Rescuers in troubled waters
Wary of migration backlash, EU states say aid groups help human traffickers
BRUSSELS // Humanitarian groups that have rescued thousands of African migrants from dangerous sea crossings to Europe are under pressure from European officials, accused of acting as a “ferry service” that encourages people smugglers.
For European Union officials, the debate about the role of aid groups in the Mediterranean highlights their dilemma between the moral and legal obligation of helping those in need, and growing pressure from voters to keep them out.
Escaping wars and poverty, more than 360,000 refugees and migrants reached Europe’s shores last year, most of them on rescue vessels. Thousands drowned, loaded by traffickers on to boats unsuitable for the long journey between Libya and Italy.
One official in Brussels said there was no choice but to take the NGOs to task.
“We can’t avoid doing it, as much as it is harmful to the migrants. With the NGOs operating so close to the Libyan shores, it is tantamount to providing a ferry service,” the official said.
Appalled by the loss of life, aid groups such as Medecins Sans Frontieres ( MSF), Moas, Sea Watch, SOS Mediterranee, Sea Eye, Jugend Rettet, Save the Children and others have stepped up their search and rescue operations and moved closer to the Libyan coast.
That is farther south than the EU, Nato and merchant vessels are prepared to go because of legal, security and political concerns.
“If you want to have an impact, you have to be able to rescue them as close to the shore as possible,” said Aurelie Ponthieu of MSF.
Aid groups deny helping smugglers. The main route for African migrants to Europe claimed nearly 4,600 lives last year and about 1,300 this year, according to United Nations data.
A further 50,000 people were rescued last year from capsized boats or overcrowded dinghies, EU border agency Frontex said. MSF and other NGOs stepped up their rescue efforts in the previous migratory season, which starts in the spring when the seas are calmer, and moved them closer to shore.
Frontex said this had allowed people smugglers to maximise their profits by using flimsier boats, providing tiny amounts of fuel or food, and sometimes removing the engines, resulting in more casualties.
The agency called for the role of the NGOs to be examined.
Authorities in the Italian port of Catania have opened an investigation into the role of NGOs. When chief prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro launched the investigation in February, he said he was looking for collusion between NGOs and smug- glers. The Italian parliament is also investigating.
Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri said nearly half of all search and rescue operations were now carried out by NGOs, making it harder for governments to control the process.
“My point was not to blame the NGOs or to blame anybody. It was just to highlight facts. The paradox we have is that in 2016 there was the highest number of vessels patrolling there. Nevertheless, we also had the highest number of casualties,” he said.
MSF and other groups involved in search and rescue operations said their goal was to save lives.
The NGOs said they are being made the scapegoat for the EU’s failure to manage migration as politicians tap into higher anti-immigration sentiment. Frans Timmermans, deputy head of the EU’s executive arm, has come out strongly on the side of the NGOs.
“Saving lives at sea and looking after vulnerable people ... is not the same as promoting irregular migration,” he said last month.
“There is no evidence whatsoever of NGOs working with criminal smuggling networks to help migrants enter into the EU.”