Human Smuggling in the High Seas

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Originally Posted by hkskyline

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...

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some foto of migrants in Lampedusa (Sicily):








the arrivals:

[IMG]http://liveinternet.it/wp-content/up...migranti-1.jpg[/IMG]

to have an idea:

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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





l'isola:













isola e spiaggia dei Conigli:








source: SICILY - Photos

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










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

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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

[brick84]

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

Always!

[hkskyline]

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.

[brick84]

So sad.



.. 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

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[hkskyline]

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.

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"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

[hkskyline]

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/Offi...#ixzz1cWnHUSiC

[flotsam]

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.