One thousand men, women and children from Africa drifting aimlessly in the Mediterranean Sea were refused any port of entry in Malta and Italy. Three vessels funded with Doctors Without Borders picked up the refugees, ferrying them across the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe. All requests to dock in Malta or Italy have been denied. Doctors Without Borders [MSD] SOS Mediterranean and SCS Humanity have been drifting for a week, unable to dock at any port. “582 men, women and children still waiting for a safer port,” MSF said on Twitter, referring to its Geo Barents vessel. SOS Humanity said it had 179 people, drifting off the east coast of Sicily. Germany’s charity said they been trying to dock for the past 11 days without success. Immigrants crossing from African into Europe practically broke the European Union [EU] in 2016 when Britain approved Brexit.
European humanitarian crisis started in 2008 with 61-year-old former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden funding Syrian rebel groups to topple President Basha al-Assad. Eight years of proxy war in Syria resulted in 15,000 deaths and 15 million Syrians displaced from their homes into refugee camps in Turkey or seeking immigration to the European Union. Former German President Angela, 68, took in over 1 million Syrian refugees while pressing other EU countries to take their fair share of refugees. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pressed all EU countries to take appropriate quotas of Mideast refugees. Hungarian President Viktor Orban built a barb-wired fence around Hungary, refusing to take in any Mideast refugees. Czech Republic and Poland quickly followed suit, telling Brussels they would leave the EU if forced to take refugees.
Italy because if its close proximity to Africa has always been forced to take more boat people washing up on their shores, without any help from the EU. Turkey was given billions by the EU to house Syrian refugees, at a time when Obama was prosecuting his proxy war against Bashar-al-Assad. Now faced with a flood of refugees from Africa, the EU sits on its hands while Italy takes the brunt of the problem. Speaking to the Corriere della Sera daily, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedos ducked a question about what Italy would do with the refugees. Piantedos said that Rome is not responsible for immigrants rescued at sea by foreign boasts. Since conservative Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni too office Oct. 22, there’s growing opposition to Italy taking on the world’s immigration problems without compensation from the EU. Maltese authorities were equally reluctant to take in refugees.
European Commission President Von der Leyen and European Council President Chalres Michel need to hold an emergency session to deal with immigration issues now plaguing the EU’s borders. Brussels figured out a way to pay Turkey and the EU can figure out how to compensate Italy or Malta or any other EU country willing to take in massive numbers of illegal immigrants. Meloni has no sympathy for the EU burdening member-states with the immigration crisis facing Europe. Meloni isn’t likely to welcome immigrants when she doesn’t have the resources to take them in. Turkey was in the same dilemma in 2008-2016, before former President Donald Trump ended the issue of illegal immigration primarily from the Mexican border. Meloni sees charities like Doctors Without Border taking advantage of countries that don’t have the resources to take in unlimited refugees.
Brussels has some work on its hands to figure out how vulnerable EU members deal with illegal immigration. Germany opened its doors under Merkel but largely because she envisioned how illegal immigrants would fit into Germany’s heavy industries. Italy doesn’t have the same industrial capacity as Germany to absorb refugees into the German population. Meloni knows Italy’s strengths and weaknesses, knowing that the country deals with the worst inflation in 40 years, with skyrocketing energy prices punishing Italian citizens. Meloni thinks that if foreign charities see fit to bring refugees to Italian ports, they should deliver immigrants to their own ports. Refusing to play shuttle for Africans to Italy, Meloni wants the EU to get involved providing compensation to Rome. Even with compensation, Italy may not be the best spot to immigrate for African refugees.
Meloni doesn’t hesitate to say that any country of origin or charity boats needs to take in the refugees. If a rescue boat is chartered by Germany or Norway, then, to Meloni’s thinking, they need to take in the refugees, not dump them in Italy. “If an NBO ship flies, let’s say, the flag of Germany, there are two possibilities: either Germany recognizes it and takes care of it, or that ship become a pirate ship,” Meloni told book author Bruno Vespa. Meloni actually has a third option that could benefit Italy but going to Brussels and asking, like Turkey, for cash to manage international refugees. Italy’s policies under Meloni haven’t changed that much, other than the global press hammering the new prime minister for her conservative ways. Immigration problems are an ongoing dilemma for the industrialized world, realized that failed states in Africa and South America can’t support employment for citizens.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.
