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Tight EU borders fuel deadly smuggling business: Amnesty

18 September 2014, 19:35 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - Tight EU border controls are fuelling the business of smugglers who allegedly sank a boat in the Mediterranean last week, killing 500 migrants on board, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Nicholas Beger, who heads Amnesty's European Institutions Office in Brussels, said "their business is in demand now more than ever due to the EU's migration policies and practices" that focus on border controls and security measures.

"The barriers created by Europe are putting lives at risk," he said in a statement when asked by AFP to comment on EU efforts to stop smuggling in the wake of the latest mass deaths.

Some 500 migrants including up to 100 children drowned after smugglers sank their ship last week when the Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian, Sudanese and other passengers refused to change to a smaller vessel on their way to Italy, survivors said.

Just 10 people survived the incident off Malta, with some of them telling the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) their boat was intentionally sunk by a group of 10 smugglers said to be Palestinians and Egyptians.

"Swift investigations are needed to ensure the apprehension and prosecution of those involved in sinking the boat," said Beger.

"However, limiting the response to law enforcement is not acknowledging nor addressing the full picture."

Instead of tightening borders, he said, the European Union and its 28 member states should "urgently increase search and rescue capacity."

The EU, he added, should also open "safe and legal routes for refugees" as well as work with non-European countries to create a "space where migrants and refugees feel secure and protected."

Echoing calls by Italy in particular for more help, Amnesty officials say EU countries should deploy more air and naval assets to search for and rescue migrants at sea.

The officials say that the fences going up in EU countries are "indiscrimate border management tools" designed to keep people out even though many have good reasons to come to Europe.

According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 2,500 people have drowned or gone missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year.

The EU in August pledged to launch a new migrant rescue mission -- dubbed Frontex Plus -- to replace the "Mare Nostrum" naval deployment launched by Italy after two shipwrecks in 2013, which Rome has threatened to wind up without more help from Brussels.

But the bloc has urged member states to give financial support for the new mission, which will start in November.


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