2009-04-01 Italia: Välimeren vaarat ja Lampedusan liikenne (yhdistetty)

[kriittinen_ajattelija]

Ei kannata ostaa enää kalaa välimereltä.

[Impi Waara]

Miksi heitä ei haluta auttaa? Lähetetään vain pari isohkoa laivaa sinne roudaamaan siirtolaisia Egyptin ja Italian välille. Näin voitaisiin varmistaa, että laivat ovat merikelpoisia. Kustannuksetkaan eivät kokonaisuudessa olisi juuri mikään ongelma. Kuka oikeasti voisi vastustaa sitä, että ihmishenkiä säästetään?

Voisi myös selvittää, olisiko mahdollista kaivaa tunneleita Afrikasta Välimeren ali suoraan Eurooppaan. Siis vähän samaan tapaan kuin Englannin kanaalin alittava tunneli.

Siinä säästettäisiin monia ihmishenkiä ja Eurooppa rikastuisi monin verroin nykyistä tehokkaammin, kun ei joutuisi vaivalloisesti ylittämään merta erilaisilla aluksilla. Kustannuksetkaan eivät olisi mikään ongelma, koska eihän tällaisissa asioissa pidä ajatella rahaa.

Ottaisiko joku insinööriopiskelija tästä aiheen diplomityöhönsä?

Siis jokin suurviemärihanke? Eiköhän tehdä kerralla useampi ja tehokkaalla veden puhdistusjärjestelmällä.

[Kulttuurirealisti]

Luin internetistä, että maailmalla kuolee päivässä 120.000 - 155.000 ihmistä. Miksei kukaan muista näitä muita yli 100 tuhatta?!  Onko sillä väliä, hukkuuko Välimereen, vai hukkuuko vaikkapa Tyyneen Valtamereen? Tai ajaako kolarin?

[Kyklooppi]

Suomeen pitäs päästä henkensä kaupalla ja me vaan ei auteta, ei oo sielua enää kellää.

[Lady Deadpool]

DW kirjoittaa salakuljetuksesta, vapaaehtoisista meritaksipalveluista sekä Välimereen hukkuneista. Kirjoitus on haastattelun muodossa, joten kopioin vain alun ja uutisessa olevan kaavion kuolemista.

http://www.dw.com/en/refugee-crisis-in-the-mediterranean-the-smugglers-calculations-are-obvious/a-38122983 (26.3.2017)

Refugee crisis in the Mediterranean: 'The smugglers' calculations are obvious'

Civilian sea rescue missions like the German organization "Jugend Rettet" are trying to prevent deaths in the Mediterranean, but it's a mammoth task, as huge numbers are still risking their lives to make the crossing.

4 young volunteers from "Jugend Rettet e.V." are currently patrolling the sea just off the coast of Libya on board the ship Iuventa. They are looking out for refugee boats that have got into difficulty. This German organization is financed by donations. It has already saved 6,600 people since last July. But last Thursday [23.03.2017] they arrived too late: two hundred and fifty refugees are believed to have drowned. DW spoke to Titus Molkenbur, the coordinator of the "Jugend Rettet" mission.

DW: Your organization was the first to spot the empty dinghies. We're hearing that 250 people died. What are you able to tell us?

Titus Molkenbur: We were north of Sabrata, a place in northern Libya from which boats often set out. We were in international waters – outside the 12 mile zone off the Libyan coast, but still very close to Libyan territorial waters. Around 0730 in the morning German time we spotted a rubber boat with no occupants. We patrolled around the boat for two hours looking for survivors, but unfortunately without success. The only things we found were lifejackets. A little while later we found two more empty rubber boats.

You then continued the search, along with the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms ...

Yes, Proactiva Open Arms was in the vicinity with its rescue ship. At that point, the crew had on board five dead people whom they had just recovered.

The media are talking about 250 dead. Can you confirm this?

There are usually 100 to 140 people in one of these rubber dinghies. If we find a boat with no occupants and no survivors nearby, the suspicion is that around that number of people have died.

[Lady Deadpool]

Reuters uutisoi viikonlopun pelastussaldoista.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-italy-idUSKBN16X0XQ (26.3.2017)

Nearly 1,200 migrants picked up off Libya, heading to Italy

Humanitarian ships rescued almost 1,200 migrants who were crossing the Mediterranean Sea at the weekend on an array of small, tightly packed boats, Doctors Without Borders said on Sunday.

A young woman was found unconscious on one of the vessels and later died, the group said.

Some 412 people were crammed onto a single wooden boat, while the others were picked up from huge inflatable dinghies, which had set sail from the coast of Libya.

The weekend rescues mean that about 22,000 mainly African migrants have been picked up heading to Italy so far this year, while around 520 have died trying to make the crossing.

An Italian prosecutor said last week that humanitarian ships operating off Libya were undermining the fight against people smugglers and opening a corridor that is ultimately leading to more migrant deaths.

The chief prosecutor of the Sicilian port city of Catania, Carmelo Zuccaro, said he also suspected that there may be direct communication between Libya-based smugglers and members of charity-operated rescue vessels.

Non-governmental organizations deny any wrongdoing, saying they are simply looking to save lives, but they are facing criticism in Italy, which has taken in about half a million migrants since the start of 2014.

A parliamentarian with the right-wing Northern League party on Sunday accused the NGOs of acting as a "taxi service", bringing migrants straight to Italy rather than to closer nations, such as Tunisia and Malta.

"If the government does not decide to put a brake on these NGO boats, we will find ourselves overrun by tens of thousands of African immigrants by the end of the year," lawmaker Paolo Grimoldi said.

Migrants who have come this year have told of increasing violence and brutality in Libya, where rival factions battle for power and people smugglers operate with impunity since the 2011 overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

[Lady Deadpool]

Malta Today uutisoi Italian aloittamista tutkimuksista koskien yksityisten meritaksien rahoitusta.

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/75723/moas_cofounder_welcomes_italian_parliaments_inquiry_into_funding_of_private_rescue_missions#.WNk8KfmLTIU (27.3.2017)

MOAS co-founder welcomes Italian investigation into funding of private rescue missions

Ambassador says Italian parliament's investigations into NGOs is 'a routine exercise carried by two parliamentary committees' and that there's no 'hidden agenda'

Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) co-founder Regina Catrambone has welcomed an investigation by the Italian parliament into the funding of search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean, arguing that her organisation had always been upfront about its work.

MOAS is a Malta-based registered foundation dedicated to mitigating the loss of life at sea and Provides professional search and rescue assistance to refugees and migrants in distress at sea. It was set up in response to the October 2013 Lampedusa tragedy, when several hundred migrants drowned.

But as more humanitarian organisations joined in with their private search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean as thousands of asylum seekers continued to flee Libya in rickety boats, critics started to question their motives. In Italy, the parliament will investigate the financing of such NGOs after a prosecutor in Catania expressed his "doubts and perplexity" over the work carried out in rescuing migrants.

Catrambone said the results of the contribution of MOAS and other volunteer missions, along with the European Union's official efforts, were there for all to see.

"As refugees continue trying to reach Europe through the Mediterranean sea, the opening of legal refugee corridors is the only solution," Catrambone told MaltaToday.

"MOAS and other missions are doing invaluable work, saving lives, and there is a lot happening in the Mediterranean."

Asked if she was concerned at the news of an investigation, Catrambone said MOAS welcomed such scrutiny.

"We have always cooperated with authorities in the three years since we set up our foundation and we will continue to do so," she said.

"We have no problem in accounting for our rescue efforts in the Mediterranean."

As to the frequently-brought up accusation of hidden agendas behind the efforts of NGOs in migrant rescues in the Mediterranean, Catrambone said she could only speak for MOAS.

"We have always been upfront and frank about our objectives and missions," she said. "We have also always accounted for all the funding we have received these past three years and will continue to do so."

According to UNHCR's representative to Malta Kahin Ismail, the Mediterranean refugee corridor remains a major pathway for migrants coming to Europe, and thousands of lives are saved every year at sea.

He was replying to questions on comments made last week by Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz, who is demanding that the Mediterranean refugee route be closed. The minister, who is due in Malta later on this week, insisted that the refugee policy along the Mediterranean-Italian route was "wrong".

"I have no instruction on this delicate issue"

Italy's ambassador to Malta Giovanni De Vito told MaltaToday that the two countries will continue to cooperate closely in the migrant rescue efforts in the Mediterranean.

As to whether Malta should start once again accepting refugees saved at sea, the ambassador noted that this was a 'delicate issue' that was often brought up in Italian media, but one for which he had "no official instruction".

"But I am personally sure that if Malta and other countries, after internal consideration of the country's capabilities and infrastructure, decided to accept a number of refugees, it would be very well received by Italy," De Vito said.

"It might help contain the migrant arrivals to a smaller destination area than is currently the case, with migrants landing as far north as Calabria and Taranto."

He praised the contribution of the Armed Forces of Malta in EU missions and in assisting Italian forces operating in the Mediterranean.
De Vito said that there was no hidden agenda behind the Italian parliament's investigations into NGOs and their finances and said this was a routine exercise carried by two parliamentary committees.

[Lady Deadpool]

ANSAmed uutisoi liikenteestä ja pelastusoperaatioista. Tällä kertaa haaviin saatiin bangladeshilaisia.

http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2017/03/28/migrants-libyan-coast-guard-rescues-60-bangladeshi_6e34a936-a49e-4982-8e69-dd152f91a027.html (28.3.2017)

Libya's coastguard has rescued 60 migrants as they tried to reach Italy by boat, navy spokesperson general Ayoub Omar Qassem said.

"They are all Bangladeshi, there are no casualties"

The migrants were on an inflatable boat off Sabratha, west of Tripoli, at dawn on Sunday when the coastguard intercepted them, Qassem said, as quoted by MENA news agency. "The migrants were brought back to shore, to the port of Zawiya, and handed over to authorities in charge of illegal migration after being seen by medics," he said.

[Mr.Reese]

Etäisesti kiinnostaa ja utelias, että mitä reittiä ja millä kulkuneuvoilla nuo Bangladeshilaiset on itsensä afrikkaan hilanneet? Hyvä, ettei tuotu Italiaan.

[Spesialisti]

Etäisesti kiinnostaa ja utelias, että mitä reittiä ja millä kulkuneuvoilla nuo Bangladeshilaiset on itsensä afrikkaan hilanneet? Hyvä, ettei tuotu Italiaan.

Italiassa tehdään hämärästi "Made in Italy" krääsätuotantoa, jossa hyväksikäytetään orjatyövoimaa Kauko-Idästä. Suorat lennot luultavasti lentävät Bangladeshista jonnekin päin Välimeren etelärannikkoa ja EU:n meritaksit kuljettavat turvikset orjat suoraan lähelle tuotantoa.  Muulla kyydillä matka on melkoisen mahdoton taittaa, ellei sitten laivarottana. Mafiakummisetien ja teollisuuspamppujen hyvät serkut ja veljet eri parlamenteissa katsovat muualle tarvittaessa jotta bisnekset luistavat ja orjia riittää. 

[skyuu]

Etäisesti kiinnostaa ja utelias, että mitä reittiä ja millä kulkuneuvoilla nuo Bangladeshilaiset on itsensä afrikkaan hilanneet? Hyvä, ettei tuotu Italiaan.

Italiassa tehdään hämärästi "Made in Italy" krääsätuotantoa, jossa hyväksikäytetään orjatyövoimaa Kauko-Idästä. Suorat lennot luultavasti lentävät Bangladeshista jonnekin päin Välimeren etelärannikkoa ja EU:n meritaksit kuljettavat turvikset orjat suoraan lähelle tuotantoa.  Muulla kyydillä matka on melkoisen mahdoton taittaa, ellei sitten laivarottana. Mafiakummisetien ja teollisuuspamppujen hyvät serkut ja veljet eri parlamenteissa katsovat muualle tarvittaessa jotta bisnekset luistavat ja orjia riittää.

Tätähän tännekin halutaan joskin sillä erotuksella että meillä vielä kuvittelevat että MENA-tyyppi tekee orjatyön mieluummin kuin ottaa sossutukea. Kohta viisastuvat ja kaarnalaivatkin on made in Finland by Bangladeshi. Ei toki vaikuta kuin kiihdyttäen MENA-importtiin koska hei mamut työllistyy jne.

Gangbangladeshilaiset voi sitten karkottaa jos orjatyö ei maistu tai sitten 'värvääjä' uhkailee perhettä siellä Daccassa.

[Lady Deadpool]

ANSAmed uutisoi numerosta 725 ja yhdestä kropasta. 5 pelastusoperaatiota tiistaina.

http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2017/03/29/migrants-725-and-corpse-on-coast-guard-ship-towards-sicily_44163de7-7021-4aa2-a38c-164a4dd75055.html (29.3.2017)

The Italian Coast Guard's Dattilo ship was on Wednesday morning heading towards the port of Augusta in eastern Sicily with 725 migrants and one corpse onboard.

The migrants are from five rescue operations: a large boat, a small boat, two Dattilo dinghies and a Iuventa NGO dinghy carrying the corpse.

The ship is expected to arrive in the port near Siracusa on Thursday morning.

[Alaric]

146 afrikkalaista työvoimapulanpaikkaajaa ei tainnut päästä perille asti.

http://www.is.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000005147892.html (29.3.2017)

Bensakanisteriin ripustautunut poika raportoi tragediasta Välimerellä –  lähes 150 ihmistä kateissa laivan kaaduttua

Noin 146 ihmistä on kateissa Libyasta lähteneen laivan kaaduttua.

Tapahtumasta kertoi YK:n pakolaisjärjestön mukaan gambialainen 16-vuotias poika, joka pelastui pitämällä kiinni bensiinikanisterista.

Pelastuneen nuorukaisen mukaan aluksessa oli ollut myös lapsia ja raskaana olevia naisia. Suurin osa matkustajista oli kotoisin Nigeriasta, Gambiasta ja Malista.

Alus oli lähtenyt Libyan Sabratasta.

[Lady Deadpool]

ANSA uutisoi Italian maaliskuun numeroita Info Migrantin (kannattaa lukea tästä uudesta sivustosta ja yhteistyöstä eri medioiden kesken lisää täältä) kautta.

http://en.infomigrants.net/post/158996012005/record-high-number-of-migrants-land-in-italy-in-march (30.3.2017)

Record-high number of migrants land in Italy in March

Over 9,600 asylum seekers have landed on Italy's shores this month, more than the number of people who arrived in March 2016, according to the interior ministry. More than 23,000 migrants have arrived in Italy until now in 2017.

Following record-high migrant arrivals in Italy in February, the current month has also witnessed a higher number than the past two years. Statistics from the Italian interior ministry show that 9,684 migrants arrived on Italian coasts in March, compared with 9,676 in 2016 and 2,282 in 2015.

Some 23,123 migrants arrived from January 1, 2017 until March 28, a 59.41% rise on the previous year and a 127.48% one on 2015.

Most of the arrivals were at Sicilian ports, especially Augusta (6,059), followed by Catania (3,570). The Trapani and Pozzallo hotspots received 2,373 and 2,135 migrants.

As of March 20, 4,438 migrants were relocated to other European countries from Italy. These included321 minors. Most of them were relocated to Germany, followed by Norway and Finland. A total of 1,548 requests have been sent and are waiting approval from member states, while 992 are awaiting transfer.

Some 8,673 people have so far been included in the relocation program in Italy.

[Lady Deadpool]

Joitakin lukuja lauantailta Daily Mailin kautta.

A four-day-old baby was among nearly 500 migrants rescued trying to cross the Mediterranean on Saturday.

The newborn girl was travelling on one of two rubber boats bound for Italy carrying more than 200 migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4374116/Four-day-old-baby-500-migrants-rescued-sea.html (3.4.2017)

[Lady Deadpool]

Päivitettyjä lukuja ANSAmedin kautta.

http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2017/04/04/iom-says-663-migrants-dead-in-mediterranean-in-2017_25743235-b88a-405c-ae3f-7ca52c2780fa.html (4.4.2017)

At least 663 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean thus far in 2017 in an attempt to reach Europe, and the total number of arrivals by this route to Europe grew to 29,369 as of April 2, according to the latest data released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Over 80% of the arrivals were registered in Italy (24,513), with the remainder in Greece (3,856) and Spain (1,000).

In Italy the number of migrant landings since the beginning of 2017 is close to the 25,000 mark, according to figures released by the IOM's spokesman in Italy, Flavio Di Giacomo.

The total number of arrivals last year on the central Mediterranean route that connects North Africa and Italy was 181,436.

If the current trends continue, the total number of arrivals for 2017 could surpass 200,000 for the first time since the start of the current emergency.

[Lady Deadpool]

Joitakin päivityksiä lukuihin sitten viime postauksen, ei ole ajantasalla siis.

AP (6.4.2017)

A Spanish charity says it has rescued 230 migrants, from African and Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cameroon, Pakistan and Togo), in boats trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

Reuters Canada (6.4.2017)

Humanitarian groups operating rescue ships off the coast of Libya picked up more than 700 migrants out of seven flimsy and overcrowded boats on Wednesday, Italy's coast guard said.

The Phoenix rescue ship, operated by the Malta-based non-governmental organization MOAS, rescued more than 300 people from three boats in international waters off the coast of the Libyan city of Sabratha.

Reuters (6.4.2017)

Italy's Coast Guard and humanitarian ships rescued 1,350 migrants in 12 separate operations in the Mediterranean on Thursday and one person was found dead.

The migrants were all found in an area some 25 km (16 miles) north of the Libyan coast, They traveling on a larger boat, five dinghies and 6 smaller vessels, a Coast Guard spokesperson told Reuters.

The body of a dead person was found on one of the dinghies, a statement said.

Search and rescue operations were carried out by the Coast Guard and two boats operated by NGOs Sea Watch and Proactiva Open Arms, it added.

The Coast Guard spokesman said operations were still being carried out and there were still no details regarding where the migrants would be sent.

Italy has become the main arrival point in Europe for people fleeing persecution and poverty in Africa, most of them crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. Overall, 181,000 migrants reached Italy in 2016, about half of the total who arrived in the European Union by sea.

[Lady Deadpool]

IBTimes uutisoi modernin orjakaupan kukoistuksesta Libyassa. On sanomattakin selvää, että Libyan epävakaat olot ovat riski Euroopalle.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/migrants-are-being-sold-open-slave-markets-libya-1616492 (11.4.2017)

Migrants are being sold at open slave markets in Libya

Vulnerable refugees from West Africa often arrive in the country with no money and no papers.

Migrants from West Africa are being openly traded in "public slave markets" across Libya.

As a departure point for refugees trying to get to Europe, migrants arriving in Libya from sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable due to a lack of money and little in the way of documentation.

Survivors have told the International Organization for Migration (IOM) how there are slave markets and private prisons all over Libya.

Mohammed Abdiker, IOM's head of operation and emergencies, told The Guardian: "The situation is dire. The more IOM engages inside Libya, the more we learn that it is a vale of tears for all too many migrants."

One survivor from Senegal spoke of how he was brought by smugglers across Niger in a bus to the southern Libyan city of Sabha, where he was due to risk a boat trip to Europe. When the middleman did not get his fee, the survivor was put up for sale along with other passengers.

He was taken to a prison where he worked without pay while the captors demanded 300,000 West African francs (about £380) before selling him on to a larger jail. Livia Manante, an IOM officer based in Niger, told The Guardian how migrants would be brought to a square where they were put up for sale.

"IOM Italy has confirmed that this story is similar to many stories reported by migrants and collected at landing points in southern Italy, including the slave market reports."

Those who did not get their ransom paid were often taken away and killed while others would die of hunger and disease in unsanitary conditions.

"If the number of migrants goes down, because of death or someone is ransomed, the kidnappers just go to the market and buy one," Manente said.

IOM has helped repatriate 1,500 people back to West Africa so far this year where it is trying to inform people not to risk the journey to Libya where they face exploitation.

"Too often they are broken, brutalised and have been abused. Their voices carry more weight than anyone else's," IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle told the newspaper.

[supreme god]

Venäjä ylläpitää Libyan epävakautta tukemalla virallista hallitusta vastustavaa tahoa.

"
A force of several dozen armed private security contractors from Russia operated until last month in a part of Libya that is under the control of regional leader Khalifa Haftar, the head of the firm that hired the contractors told Reuters.

It is the clearest signal to date that Moscow is prepared to back up its public diplomatic support for Haftar -- even at the risk of alarming Western governments already irked at Russia's intervention in Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad.

Haftar is opposed to a U.N.-backed government which Western states see as the best chance of restoring stability in Libya. But some Russian policy-makers see the Libyan as a strongman who can end the six years of anarchy that followed the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

The presence of the military contractors was, according to the head of the firm, a commercial arrangement. It is unlikely though to have been possible without Moscow's approval, according to people who work in the industry in Russia.

Oleg Krinitsyn, owner of private Russian firm RSB-group, said he sent the contractors to eastern Libya last year and they were pulled out in February having completed their mission.

In an interview with Reuters, he said their task was to remove mines from an industrial facility near the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, in an area that Haftar's forces had liberated from Islamist rebels.

He declined to say who hired his firm to provide the contractors, where they were operating or what the industrial facility was. He did not say if the operation had been approved by the U.N.-backed government, which most states view as the sovereign ruler of Libya.

Asked whether the mission had official blessing from Moscow, Krinitsyn said his firm did not work with the Russian defence ministry, but was "consulting" with the Russian foreign ministry.

The contractors did not take part in combat, Krinitsyn said, but they were armed with weapons they obtained in Libya. He declined to specify what type of weapons. A U.N. arms embargo prohibits the import of weapons to Libya unless it is under the control of the U.N.-backed government.

Krinitsyn said his contractors were ready to strike back in case of an attack.

"If we're under assault we enter the battle, of course, to protect our lives and the lives of our clients," Krinitsyn said. "According to military science, a counterattack must follow an attack. That means we would have to destroy the enemy."

Military and government officials in eastern Libya said they were not aware of the presence of the contractors, while Haftar did not respond to a request for comment.

Officials in Western Libya, where the U.N.-backed government is based, were not immediately available to comment. The Russian foreign ministry said it was working on a response to Reuters questions bit had not commented by Friday.

MOSCOW'S PROXIES

Underscoring Libya's volatility, Haftar's forces have this week been fighting to regain control over the Mediterranean oil terminals of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which a rival faction seized earlier this month.

Russia has a record of using private military contractors as an extension of its own military.

In Syria, military contractors have been widely used in combat roles in conjunction with Russian regular forces and their Syrian allies, according to multiple accounts given to Reuters by people involved in the operations.Moscow has not acknowledged using private contractors in Syria.

Russian security companies do not reveal the background of people they hire but the contractors usually are special forces veterans.

Krinitsyn, the owner of the company which hired the contractors for Libya, was an officer of the Russian border guard service based in Tajikistan, on the border with Afghanistan, where he said he gained battlefield experience.

Krinitsyn said some of the contractors he hired for Libya has previously worked in Syria, though not in combat roles.

He declined to say how many contractors were involved in the mission in Libya, citing commercial secrecy. However, he said that in general, a de-mining operation of this type would require around 50 mine clearance experts and around the same number for their security detail.

HAWKISH CAMP

Haftar has been seeking outside help to consolidate his control over parts of Libya. Russia has shown a willingness to engage with him that contrasts with the more cautious approach of Western governments.

Haftar visited Moscow in November last year and met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In December, Haftar went on board a Russian aircraft carrier off the Libyan coast and spoke with the Russian defence minister via videolink. In recent weeks, Russia has taken in 100 of Haftar's wounded fighters for medical treatment.

Moscow also received Haftar's rival, Fayez Serraj, the head of the UN-backed government, for talks this month.

President Vladimir Putin, newly confident from the Russian military intervention in Syria, is anxious to restore stability in Libya. But foreign diplomats familiar with Russian thinking say there is so far no consensus on how to achieve that.

They say the foreign ministry wants Haftar to join forces with the U.N.-backed government. But the diplomats say there is a more hawkish camp, centred on the Russian defence ministry and some people in the Kremlin, which favours backing Haftar to establish control over the whole of Libya.

Krinitsyn, the contractors' boss, said that while in Libya his employees had run into a group of local militants. He said the militants were initially hostile, but became friendly when they realised the outsiders were Russians.

"It was an uncomfortable situation but the image created by Putin in Syria played a positive role. We realized that Russia is welcomed in Libya more than other countries are," he said.

(Additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli in Benghazi, Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli and Christian Lowe in Moscow; Editing by Giles Elgood)"

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-libya-contractors-idUSKBN16H2DM

[Alaric]

Matuja vyöryy Välimeren yli yhä enemmän Italiaan. Tuoreet tulijat ovat kotoisin etenkin Bangladeshista, Nigeriasta ja Guineasta. Lisäksi maaliskuun alusta lähtien mukana on ollut runsaasti somaleja ja eritrealaisia.

Aah, rikkautta lisää... tänne vaan.

http://www.verkkouutiset.fi/ulkomaat/migranti_ita-64160 (12.4.2017)

Maahantulijavirta Italiaan jatkuu kiihtyvään tahtiin

EU:n rajaturvallisuusvirasto Frontexin mukaan maahantulijavirta Italiaan on jatkunut edelleen.

Välimeren yli Pohjois-Afrikasta on tuli Italiaan maaliskuussa lähes 11 000 maahanpyrkijää, joka oli viidenneksen enemmän kuin helmikuussa.

Kuluvan vuoden kolmen ensimmäisen kuukauden aikana Italiaan on tullut Välimeren reitin kautta 24 250 pakolaista ja siirtolaista. Tämä on 30 prosenttia enemmän kuin viime vuoden vastaavana aikana.

Maahanpyrkijät ovat lähtöisin etenkin Bangladeshista, Nigeriasta ja Guineasta. Maaliskuun alusta lähtien joukossa on ollut runsasti väkeä myös Eritreasta ja Somaliasta, kertoo Italian yleisradio RAI.

[Billy Hill]

Italian tapauksessa voitaisiin lakata puhua tulijoista ja kutsua heitä Afrikan rannikolta noudetuiksi. Ja muistuttaa joka ainoassa uutisessa että toiminta on järjestelmällistä, EU:n operoimaan ihmiskuljetusta välimeren yli. Ne pahat salakuljettajat mahdollistavat vain muutaman ensimmäisen kilometrin, lopuista on vastuussa ihan muut tahot.

[Lady Deadpool]

Uutisia Välimereltä.

AP (12.4.2017)

Three migrants who were trying to reach Europe, including a 10-year-old girl, died after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, Spain's maritime rescue service said Wednesday.

A service spokeswoman said a Spanish Navy unit stationed on Alboran island, halfway between Spain and Morocco, rescued 30 migrants after the boat overturned Tuesday afternoon.

[Lady Deadpool]

Express uutisoi Libyan sanomisia.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/791381/Libya-European-Union-empty-promises-failure-migrant-crisis-coastguard-funding (13.4.2017)

EU FULL OF 'EMPTY PROMISES' Libyan PM warns more migrants on way thanks to Brussels

LIBYA accused the European Union of providing little more than "empty promises" as it attacked Brussels for failing to help tackle the migrant crisis.

More than 24,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Libya in the first three months of this year - up from 18,000 over the same period in 2016.

As a record 181,000 reached the Italian coast in 2016, at least 90 per cent of them have been revealed to be from Libya.

The EU has tried to take on the troubling trend, training 90 coast guards as part of its naval mission Operation Sophia to fight people smugglers and rescue migrants lost at sea.

But Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Al-Serraj says not enough has been done to halt the migrant crisis.

He told Bild newspaper: "Unfortunately Europe did not help us but made just empty promises.

"We urgently need more professional help in order to protect and control the coast.

"Furthermore, the international community must do more to help stabilise the country."

He warned if his country did not receive more help, and quickly, even more migrants could take on the deadly sea voyage in the desperate hope of reaching Europe's shores.

And while many will never make it alive, others will be subjected to sick abuse at the hands of smugglers.

The PM's comments come as it was revealed North African migrants are facing being raped and murdered after being sold in Libyan "slave markets".

The International Organisation of Migration claims staff on the ground had heard harrowing accounts of the horrific attacks migrants have been subjected to.

Many claim they were kidnapped and tortured before being released after their family back home paid a ransom.

And others suffered malnutrition and sexual abuse in Libyan detention centres, while some were even murdered when their family's failed to pay up.

Libya's UN backed government was due to receive £171million worth of funding from the EU in a bid to reinforced its coastguard and halt the influx of new arrivals on Europe's southern coast.

In their declaration on migration, the 28 European Union leaders said: "A key element of a sustainable migration policy is to ensure effective control of our external border and stem illegal flows into the EU."

But human rights activists have criticised the Brussels bloc for making it seem as if Libya is a safe place to live, citing poor conditions in refugee camps.

The PM's comments come as it was revealed North African migrants are facing being raped and murdered after being sold in Libyan "slave markets".

[Sakari]

Libya uhkailuihin pakolaisvyöryllä, voisi länsi vastata uhkaamalla Libyaa demokratiavyöryllä!

[Kemolitor]

Hyvin erikoinen uutinen STT:ltä:

Alus upposi Libyan edustalla, satakunta Eurooppaan pyrkinyttä kateissa

Satakunta Eurooppaan pyrkinyttä ihmistä oli torstaina kateissa sen jälkeen, kun heitä kuljettanut alus upposi Libyan rannikolla.

Rannikkovartiosto pelasti merestä parikymmentä ihmistä noin kymmenen kilometrin päässä Libyan rannikosta, kertoi Libyan laivaston edustaja. Pelastuneiden kerrotaan olevan useista eri Afrikan maista.

Kateissa olevien uskotaan saaneen surmansa, mutta ruumiita ei ole huonon sään takia vielä löydetty. Joukossa oli myös useita lapsia.

Vuoden ensimmäisen kolmen kuukauden aikana Italiaan on saapunut Libyasta yli 24 000 ihmistä, käy ilmi YK:n pakolaisjärjestön UNHCR:n tiedoista. Vuosi sitten vastaavana aikana heitä oli 18 000. Ainakin 590 ihmistä on hukkunut alkuvuonna matkalla Eurooppaan.

TS (STT): Alus upposi Libyan edustalla, satakunta Eurooppaan pyrkinyttä kateissa

Nyt veneissä onkin ihmisiä, kun vielä vuosi, pari sitten paatit olivat täynnä siirtolaisia, pakolaisia, turvapaikanhakijoita tai maahanmuuttajia.

[Lady Deadpool]

The New Yorkerin Ben Taub on kirjoittanut erittäin pitkän jutun salakuljetuksesta ja ihmiskaupasta matunäkökulmasta. Mielenkiintoista informaatiota Nigeriasta,Italiasta, reiteistä ja salakuljettajien metodeista, historiasta ja uhreista. Erittäin viihdyttävä ja hyvin kirjoitettu lukupätkä piristämään ruokailuhetkeä, suosittelen kaikille kiinnostuneille. Kopioin muutamia pätkiä, kokonaisuus linkistä.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/the-desperate-journey-of-a-trafficked-girl (10.4.2017)

THE DESPERATE JOURNEY OF A TRAFFICKED GIRL

Every year, thousands of teen-agers from one city in Nigeria risk death and endure forced labor and sex work on the long route to Europe.

It was close to midnight on the coast of Libya, a few miles west of Tripoli. At the water's edge, armed Libyan smugglers pumped air into thirty-foot rubber dinghies. Some three thousand refugees and migrants, mostly sub-Saharan Africans, silent and barefoot, stood nearby in rows of ten. Oil platforms glowed in the Mediterranean.

The Libyans ordered male migrants to carry the inflated boats into the water, thirty on each side. They waded in and held the boats steady as a smuggler directed other migrants to board, packing them as tightly as possible. People in the center would suffer chemical burns if the fuel leaked and mixed with water. Those straddling the sides could easily fall into the sea. Officially, at least five thousand and ninety-eight migrants died in the Mediterranean last year, but Libya's coastline is more than a thousand miles long, and nobody knows how many boats sink without ever being seen. Several of the migrants had written phone numbers on their clothes, so that someone could call their families if their bodies washed ashore.

The smugglers knelt in the sand and prayed, then stood up and ordered the migrants to push off. One pointed to the sky. "Look at this star!" he said. "Follow it." Each boat left with only enough fuel to reach international waters.

In one dinghy, carrying a hundred and fifty people, a Nigerian teen-ager named Blessing started to cry. She had travelled six months to get to this point, and her face was gaunt and her ribs were showing. She wondered if God had visited her mother in dreams and shown her that she was alive. The boat hit swells and people started vomiting. By dawn, Blessing had fainted. The boat was taking on water.

In recent years, tens of millions of Africans have fled areas afflicted with famine, drought, persecution, and violence. Ninety-four per cent of them remain on the continent, but each year hundreds of thousands try to make it to Europe. The Mediterranean route has also become a kind of pressure-release valve for countries affected by corruption and extreme inequality. "If not for Italy, I promise, there would be civil war in Nigeria," a migrant told me. Last year, after Nigeria's currency collapsed, more Nigerians crossed the sea than people of any other nationality.

The flood of migrants is not a new phenomenon, but for years the European Union had some success in slowing it. The E.U. built a series of fences in Morocco and started paying coastal African nations to keep migrants from reaching European waters. Many migrants spent years living in border countries, repeatedly trying and failing to cross. Muammar Qaddafi saw an opportunity. In 2010, he demanded that Europe pay him five billion euros per year; otherwise, he said, Libya could send so many migrants that "tomorrow Europe might no longer be European."

The following year, as nato forces bombed Libya, Qaddafi's troops rounded up tens of thousands of black and South Asian guest workers in Tripoli, crammed them into fishing trawlers, and launched them in the direction of Italy. Then Qaddafi was killed, Libya descended into chaos, and its shores became impossible to police. Europe's strategy had failed; by 2013, smuggling networks connected most major population centers in the northern half of Africa to Tripoli's coast.

As African migrants head toward the Mediterranean, they unwittingly follow the ancient caravan routes of the trans-Saharan slave trade. For eight hundred years, black slaves and concubines were transported through the same remote desert villages. Now that the old slave routes are ungovernable and awash in weapons, tens of thousands of human beings who set out voluntarily find themselves trafficked, traded between owners, and forced to work as laborers or prostitutes. The men who enter debt bondage come from all over Africa, but the overwhelming majority of females fit a strikingly narrow profile: they are teen-age girls from around Benin City, the capital of Edo State, in southern Nigeria—girls like Blessing.

Most women from Nigeria stayed inside the migrant ghettos. They didn't need to work, because their travel had been paid for by traffickers in Europe. The connection houses were hot and crowded, but the women were fed and protected until it was time to cross the desert. Other Nigerian girls, who were on their own, had to do sex work in order to feed themselves and to finance the next stage of the journey. In Agadez, sex workers typically earn around three dollars per client, much of which goes to local madams, in exchange for room and board. One Nigerian teen-ager told me that it took her eighteen months and hundreds of clients to earn enough money to leave.

Most Nigerian brothels in Agadez are in the Nasarawa slum, a sewage-filled neighborhood a short walk from the grand mosque, the tallest mud-brick structure in the world. One afternoon, a young woman from Lagos sat outside a brothel holding the infant son of her friend Adenike, a seventeen-year-old girl, who was with a client. A few minutes later, a tall Toubou man emerged, adjusting his chèche. Adenike followed, wiping her hands on her spandex shorts. She picked up her baby, but soon another client arrived, so she passed the infant to another Nigerian girl, who looked no older than thirteen and was also doing sex work, and led the man past a hanging blanket and into her room.

In Italy, it is widely known that many contracts to provide services for the migrants are connected to the Mafia. The government allots reception centers thirty-five euros per migrant per day, but the conditions at Palanebiolo and elsewhere indicate that the money is not being spent on those who stay there. A few years ago, in a wiretapped call, Italian investigators heard a Mafia boss tell an associate, "Do you have any idea how much we earn off the migrants? The drug trade is less profitable." Migrants are entitled to daily cash allowances of two euros and fifty cents; at Palanebiolo, they were given phone cards instead, which they sold on the streets nearby at a thirty-per-cent discount, so they could buy food, secondhand clothes, and, eventually, mobile phones.

[Lady Deadpool]

Uutisia vesistöstä.

Associated Press (14.4.2017)

Spanish rescue ships saved 73 migrants, including one pregnant woman, from five different smuggling boats trying to cross the sea from Africa to Europe during the previous 24 hours.

The pregnant woman and 25 other migrants were aboard a vessel that was taking on water in the Atlantic Ocean when reached by the rescue boat Salvamar Gadir before daybreak Friday.

They were found 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of the Atlantic coastal town of Barbate, which lies between Cadiz and Gibraltar. Emergency services for Spain's Andalucia region said the 20 men and six women were all of North African descent.

Another four boats carrying migrants who told Spanish authorities they were from Algeria were intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea.

The civil guard based on the island of Mallorca said their ships had found two boats with 14 men each both on Thursday and Friday. Closer to the mainland, civil guard boats patrolling near Cartagena intercepted another two boats - one on Thursday with 11 men, a second craft on Friday with eight more men.

All the migrants were in good health, according to authorities.

[Lady Deadpool]

Lisää uutisia Välimereltä.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/frenzied-rescues-in-med-save-over-2-000-migrants/article/490348 (14.4.2017)

Rescue vessels in the Mediterranean worked flat out Friday to rescue over 2,000 people from flimsy dinghies as exhausted saviours accused the EU of turning a blind eye to the crisis.

The Italian coast guard and five privately-run rescue boats plucked migrants from 16 overcrowded dinghies and three wooden vessels.

After non-stop back-to-back rescues, a total of 2,074 people were brought to safety, the coastguard said, a day after a shipwreck left at least 97 migrants feared drowned off Libya.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) boats Prudence and Aquarius rescued some 1,145 people from nine different dinghies in exhausting operations it said proved their presence off the North African coast was needed.

The rest were picked up by the coastguard, the Phoenix -- run by the Maltese organisation Moas -- the German NGO Sea Eye and the German Jugend's Iuventa.

[Lady Deadpool]

Uutisia Turkki - Italia - Kreikka reitiltä. Kuinka monta mahtaa päästä läpi.

Associated Press (15.4.2017)

Turkey's coast guard says 199 migrants and three smugglers have been intercepted in western Turkey as they were embarking for Italy on a sailboat.

The coast guard said in a statement that their units set out to stop the journey from Izmir, Turkey on Friday morning after receiving a tip that a sailboat was transporting migrants illegally.

Aerial footage of the operation shows people waiting to board the sailboat. An hour later, two coast guard boats intercepted the boat as it started its journey.

The migrants include Pakistanis, Syrians, Sri Lankans and Iranians. Sixteen children and 8 women were among the passengers. The alleged smugglers are Turkish.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency says 43 migrants were also rescued from a sinking rubber dinghy off Turkey's coast while trying to cross to the Greek island of Lesbos.

[Lady Deadpool]

No niin, nyt alkaa tulemaan hieman enemmän uutisia tästä aiheesta, tällä kertaa Independent lehden kautta. Pahimmassa tauksessa lopputuloksena on enemmän meritakseja eri tahoilta, enemmän pelastuneita ja enemmän yrittäjiä.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-leaving-migrants-drown-frontex-say-rescuers-2000-saved-italy-libya-mediterranean-a7684911.html (15.4.2017)

EU 'leaving migrants to drown' say rescuers who saved 2,000 from Mediterranean in single day

"We are where we're needed, what's the EU doing?'

More than 2,000 migrants trying to reach Europe were rescued from the Mediterranean on Friday, while at least one person was found dead, the Italian coastguard confirmed.

A spokesperson for the service said 19 rescue operations by coastguards or non-governmental organisations had saved a total of 2,074 migrants on 16 rubber dinghies and three small wooden boats.

The coastguard also confirmed that one person had died when the boats sank, but gave no details.

The rescues come just days after a boat sank off the coast of Libya on Thursday. Ninety-seven refugees are missing, presumed drowned.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), nearly 32,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year. More than 650 have died or are missing.

The number of migrants increased to a high of 5,079 for 2016, according the the IOM - despite a huge decline in numbers of migrant arrivals since 2014.

Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a medical charity which has carried out hundreds of rescue operations in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the migrant crisis, has criticised Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard agency, who operate official EU patrols on migration routes.

MSF said in a series of tweets that NGOs were being forced to fill gaps in service provision left by the EU coastguard.

"Frontex Director says it's a paradox that a third of rescues are done by NGOs. We agree. Where are Frontex boats in a day like this?" MSF tweeted.

"Many more people could have died in a day like this if we arrived a few hours later. We are where we're needed, what's the EU doing meanwhile?"

[tweet]852893572298936320[/tweet]

Friday's rescue operations were performed entirely by NGOs.

Mary Jo Frawley, a nurse who was involved in MSF's patrols this week, said: "Efforts by the European Union and its border agency FRONTEX to prevent loss of life at sea through strengthened border control, increasing militarisation and a focus on disrupting smuggling networks has only resulted in more people drowning not fewer and has had little impact on the flows of arrivals.

"This, combined with the lack of adequate EU search, and rescue operations has meant that MSF and other humanitarian organisations have – in an unprecedented move – been forced to step in to avoid further loss of life.

"People do not undertake this journey lightly, people do not risk their own lives and at times the lives of their children if there are easier options available to them.

"Whether people are allowed to stay in Europe or not, humane treatment and safe disembarkation is the least Europe should offer them."

[tweet]852889948596383746[/tweet]

The launch of Operation Triton in 2014 shifted the focus of EU efforts in the Southern Mediterranean from Search and Rescue (SAR) to border control.

Frontex has limited the majority of its patrols to within just 30 miles off Italy's coast, while NGOs venture much further, towards Libya.

[tweet]853191654551027712[/tweet]

The Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri recently suggested in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt that NGO's rescue missions were "supporting criminal networks" of smugglers and traffickers.

Mr Leggeri has previously said saving migrants' lives should not be a priority for the border agency.

Frontex has been contacted for comment.