Following tensions over the hosting of theOcean-Viking who have set fire to the diplomatic relations between France and Italy, four Mediterranean countries, including the latter, denounced, on Saturday November 12 in a joint declaration, the system for managing the flow of migrants in the European Union (EU).
“Country of first entry into Europe”, Italy, Cyprus, Malta and Greece consider that this system weighs unequally, “the most difficult weight in the management of migratory flows in the Mediterranean” on them. In this press release signed by the ministers of the interior of Italy, Malta and Cyprus as well as the Greek minister of migration, the four States thus request an intervention from the European Commission to quickly initiate new discussions at European level. .
Criticism of the “voluntary solidarity mechanism”
Recalling the commitments made by the European Union (EU) in June in Luxembourg with the establishment of a “voluntary solidarity mechanism” which should have allowed the relocation of 10,000 people in the first year to countries other than those of first entry, the four ministers deplored a result ” disappointing “.
According to them, “the mechanism is slow” and the objective set, which was not achieved, “represents only a very small part of the actual number of irregular arrivals during this year”. These countries, the most exposed with Spain to the arrival of migrants, have been advocating for years in favor of a compulsory relocation system, a subject which has created a stir between Member States since the migration crisis of 2015.
The four ministers also denounce the idea that “countries of first entry may be the only possible European landing points for illegal immigrants” and point the finger at humanitarian NGOs whose “private vessels act in total autonomy from the competent State authorities”.
In particular, they require that each State which grants its flag to a humanitarian ship “effectively exercises jurisdiction and control” of the last. In fact, ships flying the French, Norwegian or German flag regularly dock in Italy to the chagrin of the authorities of the peninsula who claim, without success, that the States whose flag these ships fly take care of the migrants.
Waiting for a new agreement on the management of migrants “which is effective, fair and permanent”the four ministers consider “urgent and necessary a serious discussion on how to better coordinate these operations in the Mediterranean” to ensure that NGO vessels comply with the rules and that the States granting them the flag “assume their responsibilities in accordance with their international obligations”.
The “Ocean-Viking” has left the port of Toulon
The reception by France of the humanitarian ship Ocean-Vikingannounced Thursday and after twenty days of wandering at sea for the ship, put the question of immigration back at the center of European debates.
The ship, which docked Friday morning in Toulon, left the military port in the evening. It is temporarily in the port of Seyne-sur-Mer (Var), the prefecture of the department and the NGO told Agence France-Presse. She will stay a few weeks in France for a technical stopover before setting off again off Libya to resume her rescues in the central Mediterranean.
The 234 migrants on board were disembarked over the course of Friday before being placed, for 189 of them – including 24 women and 13 minors – in a holiday center on the peninsula of Giens, about twenty kilometers from Toulon, transformed into “international waiting area”. The 44 unaccompanied minors who were on board were taken care of by social services and relocated outside the center of Giens.
The “international waiting area” was created especially so that the migrants who are welcomed there are not considered to be in France: they are prohibited from leaving it before an initial assessment of their asylum application. For the moment, everyone has indicated their wish to make this request, according to the prefecture. The talks began on Saturday with the ten French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) agents dispatched to the scene.
In a joint statement “for the full respect of rights” of these people, several organizations including the National Association for Border Assistance for Foreigners (Anafé), the Human Rights League (LDH) or the Syndicate of Lawyers of France, on Friday condemned the creation of this ” waiting area “ and the “deprivation of liberty” that it generates.
In total, more than two thirds of the 234 people, i.e. 175, will leave France to be relocated to eleven countries, including Germany, which is to receive around 80, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania, Malta. , Portugal, Ireland, Finland and Norway.