Europe’s shame over migrant boat people

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/16/europe-shame-migrant-boat-people

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You are absolutely right (Editorial, 16 April) to assert the need for urgent humanitarian and compassionate action by the European Union to address the causes and the effects of the appalling tragedy of the people who are fleeing Syria, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and other north African countries.

We know that 10,000 desperate migrant people have been rescued by Italian coastguards and the navy since last Friday. It is time to recognise that the Italian, Greek and Spanish maritime rescuers urgently need much more EU solidarity and support.

It is a truism that British imperialism has a short memory – but this is ridiculous. If you break it, fix it

The EU and its member state governments must act to bring relief in Libya and change in Eritrea and Ethiopia in order to improve living standards and combat the oppression that leads to people deciding to risk their lives in order to seek freedom. Until the EU exercises the effective power it should deploy to secure such advances, the conditions that impel desperate people to risk their lives and use all their resources to enrich ruthless traffickers will continue. Many more refugees will die at sea. Those who survive will endure abject misery. Across the EU we will be witnesses to horror when we could, if leaders and member states have the political will, show mercy and a commitment to progress.

Next month’s European commission action plan will doubtlessly be well intentioned, but if it is given the necessary breadth and strength by the combined weight of governments it could be effective too.Glenys KinnockLabour, House of Lords

• The death toll of 400 people in the Mediterranean is unacceptable and an indictment of the attitudes of the European governments towards people fleeing from regions where violence and human rights abuses are rife (EU under pressure over migrant rescue operations in the Mediterranean, 15 April). Many of the dead were fleeing persecution, violence, torture or the threat of torture and would have had a legitimate claim to seek asylum within Europe. It is a travesty of justice that so many won’t have that chance. Survivors of torture are especially vulnerable and traumatised, and have specific needs that must be identified at an early stage in order to allow them to access the services they need to put their lives back together. It is therefore appalling that so many of them have to run the gauntlet of traffickers and the perils of the open seas to get the help they need.Susan MunroeFreedom from Torture

• Your editorial on the 1,000 or so drownings so far this year of “Mediterranean boat people” speaks for itself on the consequences of replacing the Mare Nostrum sea-rescue operation with the frontier surveillance Operation Triton. For years, the question of EU “burden sharing” to deal with the unequal pressures on Spain, Italy and Greece has been miserably set aside on the grounds that “boat” migrants and “land” migrants must be the responsibility of the first “safe” EU country in which they find themselves. Frontex, the EU’s frontier organisation, is underfunded and understaffed, so it must be doubted whether next month’s EU plan for “introducing a fairer system of distributing refugees around the EU” will be anything more than foam on the wave. Meanwhile, many more people will drown and “humanity and compassion” can be invoked, only to be cast overboard by EU member states. Shame on all of us.Bruce Ross-SmithOxford

• In 2011 this country bombed Libya continuously for seven months. One of many inconvenient truths was that the militias we bombed into power routinely lynched sub-Saharan Africans. Many guest workers – once welcomed by the Gaddafi regime – continue to flee a murderous persecution that we directly facilitated. The Foreign Office’s response? To axe support for search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean because it only encourages them.

It is a truism that British imperialism has a short memory – but this is ridiculous. If you break it, fix it.Peter McKennaLiverpool

• Over the past week we have seen another huge wave of illegal migration across the Mediterranean. This is a totally untenable situation and we need a solution. All sorts of stop-gaps have been floated, but we need look no further than what the Australians have done. They implemented the policy of turning the boats around – or making sure that no one embarking on the journey was allowed to reach the Australian mainland. The boats have now stopped. It does seem suspicious to me that such a solution has not really been discussed within the EU. We cannot rescue a whole continent and bring them here. The only question now is when will the bureaucrats in Brussels bite the bullet and implement this.Jim LittworthWinchester, Hampshire

• There were a number of politicians who campaigned to end the Mare Nostrum search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean. This was on the inhuman basis that as more of those men, women and children seeking to escape oppression drowned, it would deter others from attempting the crossing. These politicians are unfit for public office. They should issue a public apology and withdraw from the ballot in the current election.Ron KippsDartford, Kent