A group comprising an Italian MEP, lawyers and intellectuals has come up with a number of proposals to deal with the ongoing migrant crisis, including using UN peacekeeping forces trained in search and rescue methods in the Mediterranean Sea.
The group includes well-known Italian human rights lawyer Alessandra Ballerini, who said, when contacted by The Malta Independent, that group expected these proposals to be taken up by EU leaders in yesterday’s emergency summit.
Their appeal comprises eight points, the first of which is to urge politicians to take away the monopoly that mafias and human traffickers have on the life and death of refugees and to prepare legal ways of asylum presided by the EU and the United Nations.
They are also proposing the organization and financing of a larger search and rescue operation stretching not only along Europe’s coastline but also to the high seas – similar to what Italy’s Mare Nostrum was and unlike the EU’s Operation Triton.
They also appealed for all member states to pitch in and collaborate in this regard, especially after a European Commission spokesperson said that the commission does not have the finances and political support to mount a proper border control and search and rescue mission. Money that is used, for example, on military spending, should be diverted for this aim.
The United Nations should take immediate action and its security council should draft a resolution. “If we are saying that these crimes at sea are comparable to wars and famines brought about by the collapse of states, interventions by blue helmets (UN Peacekeepers) trained in search and rescue should not be excluded.” The tried and tested experiment of having peacekeepers assist in areas of war and famine should also be applied to the crisis in the Mediterranean, they said.
They also called for the urgent revision of the Dublin Agreement and for the relief of the heavy and unjust burden being shouldered by southern European countries, many of which are still reeling from the effects of the 2008 economic crisis.
It is also necessary to think of a European refugee receiving system that guarantees the fundamental right of asylum, with prospects of relocation to other countries that should not be done against the will of the refugees.
Lastly, there is the question of time. “The time for procrastination and ambiguities has to come to an end. Commissioner Avramopoulos has hinted that the EU could consider cooperating with dictators, with the aim of mass returns, which is in breach of the Geneva Convention. There is no time for building dubious diplomatic relations because migrants are taking to the sea here and now, and it is here and now that they need to be saved. Europe needs to organize a rescue operation now.”
The appeal was signed by Italian MEP Barbara Spinelli, lawyer Alessandra Ballerini and other lawyers and intellectuals.