Immigrants

On the night of June 13-14, a fishing boat that set off from Tobruk in Libya capsized towards the Italian coast, but it sank near Greece with 750 people on board, including dozens of children.

So far, only 104 people have been rescued and the hope of finding other survivors is fading with time.

This new tragedy carries with it more than one new aspect, first because of the nationality of the survivors, as most of them are from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan, contrary to what is customary for them to be from sub-Saharan Africa.

For a long time, the path taken by the Syrians and the Pakistanis was the Balkan route. But the numerous pushbacks by the Greek coast guard – a practice illegal under European law – prompted these refugees to look for new routes.

Libya naturally imposed itself, due to its geographical location, as a gateway to Europe. Therefore, most of the Syrian and Pakistani migrants arrive by air in Benghazi, heading to Tripoli and then to Italy.

Changing migration routes

According to the International Organization for Migration, migrants, due to the Libyan government’s measures, began to take different paths from Tripoli, as they relied on departing from the city of Cyrenaica in the east, where government monitoring is less.

To face this reality, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the strongman in eastern Libya, went to Italy last May to meet Prime Minister Georgia Meloni in search of new ways to confront illegal immigration.

Upon his return, thousands of Egyptians were sent home, according to the authorities in Benghazi. “There are rumors of an increase in arrests in Cyrenaica by Field Marshal Haftar’s forces,” said Flavio Di Giacomo of the International Organization for Migration.

Accordingly, the construction of new routes to Europe exposes migrants to new risks, especially since the fishing vessels used for transit, which are capable of transporting several hundred people, are very worn out.

The lack of response of which the European Coast Guard is accused increases the suffering of migrants, who face death immediately upon the occurrence of any emergency.

Before this latest shipwreck, the International Organization for Migration had counted 1,039 deaths in the Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, which indicates a real tragedy that may worsen if appropriate steps are not taken.