Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040

    More than 300 migrants died this week trying to reach Italy

    UPDATE 3-More than 300 migrants died this week trying to reach Italy -UN agency

    Wed Feb 11, 2015 10:15pm IST

    * Big jump in migrant deaths at sea so far in 2015
    * Italy ended full-scale rescue operation last year
    * Pope Francis calls for solidarity with migrants (Adds a survivor's testimony, comments from IOM and UNHCR)

    By Steve Scherer


    ROME, Feb 11 (Reuters) - More than 300 people died attempting to cross the sea from Africa to Italy this week, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday, adding pressure on Europe to expand a border operation that does not have a clear mandate to save lives.


    The high number of deaths, including 29 people who died of hypothermia on the deck of an Italian coast guard boat hours after being pulled from the water, has re-ignited criticism of Italy's decision last year to end a full-scale search and rescue mission.


    Among the latest incidents, an Italian tug boat rescued nine people, the only known survivors from two boats that sank, and brought them to the Italian island of Lampedusa on Wednesday. More than 200 people remain unaccounted for.


    Those two boats were part of a four-boat flotilla that left a beach near Libya's capital Tripoli on Saturday, said Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Italy.


    A third boat, carrying an estimated 100 migrants, is still missing, survivors said. A 12-year-old boy is among the missing, most of them young African men. The Italian coast guard picked up 105 people on Sunday from the fourth boat, 29 of whom subsequently died of cold while on deck on the journey to shore.


    "We know what fate we are going towards and the probability of dying ... But it is a sacrifice we consciously make to have a future," one survivor told International Organisation for Migration (IOM) staff in Lampedusa.


    The survivors are from Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia, Niger, Mali and Mauritania, the IOM said. The UNHCR estimated the death toll of at least 300 over the last week on the basis of interviews with survivors.


    Libya is the primary departure point for migrants seeking to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Many pay smugglers up to $2,000 to make the crossing.


    TRAGEDY AND CRIME

    "What's happening now is worse than a tragedy -- it is a crime -- one as bad as any I have seen in fifty years of service," IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said.

    "These smuggling networks act with virtual impunity and hundreds are dying. The world must act."


    Italy ended its large-scale search-and-rescue mission Mare Nostrum last year because of the cost and amid criticism from some who said it merely encouraged people to make the crossing.


    Mare Nostrum was set up after more than 360 migrants drowned when their boat capsized near the Italian coast in October 2013.


    It has been replaced by an EU border control mission, Triton, that does not have a specific search-and-rescue mandate and which has fewer ships and a smaller area of operation that hugs close to the Italian coast instead of reaching toward Africa like Mare Nostrum did.


    Including those estimated to have been in the four boats, some 350 migrants have died since the start of 2015, compared to 12 who lost their lives during the same period last year, when Mare Nostrum was still in place.


    "What we have from the EU is not a response ... to the scale of the crisis we have to face," the UNHCR's Sami told Reuters.


    Dimitris Avrampoulos, EU commissioner for migration, said on Twitter on Monday: "The drama is ongoing. Our fight against smugglers continues in a relentless & coordinated way. More has to be done. #Lampedusa."


    On Tuesday, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano appealed for a "more vigorous" European response to the crisis, and Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said the EU's Triton mission "is not enough", according to Italian media.


    Pope Francis told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday that he was "following with concern the news out of Lampedusa". He said he would "again encourage solidarity so that those in need are rescued".

    http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/0...0VL23T20150211
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Heart of Dixie
    Posts
    36,012
    The media is constantly using the term "migrants" per the UN agenda when it is in fact an economic invasion of successful countries by citizens of failed countries used as a tool to destroy capitalism as is the Climate Change ruse.
    http://www.alipac.us/f19/u-n-officia...-scare-317496/

  3. #3
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    Pope Francis told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday that he was "following with concern the news out of Lampedusa". He said he would "again encourage solidarity so that those in need are rescued".
    Why don't you send some boats to rescue them? You're the Vatican. You're an independent city-state with more money than most countries in the world. You dig into your coffers and go rescue them. You've got plenty of personnel that works pretty cheap, put them to some actual use, why don't you? All you seem to want to do is waltz around in your long silk and fancy headdress telling everyone else what to do. Be a man, and send some boats to rescue these people. God knows, you and those before you have certainly encouraged enough of it.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

Similar Threads

  1. More boats full of migrants reach Italy
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-14-2011, 05:20 PM
  2. Egyptians reach Italy amid worry about Arab exodus
    By AirborneSapper7 in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-16-2011, 08:19 PM
  3. UPDATE 1-Nearly 1,000 Tunisian migrants reach Italy overnigh
    By AirborneSapper7 in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 02-15-2011, 03:17 AM
  4. Mexico: 5,000 migrants died on way to U.S. since '94
    By JohnDoe2 in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 14
    Last Post: 12-18-2009, 01:31 PM
  5. Ca-22 migrants have died in S.D. sector
    By FedUpinFarmersBranch in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 07-19-2008, 02:23 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •