STRASBOURG, France — The migration crisis is back, and the EU elite fears it will ruin their summer vacation.
Arrivals from Africa across the Mediterranean are up again, Italy is frantic and it is all bringing back memories of 2015, when the sight of more than a million desperate people streaming into Europe created political chaos, especially for Germany’s Angela Merkel.
Now Brussels, which managed to close one route for refugees across the Balkans in 2016 by striking a deal with Turkey, is scrambling to plug another hole and prevent further political fallout ahead of a parliamentary election in Germany in the fall and another in Italy due by early next year.
In the first half of 2017, about 85,000 people landed on Italy’s shores, compared with 71,000 for the same period last year, according to the International Organization for Migration, a U.N. body. That is causing intense political anxiety in Italy and has set off a domino effect in Brussels, where the European Commission responded in characteristic form by unveiling an “action plan” on Tuesday.
There appeared to be few brand-new action points in the plan, but Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans still felt the need to lower expectations, telling reporters in Strasbourg: “I am not saying we’re coming out with a silver bullet, that there’s one measure that’s going to solve all this. But it would already make a world of difference if member states would just do what they agreed before.”
His frustration was aimed at European Union countries, especially in the east of the bloc, who have refused to accept refugees allocated under an EU relocation program meant to ease the burden for front-line countries such as Italy and Greece.
“The levels with which Italy is faced now means that everybody needs to do their part in this across Europe,” said Timmermans. “This is solidarity that Italy deserves.”
EU interior ministers are due to discuss ways to address the record flows across the central Mediterranean later this week in Estonia, with Italy in particular keen to see whether fellow EU states endorse the Commission’s plan.
The central thrust of Brussels’ latest proposals is for North African countries such as Tunisia and Libya to take back migrants rescued in their territorial waters. This would alleviate the burden on Italy and serve as a deterrent for migrants whose aim is to reach Europe. Similar in design to the agreement for Turkey to take back refugees reaching Europe, it could win support from EU countries such as Hungary, which have been reluctant to accept relocated refugees and have long called for economic migrants to be sent home.
The action plan also calls for Frontex, the EU border agency, to take rescued migrants to other European ports rather than just the Italian coast — a proposal that could meet resistance. There are also steps aimed at dissuading would-be migrants from leaving in the first place and to help transit countries such as Libya and Niger patrol borders.
Some politicians in Italy say NGOs have encouraged refugees — and the people-smugglers who ferry them across the Mediterranean — by carrying out search-and-rescue operations close to or within Libyan territorial waters. The Italian opposition 5Star Movement’s Luigi di Maio describes this as a “sea taxi” service for migrants. In a sign of the rising political tensions, the center-left Italian government last week threatened to close its ports to them unless Europe steps up its efforts to address the migration problem.
One Italian official said Rome wants to avoid the creation of “humanitarian corridors” run by NGOs, who currently carry out about 60 percent of rescues in the Mediterranean, the official said. Rome wants such groups to be transparent about their funding and to let Italian coastguards board their vessels to check for smuggling activity.
Call for code
Brussels called for a code of conduct for nongovernmental organizations working in the Mediterranean, with groups that don’t subscribe to it losing access to Italian ports. Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti is expected to discuss the general migration measures with other ministers in Tallinn, but will present the code of conduct for the NGOs at a later stage, said a senior diplomat.
However, Eugenio Ambrosi, the regional director of the IOM, played down the potential impact of the code of conduct, telling POLITICO: “I don’t think there is any direct link between NGO activity and the number of arrivals.”
Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR’s special envoy for the central Mediterranean, said NGOs are “are singled out because there is the perception from some that they are part of the problem because they attract people, that they navigate too close to the Libyan shore, that if they were not there the Libyan smugglers and traffickers would not put people on those boats.” But he added: “We don’t think that’s a credible narrative.”
Timmerans said in Strasbourg it was imperative for Brussels to continue to demonstrate leadership, adding: “This migration issue will not go away. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not next year. Not for a decade, not for two decades. This is a global phenomenon that will be with us for generations.”
An earlier version of this article misstated the time period over which 71,000 people arrived on Italy’s shores last year.
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