Illegal immigration: Putting an end to it

The sun sets,
The sun rises,
and every day is not like the others and every night brings new experiences.
And as the wind blows souls are reborn or perished with waves.
It keeps on happening.

Dawn had just broken and the sun was slowly preparing to cast its rays on the island of Malta. Meanwhile, a group of African young men were waiting for the bus which would take them to work. They were immigrants and they worked in order to send money to their families. I looked at them and in their deep dark eyes, I could read their story of a long journey, of crossing deserts and the rough waves of the Mediterranean Sea. For those who made it.

Sitting close to me was Abeeku, a young man who came from Ghana. He told me he has been living in Malta for these last four years and worked in a construction site without a work permit. Still, he was happy on the island as life was better than back in his country. That was one of the reasons why he left his country, for a better life and travelling with him there were other people who came from Somalia and Eritrea. They were fleeing from war and persecution.

Abeeku s’ eyes glistened with tears as he thought of his brothers in Ghana and in an instant, the scenes of the long journey lingered vividly in his memories. He told me that he almost drowned but for the intervention of the Armed Forces of Malta who came to rescue them. There were others who were already dead.

Abeeku recalled the scene of a young woman. He saw her grip the piece of wood floating in the waters while holding her four month old baby. She then looked at the boat which slowly sank in deep waters. She almost made it unlike the others who did not survive. A reality afflicting the whole Mediterranean region.

What we know for sure is that hundreds of immigrants manage to reach the shores, and it is estimated that in the last twenty years between 17,000 and 20,000 migrants have died at sea while trying to reach Europe. I dread to see the Mediterranean Sea, which once was like a dream but is now slowly, slowly becoming a dead men’s world. And the reality prevails, hitting us almost daily in the news but we cannot ignore the fact that human lives are being lost at sea.

As it appears, millions of immigrants are attempting to escape from conflict zones, particularly from Africa. It is reckoned that every individual pays between thirty to fifty dollars for one trip from the North African coast towards Europe. In most of the cases, men, women and children are constrained to travel on small overcrowded boats with limited food and water. In order to halt the influx of immigration in the Mediterranean region, tight measures and restrictions for visas and immigration were introduced by some countries in the Mediterranean. Both reports and testimonies indicate that the European continent is not regarded as the only destination for immigrants but it is the most popular. Unfortunately, the demand for immigration has opened up routes for smugglers who take advantage of every opportunity and with the added restrictions on asylum policies and on legal entry, the smuggling of immigrants has become a large business. In most of the cases, the journeys are often long, unsafe and posing greater risks to immigrants’ lives.

Not all immigrants manage to reach the shores alive. Nonetheless, the immigrants who manage to reach the Mediterranean region come from Somalia, Eritrea and countries where violence is frequently committed, particularly women who may be the most vulnerable.

In times of conflict, women and girls are always the direct target for violence and war in itself manages to create new refugees and displacement. According to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that in the year 2011 nearly 43 million people were considered forcibly displaced due to conflict and half of these were women.

The United Nations estimates that there were at least 1,700 cases of rape amongst internally displaced persons in 2012, particularly in Somalia. As indicated in the same report there are over a million people displaced within Somalia today. Displacement of people may be long term, particularly in countries and regions which are still dominated by conflict. Violence may go on for years and women may not be given the opportunity to return to their homes and consider seeking asylum in other countries. Yet, in these circumstances women may move away from these camps only to enter a more difficult situation. During their journeys women may be at risk again of being sexually abused by bandits, military men and border guards.

Women in camps are segregated along coastal areas with the aim of being smuggled to nearby countries to Europe and to the Middle East. Perhaps, the toughest part of the journey is the immigrant’s stop in countries of transit in the Maghreb area. The two countries are mainly Morocco and Egypt as their geographical location makes them attractive for migrant flow. Morocco has become a transit destination for trafficking of women from sub-Saharan region, from North Africa and even Asia where a considerable number of women are being brought into the countries for sexual exploitation. It is highly probable that immigrant women are forced into prostitution by trafficking networks.

The crude reality remains that in most of the cases immigrants pay a lot of money to their smugglers and to the border guards in order to get out of the country and are then left in territorial waters to fend for themselves.

International law obliges states parties to grant protection and territory to imigrants and forbids returning them to dangerous situations. In the case of Malta, all illegal immigrants are taken to secure detention centres while their claims for asylum are then processed and the process can take up to three months. Amongst the immigrants, around 90 percent of them come from Somalia and Eritrea and these are not sent back as the countries are deemed dangerous, including even Libya. Over the years Malta has recieved about 17,743 immigrants from Africa. Tension kept escalating when in July 2013, Labour leader and Prime Minister Dr. Joseph Muscat mulled the possibility of sending back the Somali immigrants to Libya. Without doubt this acute situation led to a new debate and according to Strasbourg's judges Prime Minister Muscat was violating EU law by not allowing them to make asylum claims first, and that the move was an illegal push-back.

‘This is not push-back, it is a message that we are not push-overs,’ Muscat defended his arguments. He added that as a contributor to the EU bailouts of its southern European neighbours, Malta should expect the EU to offer something in return. ‘People say solidarity, solidarity, but then nothing happens.’

Further on, Muscat has called on Brussels to move forward on the issue and give practical help as he added, ‘We have stamped our feet to say look guys, don't leave us alone.’ Consequently, this situation has put on light on the fact that both Malta and Italy are struggling to reconcile their obligations as EU states. The situation still prevailed but at least the Mediterranean migration was brought again on the European and international agenda.

Yet, human lives were still at stake and another appalling event hit the Mediterranean Sea. Another human tragedy! In October 2013 over 300 mostly Eritrean migrants drowned when the boat capsized near the Italian island of Lampedusa. This heart rending situation was considered as one of the largest immigration disasters in recent history. In addition to that, the European Union started paying extra attention to this devastating reality of immigration. This was followed by a summit held on the 24 October 2013 with the EU leaders stating that a determined action should be taken in order to prevent the loss of lives at sea and to avoid that such human tragedies happen again.

It did happen again. In May 2014 amidst the European Parliament elections campaign, another similar fate blew up in the Mediterranean. Around 17 immigrants were confirmed dead while 206 were rescued in the territorial waters of Italy. Most of the immigrants had departed from Libyan shores and originated from Eritrea, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. More immigrants are expected to leave the African borders and this could lead to more loss of lives. Certainly, this cannot go on and there is an urgent need for a common

European immigration policy should aim to provide a comprehensive framework which will take into account the EU’s particular countries and work on establishing more partnership with African countries. Above all, the aim should be to strengthen the fight against illegal immigration and this is achieved by introducing a common visa policy and the development of border controlled policies. Further, to accelarate the fight against illegal immigration by supplying resources for investigating cases of smuggling and provide protection and assistance to victims of trafficking. Finally, we hope to see an expanded legal framework which applies to the new crime of illegal immigration while implementing international instruments in the field of migrant smuggling.

* Marie Anne Zammit was born in Malta and is a graduate from the University of Malta in Social Work and Probation Services. She is author of four novels and writes articles both in Maltese and in English.

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