Malta calls Europe to task over inaction on human traffickers
It was the leader of one of the smallest countries in Europe who spoke with the loudest voice.
As 700 migrants were reported to have died in the Mediterranean, Joseph Muscat, the prime minister of Malta, rounded on his fellow European leaders.
“A time will come when Europe will be judged harshly for its inaction, as it was judged when it had turned a blind eye to genocide,” he said.
His words appeared to resonate. Across Europe — from Spain, France, Britain, Germany and Italy — politicians demanded action. Traffickers must be stopped, they said. Libya’s borders must be secured. Countries must be encouraged to become more democratic, to make fleeing a less palatable prospect.
The waves of wretched people washing on to the shores of southern Europe cannot be easily calmed. The four-year civil war in Syria has pushed almost four million people from their homes. Withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan has left the country shaky, with many despairing of ever being able to live and work in peace. Somalia’s al-Shabaab terrorists continue to wreak havoc. The political collapse of Libya has created vast lawless swaths of country, where people traffickers can operate with impunity and dispatch daily flotillas of the desperate.
In Calais, France — a magnet for most of those who cross the Mediterranean — the majority of people seem to be from Eritrea.
The country’s president, Isaias Afewerki, has turned the east African country into one of the most repressive on the continent, by introducing what is in practice unlimited compulsory military service, from which people are literally dying to escape.
Matteo Renzi, the Italian leader, said boats should be prevented from setting sail from Libya, though quite how he intends to stop them, he didn’t say. A $45 million EU border training mission, begun in 2013, lies in tatters.
Targeting the traffickers would help, and an initiative to break up the gangs was launched in The Hague last month. But with lawless territory across vast areas of the Sahara, it will be a tough nut to crack. The European Union said Sunday that it will hold an urgent meeting of foreign and interior ministers this week, to seek an EU-wide solution.
Proposals should encompass immediate assistance for countries hosting the thousands of migrants. It is unfair to leave it to southern European nations to bear the brunt of the arrivals — especially when migrants are drawn to northern Europe.