People have the right to asylum in the EU. We can't let humanity drown

The horrific shipwreck off of Cutro, southern Italy, claimed the lives of 85 individuals whereas at the very least 17 are nonetheless lacking because it befell on 26 February. 

The tragedy got here as a stark reminder of how the Mediterranean stays the deadliest identified migration route on this planet. 

Over 26,000 individuals have gone lacking within the Mediterranean since 2014, based on knowledge collected by the Worldwide Organisation for Migration. 

The coffins of the individuals who died within the shipwreck symbolise the picture of Europe’s failing migration coverage.

Preventable tragedies and the flood of political hypocrisy

Current revelations within the media recommend that this tragedy may have been prevented. 

In a mindless sport, Italian authorities and the European Border and Coast Guard Company, Frontex, preserve dodging their accountability for the shortage of search and rescue. 

In keeping with Frontex, Italian authorities disregarded its warnings, based mostly on reconnaissance alerts and "thermal response" from the boat, that indicated the ship was carrying numerous individuals. 

Italian authorities didn't classify Frontex’s communication as an "emergency" and mobilised a "regulation enforcement operation" as a substitute of a search and rescue one.

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Not even a month has passed by, and the our bodies of males, ladies and youngsters are washing up on Italian shores.

Firefighters search amongst particles washed ashore by sea at a seaside close to Cutro, southern Italy, 27 February 2023Giovanni Isolino/LaPresse

To make issues worse, whereas search and rescue and disembarkation actions are presently not lined by a typical EU authorized framework, search and rescue operations carried out by NGOs are being closely criminalised by Member States. 

Initially of February, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Residence Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament despatched a letter to the Commissioner for Residence Affairs Ylva Johansson, expressing sturdy considerations in regards to the further restrictive guidelines utilized to civilian search and rescue vessels launched by the Italian far-right authorities.

Not even a month has passed by, and the our bodies of males, ladies and youngsters are washing up on Italian shores.

Every time such tragedies happen, the flood of political hypocrisy is difficult to digest.

This isn't what 'appearing collectively' needs to be about

In a letter that the European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen despatched in response to the Italian Prime Minister, she wrote, “migration it's a problem that we wrestle to satisfy and that requires basic and international options. These can solely be achieved by appearing collectively.”

Von der Leyen was “deeply saddened by the horrible shipwreck” on her social media, but she seized the second to push her migration proposals: the Pact on Migration & Asylum and on the Motion Plan on the Central Mediterranean.

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We've got to say it loud and clear: the Mediterranean is changing into Europe’s graveyard, not by likelihood or by unlucky circumstance.

Private belongings among the many wreckage of a capsized boat washed ashore at a seaside close to Cutro, southern Italy, 27 February 2023AP Picture/Valeria Ferraro

In the meantime, her political group, the European Folks's Occasion (EPP) and plenty of EU member states are redoubling their efforts to bolster "Fortress Europe," calling for EU funds to construct partitions and fences on the union's borders and main a campaign in opposition to NGOs, criminalising their life-saving work. 

This isn't what we imply by "appearing collectively."

We've got to say it loud and clear: the Mediterranean is changing into Europe’s graveyard, not by likelihood or by unlucky circumstance. 

It's the results of deliberate political selections pursued at any price, together with individuals’s lives.

A query of primary rights and human dignity

Relating to migration coverage, the EU’s solely concern is to stop individuals on the transfer from reaching security in Europe. 

Be it by hanging offers with third international locations with doubtful human rights information to stop departures, masking up unlawful pushbacks, or driving ahead a migration coverage which systematically undermines basic rights, particularly, the suitable to asylum.

To hunt security from battle or oppression and seek for a greater life for you and your loved ones is regular.

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It's excessive time for EU leaders to cease the political video games at the price of numerous lives and act.

A relative of of the victims of final Sunday's shipwreck is carried away by Crimson Cross on the native sports activities corridor remodeled in a morgue in Crotone, 1 March 2023AP Picture/Antonino Durso

However so long as we don't have uncomplicated, protected and authorized pathways into the EU, individuals can have no different alternative than to embark on boats, placing their lives within the fingers of smugglers and start probably the most harmful journeys on this planet.

Folks have the suitable to asylum. It is a query of primary rights and human dignity. 

It's excessive time for EU leaders to cease the political video games at the price of numerous lives and act: a humane EU migration coverage making certain protected and authorized routes so individuals can come to Europe with dignity and with out risking their lives.

We will not let humanity drown.

Cornelia Ernst (Die Linke, Germany) and Pietro Bartolo (Partido Democratico, Italy) are Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). Each function members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Residence Affairs (LIBE).

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