Jevon Whitby |
| Immigration as an age-old problem has resurfaced. noborder network. |
With the Arab Spring almost resolved, will the West approve of the 'new' North Africa? Despite the region's new political regimes, one age-old problem remains for Europe: immigration. This week the issue resurfaced in the media once again as Italy was censured for sending Eritrean and Somalian migrants back to Libya in 2009, a move which the European court in Strasbourg ruled required compensation of $20,000 to each of the men in question who were forcibly returned to Tripoli.
The proximity of Italy and Spain with North Africa has always caused particular problems regarding illegal immigration to Europe, resulting in a series of 'deals' between North African and European states to impose strict immigration controls.
In 2008 the problem seemed to be curtailed by a 'friendship pact' between Italy and Libya to deport migrants back to the North African Coast, an arrangement which groups such as Human Rights Watch have insisted was a circumvention of Italy's humanitarian obligations. Such deals are not unusual however, Spanish authorities agreed $390m in aid for Morocco in return for harsh immigration limits imposed in 2003, although Italy's preventative measures remain by far the most expensive precedent at $5 billion. Understandably, with Italy's involvement in Operation Odyssey Dawn and the fall of 'Gaddafi's Libya,' their immigration control arrangements were effectively ended as of 2011.
Illegal immigration has of course worsened due to the disorder of the Arab Spring. Despite dramatically falling numbers since the record estimated influx of 54,000 migrants in 2008 and Italy's subsequent immigration control pact with Libya, wars and strife have displaced large groups of people during the past year, causing the number of North Africans attempting to cross the Mediterranean to rise to 58,000 arrivals a year in 2011. In the first three months of 2011 alone, an estimated 18,000 Tunisians arrived in 'boats' at the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa. The UNHRC declared 2011 the 'deadliest year,' with an estimated 1,500 migrants killed from failed crossings.
As ever with immigration issues, the problem is a central policy issue for a number of nations aside from those nearest the Mediterranean. Once into Europe, many immigrants continue north to Germany, France and the UK, seeking work despite Europe's severe unemployment problem with 24 million people unemployed. In 2011, the French government was even prepared to pay 300 Euros to each Tunisian who was prepared to volunteer to return home, although as the BBC showed, some migrants pay in excess of 1000 Euros to be smuggled into Europe by traffickers. The United Kingdom currently stands as the nation with the largest Somali community in Europe, an estimated 108,000 as of March 2010, making the issue universally important for even the furthest corners of the EU.
What might be done to stem the tide of new immigrants attempting a dangerous voyage to an ever hostile Europe? Order and stability in Libya and Tunisia will of course deter marginal cases from the difficult crossing, as does seasonal bad weather. As for immigrants from further south, British Government attempts to re-stabilise Somalia came to a head in February with the 'London Conference on Somalia.' Representatives from forty governments were present, aiming to continue the work of pro-government forces and put in place what the Foreign Office described as a 'sustainable funding package' for African peacekeeping forces from Ethiopia and Kenya.
Last May, in a speech to the House of Commons, the 'consequences for migration' were listed as the third reason for intervening in Libya. However at this February's Conference, the more prioritised dangers are the issues of piracy and terrorism. It is hoped that humanitarian assistance and political stability can encourage many migrants to stay in Somalia, although Foreign Secretary William Hague acknowledged the ambitious nature and long-term nature of the results stating: 'We cannot turn Somalia around with one conference.'
In the short term, some form of strict border control, as Italy implemented in 2008, will be needed once again should the immigration problem continue at 2011 levels. The EU has shown willing to deploy its own border controls if necessary: tasking Frontex (the European border security agency) in February 2011 to begin 'Operation Hermes' and patrol the Mediterranean with naval vessels. Here indeed the international nature of the problem is most obvious: the operation included thirteen of the EU's member states.
It is a grim indictment of the situation that some of the compensation legally owed to the migrants in question cannot be paid, for two are already feared dead from a failed second crossing. Nevertheless given the morally dubious high rate of success from Italy's last arrangement with Libya, and now NATO nations being able to 'call in favours' with new North African governments, it seems likely that 2011 will have been a limited window for illegal immigration from the region; one soon to be closed.
No comments:
Post a Comment