20 April 2015

Europe's Mediterranean Crisis

Last year, the unrest in Libya, coupled with a worsening economic and security situation in the Middle East and Africa, led to a surge in the number of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to southern Europe.  With nearly 220,000 migrants known to have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to southern Europe last year, often in barely sea-worthy boats, it is no surprise that at least 3,500 of these migrants died trying to reach Europe.  Despite this surge in migrants (and deaths), the European Union ended its Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue program late last year and replaced it with the much-scaled-back Operation Triton, reducing the EU’s ability to control such migration in the Mediterranean and to prevent large-scale tragedies from unfolding in these waters.

In recent weeks, it has become apparent that the situation in the Mediterranean is continuing to worsen.  Over the past week alone, more than 1,200 migrants died in the waters between Libya and southern Italy in four separate incidents.  In one, as many as 700 migrants drown as their ship sank in the waters near the small Italian island of Lampedusa.  In another, at least 400 migrants drown when their ship sank just one day after it left Libya.  Meanwhile, 12 Christian migrants from West Africa were killed on another ship when they were tossed overboard by Muslims onboard that ship following a religious dispute.  Altogether, as the main crossing season begins, it is clear that the situation in the Mediterranean Sea is spiraling out of control.

While this past 16 months have seen more than 5,000 people die attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea, and more than 250,000 people reach southern Europe from North Africa, it is likely that the situation will become much worse in the months and years ahead.  First, the political situation in Libya is unlikely to improve at any time in the near future and there are reports that there are presently between 500,000 and one million would-be migrants in Libya waiting to cross the sea to Europe.  Second, population growth in the Middle East and Africa is higher than anywhere else in the world and this region has neither the resources nor the jobs to prevent more people from leaving this region in search of jobs and a higher standard of living.  Finally, political unrest has worsened in many areas to the south and the east of the Mediterranean and this will continue to force people to flee their homelands in search of security.  As a result, the number of potential migrants attempting to reach Europe in the coming years could rise dramatically.

While so many migrants from the Middle East and Africa are attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean, Europe is proving unable to both stem the flow of the migrants and to integrate these migrants into European society.  On the prevention side, Italy’s ability to prevent migrants from reaching its shores (or from drowning en route) has been hampered by a lack of support from the rest of the European Union.  Meanwhile, the lack of stability in Libya has enabled human traffickers to operate with impunity along Libya’s long coastline and has prevented Libya from being able to control its borders. 

On the integration side, Europe has struggled mightily with this influx of migrants.  First, the European economy remains very weak and this has meant that there are few jobs for these new migrants.  Second, many European countries are moving towards enacting new restrictions on would-be migrants, leaving many of them in limbo after they arrive on European Union territory.  As such, it would make a great deal of sense for the EU to emulate policies that were put in place in countries such as Australia, where would-be migrants are processed in offshore centers to determine which migrants are qualified for asylum in the EU, or are skilled enough to benefit the European economy.  However, this will take a coordinated effort by all EU member states to make this work and, so far, there has been little cohesiveness on the part of the EU towards tackling this extremely serious (and worsening) problem.