Italy, March 27 (Reuters) - Hunched in a sidestreet in the sleepy port of Lampedusa and holding his last cigarette between his fingers, Mohamed Ben Amar is part of a growing problem for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Ben Amar and thousands of others have braved a cramped and dangerous voyage from Tunisia to the tiny island off Sicily since the overthrow of former President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali in January re-opened the route into Europe.

"In Tunisia, you need relations to get a job in a good factory," the 35 year-old auto electrician said. "And even if you do work, you don't earn anything -- 10 dinars ($7). At the end of the day it's gone, you don't keep anything."

Now he and over 5,000 others, immediately recognisable in their unwashed jeans and short jackets, kill time, wandering around the streets and hillsides of Lampedusa, a quiet island 200 km (120 miles) south of Sicily that lives off fishing and tourism.

Berlusconi's government has demanded help from its European Union partners and has pledged more than 200 million euros in aid and credit lines to the Tunisian government to help clamp down on the flow of "clandestini" (clandestine migrants).

But it has come under increasing pressure itself for failing to deal with a problem which, like the recurring garbage crisis in Naples, has been held up by the opposition and sections of the press as a stark symbol of government incompetence.

A naval transport vessel took around 1,000 people from the island this week and cruise ships are expected to take more, but the numbers of migrants have been replenished by the boats that stagger into port daily, packed to the gunwales.

On Saturday alone, there were around 1,000 new arrivals and the flow continued on Sunday.

"The situation is very dramatic because there has been absolutely no reliable information from the central government getting through," said Salvatore Martello, a local businessman and former mayor of Lampedusa.

Martello, one of a number of community leaders who have denounced government inaction, says Rome has abandoned Lampedusa, whose resident population is now almost outnumbered by the migrants.

"You can't just go from 800 (migrants) to 5,000 or 6,000, otherwise you destroy the balance of the island," he said.

"THEY ARE HUNGRY"

With the immigrant reception centre behind the port long filled to overflowing, newcomers find shelter in improvised tents of plastic sheets that dot the island.

Every morning, hundreds come down from a rubbish-strewn camp on a hill overlooking the commercial port for a handout of milk and bread distributed by aid workers and soldiers. There are no toilets and the only water for washing comes from a tanker.

A strong smell of unwashed bodies hangs over the port but the residents of Lampedusa have shown a striking lack of resentment against the migrants themselves, reserving most of their ire for the government.

"They are hungry and they need help and it's only ordinary people here who are helping them. The government isn't doing anything," said Salvatore Palmisano, a fisherman handing out part of the morning's catch from the back of his boat.

With the first boats showing up from Libya and worried by the prospect that the fighting there could set off an even bigger exodus from North Africa, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has proposed offering up to 1,500 euros ($2,100) to Tunisians willing to return home.

But he has run into problems from Berlusconi's coalition allies in the anti-immigrant Northern League.

"I wouldn't give them anything, I'd throw them out and send them home," the party's fiery leader Umberto Bossi was quoted as saying in Italian media on Saturday.

Lampedusa's hospitable culture and a maritime tradition of assisting those in distress has so far helped prevent serious problems with the island's residents. But there is palpable tension among the hundreds of men milling about on the dockside.

"It wouldn't take very much to set this off and then we would be really in it," said one policeman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I don't think they (the government in Rome) really know what we're dealing with here," he said.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Ben Amar, who like many others wants to join relatives in France, waits for news.

"I haven't changed my clothes, I haven't had a shower. I haven't taken off my trousers for four days, you can see the diesel stains there," he said, pointing to the marks on his clothes from a 33-hour voyage in a boat with 120 others.

"I want to work but it's whatever God wants. I want to go to France, but we have to see what God decides."

Italy plans to ship North Africans from crisis island

ROME, March 28 (Reuters) - The Italian government made plans on Monday to move thousands of illegal Tunisian migrants off the island of Lampedusa to other parts of Italy after furious residents blocked the port to protest the months-long crisis.

Lampedusa, 200 km (124 miles) to the south of Sicily and 150 km from Tunisia, has been inundated since the start of the year by sometimes hourly arrivals of cramped, leaking fishing boat bringing hundreds of new arrivals every day.

The centre-right government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has offered 200 million euros ($281 million) in aid and credit lines to Tunisia to help tighten border controls.

On Monday, the Interior Ministry also announced plans to send six large navy transport vessels on Wednesday to clear all the migrants from the island to other regions in Italy.

Lampedusa's normal population of around 5,000 has been more than doubled by thousands of North Africans, almost all young men in search of work in Europe, who have been stuck in makeshift encampments while waiting to be moved to the mainland.

Almost 19,000 have arrived since January and 3,720 came in over the past three days, according to local officials, bringing the islanders' simmering anger at government inaction to the boil and prompting the protest on Monday.

"Fishermen and residents of the island are blocking the port with a number of boats which they took over after the migrants were disembarked," a police official said by telephone from Lampedusa.

In normal times, a quiet island that lives from fishing and tourism, Lampedusa has become the centre of an immigration crisis triggered by the overthrow of former Tunisian President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali in January.

The change of regime loosened the previously tight frontier controls that stemmed previous migration crises and an estimated 19,000 people have joined the exodus of small boats since the beginning of the year.

Italy, Tunisia sign deal to ease migrant crisis

TUNIS, April 5 (Reuters) - Italy and Tunisia signed an accord on Tuesday to stem a wave of illegal migrants arriving in Italy from North Africa.

The immigration crisis, set off when the ouster of former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January removed previously strict border controls, has proved a political headache for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the agreement included increasing police cooperation and compulsory repatriations, but he gave few details before a meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday.

"We have signed the minutes on a technical agreement on cooperation between our two countries against clandestine immigration," he told reporters in Tunis.

"Our intention is to turn off the tap," he said.

He said the agreement aimed to step up border controls to block off the flow of migrants before they left Tunisia but also included "repatriation of citizens from both our countries with an irregular status".

"This has been a long task which has not been easy," he said after marathon talks with local officials. "A phase of cooperation between the two sides is beginning which we will have to keep up with."

Some 20,000 illegal North African migrants, almost all young men from Tunisia hoping to find work in Europe, have arrived in the southern Italian island of Lampedusa this year, overwhelming the infrastructure of the tiny port, which normally lives off fishing and tourism.

After weeks of relative inaction, Berlusconi visited Lampedusa last week and pledged to clear around 6,000 migrants off the island and into holding centres elsewhere in Italy within days.

However, even as the operation on specially commissioned ferries was underway, more boats carrying hundreds of migrants have arrived in Lampedusa in the past few days.

Hundreds of migrants have also arrived from Libya and Italian officials have been deeply concerned that the fighting could trigger a much bigger wave of refugees in future.

Maroni, from the anti-immigrant Northern League party, has been under heavy pressure to reach an accord with Tunis from regional governments in northern Italy who do not want migrant camps set up in their regions.

Italy has pledged more than 200 million euros in aid and credit lines to Tunisia to help block the departures and create jobs which could dissuade potential migrants.

There has also been increasing tension with France, the destination of choice for most of the Tunisian migrants, which has closed off its frontier.

Italy demands Europe share burden of N.Africa exodus

ROME, March 21 (Reuters) - Italy urged its European partners on Monday to take a greater share of the immigrants pouring across from North Africa as hundreds more people arrived in boats in the southern island of Lampedusa.

"We ask all the countries of the European Union to take their fair share of the burden," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told a news conference after a cabinet meeting on Libya.

He said nearly 15,000 immigrants, most of them Tunisians, had entered Italy illegally since January 1 with numbers surging as the turmoil in North Africa swept away the barriers which regional governments kept in place previously to hold them back.

Maroni, a senior member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, said that by contrast only 25 Tunisians had arrived on the coasts of Italy during the whole of 2010.

"That shows that if the controls don't work, you see what happens," he said.

Lampedusa, a tiny island to the south of Sicily which is just 150 km from the Tunisian coast, has borne the brunt of the flood of illegal immigrants over the past months.

"It is a neverending flood, we're getting 12-13 boats arriving every day, on average with 80-100 people on board each time, and there is growing tension with the inhabitants of Lampedusa," Edoardo Faiella, a spokesman for the local customs police, said by telephone.

Local inhabitants have complained bitterly of being abandoned by politicians in Rome and the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has made the same complaint to its European partners.

RESOLUTION

Italy, which has joined the coalition conducting air operations against Libya and made 7 air bases available, says it faces the risk of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing instability in the region.

The fears were underlined on Monday morning when the first boat carrying Libyans since the recent crisis began arrived in Sicily with 200 people on board.

Maroni said the parties in Berlusconi's coalition would present a resolution to parliament asking the government to take up the issue with other countries.

"All the countries of the alliance, of the European Union have to accept the burden of these refugees which risk arriving in Italy, in Greece and Malta because they are the closest countries," he said.

"It is not fair that only these countries have to deal with it when we're talking about tens of thousands of people."

Controls would also be increased to thwart infiltration by "criminals or terrorists" who may try to enter Italy with the immigrants, Maroni said.

Many of those arriving, mostly young men unable to find work at home and risking the often perilous crossing in search of jobs in Europe, have been moved to other parts of Italy but a reception centre in Lampedusa has been filled to overflowing.

Maroni said the government would compensate Lampedusa residents for the damage to their economy, based mostly on tourism and fishing.

And 'maybe the only solution.

Believe me, I live in the south of Sicily and personally know the immigration problems. Some time ago I also worked with the 'Civil Protection' of my city, Pozzallo, in the reception of migrants.
What is being Sicily, Lampedusa and Italy in particular is really dramatic. Yesterday, then, there was also a great tragedy at sea (it sunk a boat full of immigrants in the Strait of Sicily. There are at least 250 missing!)

Lampedusa (Agrigento) is a beautiful Italian island that extreme tip of Italy is paying a price if the inertia and the inability to find a chord common in the European Union. An island whose economy is based primarily on two sectors: fishing and especially tourism. And the immigrants, always greeted with respect and solidarity that characterizes our Sicilian / Italian, are putting at serious risk not only tourism, but also the normal everyday life. In fact, the food is scarce and sanitary conditions are precarious. The reception center of the island can accommodate up to 800 migrants landed when they are thousands!
To get an idea of the chaos that has been created just think that people living on the island is about 5000 inhabitants, while there are about 15,000 landed! nenache time to transfer the ships to other centers in Italy Homey, that the island was filled daily...

some foto of migrants in Lampedusa (Sicily):


http://www.blitzquotidiano.it/wp/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/lampedusa_migrantisparsi_lap1.jpg


http://liveinternet.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/lampedusa-corteo-protesta-migranti-1.jpg


the arrivals:

http://liveinternet.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/lampedusa-soccorsi-migranti-1.jpg

to have an idea:

http://www.agoramagazine.it/agora/local/cache-vignettes/L275xH183/Lampedusa_4000_migranti_tunisini_in_condizioni_disumane-37849.jpg

And this are some photos about the wonderful island of Lampedusa (Sicily), more near at north Africa that Italian coasts

An island that lives more with tourism (also other places in Sicily and Italy)


LAMPEDUSA - Sicily:

the map

http://www.trattorielampedusa.it/public/Image/mappa_lampedusa.jpg

http://www.venere.com/img/mappe/mediterraneo/new%20island/lampedusa.jpg

l'isola:

http://www.green-net.it/images/lampedusa1.jpg

http://www.laroccia.net/public/image/STAGIONE2008/lampedusa_CALA-GIUTGIA.jpg

http://bloggando.easicily.it/wp-content/uploads/lampedusa-cala-creta.jpg

http://sicilia.indettaglio.it/ita/comuni/ag/pelagie/images/lampedusa.jpg

http://www.isoladilampedusa.org/images/body/lampedusa.jpg



isola e spiaggia dei Conigli:

http://www.lampedusa35.com/img/lampedusa_isola_conigli.jpg

http://www.luagos.it/Uploads/Logos/lampedusa1.-39-1.jpg




source: SICILY - Photos

Last news (yesterday) about the tradegy in Sicily Canal (Mediterranean Sea):
:ohno:


http://i51.tinypic.com/swefsj.jpg




http://i53.tinypic.com/idb18n.jpg

Slaughter off Lampedusa: 250 missing
Boat full of immigrants capsized in rough seas. Too many children among the dead, 53 survivors Thursday, April 7, 2011

Giorgio Petta Our correspondent
Lampedusa. Until the late evening of yesterday there was only one certainty: that the survivors of the sinking of a "ships of shame 'game from the Libyan port of Lampedusa Zawarah and directed to have just 53. And he drowned? It is not known, at least until the officers of the Harbour and the judicial police investigators have not concluded the interrogation of those who are saved. They can be 319 if there were 370 refugees on board, or 267 of 318, or 249 to 300, or 149 if you get on a "wagon of death" were 200. The accounts of the numbers - except the media hype - does not change the substance of the tragedy of those forced to cross the sea in risky even to escape from intolerable oppression, hunger, hopeless, lack of hope for a better future . For themselves and their children, to the point of involving them as an infant on an adventure - that of crossing the Mediterranean - which, statistics show, 20 percent of the cases is fatal.
Reporters present at Lampedusa to follow the evolution of the invasion of immigrants jump out of bed at dawn when the usual good friend warned them that at 2 am two Coast Guard patrol boats have started to the rescue of a boat in distress 39 miles south-east, in the territorial waters of Malta. Were the same as the Maltese authorities to warn the Port of Lampedusa after receiving SOS from the satellite phone of one of the refugees on board the barge. The jurisdiction would be them, but will support a tragedy not to have vessels as fast as those available to the Italians. Maybe, but adopted the policy of refusal from the island of Knights Crusader has long been the center of international controversy.
Bad sea conditions with force 5-6. With three other meters waves and a wind that blows at 30 knots. At the two left the port of Lampedusa, the two patrol boats and launches the application via radio to all vessels that are in the action early. Appeal that is collected by the trawler "Carthage" of navigation in Mazara del Vallo who is fishing about ten miles away. It 's the first to sight the boat. The darkness is total. The sea lashed by the wind.
Are 4.15 yesterday when the two patrol boats intercepted the "ships of shame" leaky. Approach operations lasting almost an hour. The target is the so-called "tiling" to allow the transfer of refugees. Not easy to maneuver with the sea in those conditions. The fact is that the two boats are less than one meter from each other when the migrants are taken from panic. Moving from one side of the boat that tilts, then the other side to compensate for triggering a reversal that causes the sway of the hull. 'S the end. The tragedy takes place in a few minutes while the crews of the patrol vessel and try to save as many survivors as possible. With a result that would certainly be better - without wanting to make any recrimination fate - whether from Malta were already parties to 1, the 15 rescue vessels and if the Harbour Master had been told that the boat had become ungovernable.
The wait at the pier of Lampedusa Favarol lasted until 11 and one quarter. With reporters, photographers and cameramen who were scanning the horizon for hours. As long as the south-east of the mouth of the harbor is it coming from the spray the first patrol boat, quickly followed by the second. On the pier had already taken the form of an emergency.
Wrapped in blankets, barefoot, still wet, the 53 survivors have fallen one after another, someone brought arms un'aitante by financial police, others lying on stretchers and ambulances of the Red Cross and local health authorities who were leaving to sirens, most without boarding a bus to be conducted at the reception center. An eerie silence - apart from the blowing wind and the lapping of the waves - he wrapped up the pier Favarol. Marked by the image of this latest ordeal suffered by refugees whose only crime is to flee from wars and famine. Somali, Sudanese, Chadian, Cameroonian, Nigerian, Bangladeshi. There are no survivors among the Libyan or North African, and even among the victims.
"With this tragedy and landings of the last night of nearly 900 sub-Saharan refugees - said Gianmaria Sparma, the Regional Minister for Territory and Environment in Lampedusa, which coordinates the action of the Executive Lombardo - we opened the Libyan front. It takes a migration policy that is valid for the whole Mediterranean and involving all riparian countries. Malta can not continue to flout their obligations to the international codes. Especially now that the Libyan coast there are no checks because of the ongoing war. There are thousands of refugees waiting to reach the 'Italy facing dangerous journeys that last for days and days. "
In place of the shipwreck headed vessels - including the ship "Flaminia" with a medical team on board - and planes to search for survivors and the recovery of the dozen corpses - including several children - sighted. Operation - coordinated by the Valetta - Maltese also participate in two patrol boats. Two of the victims will be buried in the cemetery of Memphis. Mayor Michael Botta has accepted the request of the Prefect of Agrigento.
Those who survived the shipwreck, gather your strength after a night of rest, leave Lampedusa today to reach the shelters. Yesterday, however, started with two flights of the 212 unaccompanied minors who were housed at the reception center of the district "Imbriacola. Another thousand migrants was shipped in two days yesterday and the day before yesterday, on the "Flaminia". 1,447 migrants remain in the island, including the latest arrivals in recent days and survivors of the shipwreck. Meanwhile, continuous cleaning extraordinary island invaded by thousands of migrants, while waiting for new good agreement with the Tunisian authorities. A voice says to illustrate its content will be Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
When? The next weekend.


07/04/2011

Angelina Jolie
"I'm shocked
Mobilize '


Thursday, April 7, 2011

Rome. The High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres and Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie are "deeply shocked by the alleged drowning of 213 people" took place yesterday in rough seas about 60 miles from Lampedusa. This was announced by an official UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
As told by the survivors - continues in the note UNHCR - the group that included Somalia, Eritrea and Ivory Coast, Libya had started three days before attempting to reach Lampedusa. Survivors told UNHCR that there would be many deaths among the women and three children.
"These people have been refugees twice - said Guterres - and they were fleeing war and persecution in their countries of origin and time in an attempt to achieve security in Italy, have tragically lost their lives."
At a time when UNHCR and other organizations are providing humanitarian assistance and protection to people fleeing across the land borders of Libya, Guterres said, what has happened is particularly alarming. "I appeal to all those who patrol the Mediterranean, to do everything possible to assist vessels in distress."
Angelina Jolie, who yesterday concluded a two-day mission in Tunisia, said he felt "deeply distressed at the huge loss of lives of those who were simply trying to escape and find refuge from war. Knowing that on the boat sank, there were also children makes the story even more painful. "
The actress, who visited the border between Tunisia and Libya, he added: "All the international community, but also every citizen of good will, everyone must feel involved. We must urgently find solutions to ensure a safe passage to civilians fleeing the fighting in Libya. "


07/04/2011

The italian people who safe and give first aid to migrants..

Always!

http://i53.tinypic.com/2dilfnc.jpg

Hundreds more migrants reach Italy from Africa

ROME, May 14 (Reuters) - Hundreds of immigrants from north Africa reached Italian shores in the last 24 hours, adding to a crisis that has raised tension between European governments and prompted plans to temporarily restore border controls.

Police said eight boats carrying around 1,300 people from Tunisia and Libya reached the tiny island of Lampedusa on Friday and overnight, bringing the total number of immigrants there to 1,800.

Lampedusa, roughly midway between Sicily and Tunisia, has been at the centre of an immigration crisis triggered by the upheavals in North Africa.

More than 35,000 Africans, including around 24,000 illegal immigrants from Tunisia, have reached it and other small Italian islands since the start of the year.

Thousands have been shipped to reception centres on the mainland since Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi pledged at the end of March to clear Lampedusa, but the overloaded boats continue to arrive.

Lampedusa's regular population of about 5,000 has been at times outnumbered by migrants sleeping in improvised tent encampments dotted around the island, which in normal times lives from fishing and tourism.

Italy has urged other EU governments to help, but such calls have raised alarm elsewhere in Europe.

"Europe is not doing what it had promised to do," Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a senior official of the anti-immigrant Northern League party that is Berlusconi's main ally, said late on Friday.

"In Libya there is a war, and as long as there is war the refugees will continue to arrive," he said.

He added that an accord with Tunisia to stem the flow of migrants appeared to be working, although at least 218 of those who arrived in Lampedusa overnight came from there.

France and Italy are pushing for European states to be allowed to suspend the open frontiers policy that eliminated border controls between most EU states under the Schengen treaty, and reinstate controls in exceptional circumstances.

^^

So sad. :ohno:



.. and Pozzallo, my town, is the second (after Lampedusa) arrived place.


record landing a few days ago.
I have understood at once what it was because it was evening and I heard many ambulances going to the port.

the follow journal title:

On the run from Libya: 912 landing in Pozzallo
On the night of the dramatic landing on the coast of Ragusa: 129 women among the refugees (Knocked Up) and 30 children


http://i55.tinypic.com/11mg7k8.jpg

7lHKNcaD0vg

2 August 2011
Australia to post YouTube film to curb people-smuggling
BBC

The Australian government is to post on YouTube images of so-called boatpeople being turned away and sent to Malaysia, in an effort to deter asylum seekers.

The video will show arrivals at Australia's offshore detention centre on Christmas Island being expelled and boarding aircraft.

Canberra recently signed a deal with Malaysia to accept 800 boatpeople intercepted in Australia.

Asylum seekers remain a politically sensitive issue in Australia.

Australia currently has more than 6,000 asylum seekers in detention, originating from countries including Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

In return for Malaysia accepting the new arrivals by boat, Australia will take 4,000 immigrants who are already registered there over the next four years.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the move will "smash the business model of people-smugglers".

But human rights groups have criticised Australia over the deal, because Malaysia has not signed the UN Convention on refugees, and the groups say asylum seekers are routinely mistreated there.
'Futile trip'

The footage posted by the Australian government on YouTube will show boatpeople arriving at the country's offshore detention centre in Christmas Island, boarding a plane to Malaysia and then arriving at camps in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Australia asylum

Irregular maritime arrivals (IMAs) in 2010: 134 boats carrying 6,535 people
IMAs up to 19 April 2011: 16 boats carrying 921 people
As of 20 April 4,552 IMAs detained on the mainland, 1,748 on Christmas Island

Source: Australian Department of Immigration

It is intended to drive home the point that asylum seekers heading for Australian shores will now end up in Malaysia, says the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney.

Previously, the government has used dramatised videos of people in detention or losing their lives at sea to act as a deterrent.

This, however, is the first time that real asylum seekers have been filmed being expelled from Australia - although, for security reasons, their faces will be pixelated, our correspondent says.

The footage will be posted on YouTube in eight languages, targeting Iranians, Afghans, Sri Lankans and Iraqis in particular.

The aim, according to immigration officials, is to demonstrate the futility of risking your life at sea, only to be put on a plane to be flown back to Malaysia.

"We know that people-smugglers tell lies. We know that people-smugglers will be out there saying, 'Look, this won't apply to you'... because they are desperate to make money off desperate people," Immigration Minister Chris Bowen told Australian radio.

"I do think that many people would have access to that sort of social media, and word-of-mouth will spread quickly."

The first boatload of asylum seekers expected to be sent to Malaysia was intercepted on Sunday. They are to be processed on Christmas Island before being sent to Kuala Lumpur by plane.

"Mediterranean as a coffin"
Lampedusa: rescue boat adrift. According to survivors, hundreds of migrants abandoned along the traverse. The Coast Guard recovered a body. Arrested six suspected smugglers landing on Monday. They are accused of murder


04/08/2011
Lampedusa (Italy) - Dozens of deaths, the Mediterranean as a coffin liquid swallows bodies that will remain nameless. The latest tragedy tells the story of immigration in a low voice one of the survivors, Fatima, a young Moroccan and rescued by the Coast Guard, along with his fellow passengers, was sailing adrift in Libyan waters.

"We were three hundred, but hundreds, mostly women, do not have it done and the men were forced to throw their bodies into the water." All numbers reported by witnesses to be confirmed under the shock of which perhaps you will never have certainty when the Coast Guard, in fact, he spotted one body in water.

But the ultimate tragedy of immigration may also have diplomatic consequences: to 27 miles from the damaged barge was a vessel that NATO would have been solicited by the Italian authorities to intervene to rescue the migrants. The Alliance, however, would have responded to the spades and carts with hundreds of men, women and children without food for days without water and would continue his desperate journey. A No, that NATO, which the Interior Ministry wants answers. So much to ask the ministers of defense and foreign intervention in the coalition.

As they told the migrants on board, however, the ship would leave Friday from Libya. A few hours later the engine would have failed. A tugboat Cypriot cruised in Libyan waters and warned he spotted the Italian authorities reassured by the presence of the boat. The Cypriots were thrown into the water of life rafts but then would have run away. Some migrants, desperate, they would have thrown into the water to follow.

The wood was then re-sighted from a helicopter of the Coast Guard took off from Catania. Aircraft was dropped from the basket with food and water: someone on the boat, tried desperately to latch on and reach the helicopter. At 14:40 the survivors on board the boat and rafts, were joined by three of the four patrol boats in the meantime lots of Lampedusa and began to secure the transfer of occupants, reduced now to the end of his strength.

Dehydrated, hungry and in shock. In five - four men and a Moroccan - were taken by helicopter to the clinic of Lampedusa. Two ducted in a serious condition and will be transferred to hospital in Palermo: physicians define their "very worrying".

Only a few days ago, Lampedusa was the scene of another tragedy. A boat left from Tripoli with more than 300 people on board has been reached on the island a mile from the Master: on board were 25 corpses buried in the hold for hours without a breath of air. Some have died of suffocation, some for the beatings suffered by those who, from the bridge packed with people, would not that dated back for fear of falling into the water.

The prosecution of Agrigento ran the stop of the six migrants who would lead the vessel. Everyone was challenged aiding illegal immigration and death as a result of another crime, two are also accused of murder. The six, a Moroccan, some Somalis and some Syrians, were made up sull'aliscafo directly to Agrigento, escorted by police. The hearing could take place to validate the detention as soon as tomorrow morning.

lasiciliaweb.it

Officials to sell ship used to smuggle Tamil migrants
By Sam Cooper, The Province
October 12, 2011

As Canadian taxpayer-funded costs for a rusting ship used to smuggle Tamil migrants into B.C. soar into the millions, officials are trying to stem the bleeding by selling the vessel.

The MV Ocean Lady was seized off of Vancouver Island in October 2009 with a cargo of 76 Tamil migrants, all who made refugee claims. The ship was stored off of Delta's Annacis Island as the federal government tried to track down its owners.

After the owners failed to come forward, this summer federal courts gave the Canadian Border Services Agency permission to sell the ship in order to recoup some costs, spokeswoman Faith St. John said Tuesday.

Federal Court documents show the government claimed just under $2.5 million had been spent towing, storing and caring for the ship - including $243,200 in administration fees for the 76 refugee claimants - as of September 2010.

A $5-million security-deposit demand, plus a bill for costs, was sent to several companies listed in connection with the ship, court records say.

One company, London Shipping Agents, claimed they didn't own the ship. They fingered a subsidiary of Sunship Maritime Services, a Philippines-based company.

Sunship Maritime Services has yet to respond to Canada's claim, according to court records.

An agent has been enlisted at a cost of $10,000 plus fees to sell the 56-metre ship, which doesn't come with a set price, according to court records.

St. John said the prospective buyer will have to be approved by the courts, and any sale proceeds will be applied to the owners' outstanding debts to Canada.

Court records say the rusting vessel has been valued at about $500,000.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Officials+sell+ship+used+smuggle+Tamil+migrants/5536667/story.html#ixzz1cWnHUSiC

For people to take these sort of risks, they must be desperate. I know of some who have fled their country through war. Very sad world it is.