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NATO: Aegean migrant flow ‘significantly down’ as worries shift to other routes NATO: Aegean migrant flow ‘significantly down’ as worries shift to other routes
(about 9 hours later)
ATHENS — NATO’s top official said Thursday that the number of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea into Europe is “significantly down,” giving further backing to efforts at curbing their flow even as worries grew over a renewed push to cross the Mediterranean. ATHENS — Before their families drowned, before the smugglers abandoned them in the choppy waters of the Mediterranean, before they drifted for three days with meager supplies of food and water, the refugees had gathered last week in the Libyan port city of Tobruk.
The comments by the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, came a day after the U.N. refu­gee agency said reports from migrants suggest that as many as 500 people may have drowned last week in the sea between Libya and Italy. All had fled repressive regimes or war-scarred nations in Africa. All had paid $1,800 for a chance at a new life in Europe — via a perilous journey on rickety boats that could prove to be one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the past year. Only 41 would survive.
If confirmed, it would mark one of the worst tragedies involving refugees and migrants in the past year. But missing from the scores of passengers — as many as 200 by some estimates — were Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans — the most prominent faces of the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
“There were Somalis, Eritreans, Egyptians and Sudanese,” Mowlid Isman, a 28-year-old survivor who fled Yemen, told reporters in the Greek capital on Thursday. “There were no Syrians, no Iraqis.”
Five days after the survivors were rescued at sea, authorities in several countries flanking the Mediterranean are seeking answers. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other agencies say that as many as 500 people may have drowned when a large smugglers boat sank somewhere between Libya and Italy. The boat, by then, included the passengers from Tobruk who had been transferred from their smaller vessels.
On Thursday, national coast guards remained on the lookout for bodies washed ashore and pieces of the capsized ship.
[Despite outcry, migrants sent back over same waters they crossed][Despite outcry, migrants sent back over same waters they crossed]
Stoltenberg, speaking at a joint news conference in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, said international coordination helped push down the numbers. A deal struck last month between the European Union and Turkey effectively closed down what had been the primary gateway into Europe for asylum seekers from the Middle East: the short voyage across the Aegean Sea to Greece. Since then, fears have risen that the pact would push those migrants aiming for Greece to take the far riskier route to Europe via Italy, which often involves a dangerous trek first into lawless Libya and a crossing over a wider stretch of sea known for having a higher death rate.
But he urged authorities not to abandon efforts prematurely as human smugglers can easily change routes and tactics, including trying to bypass NATO patrols and other measures in the routes between Turkey and Greece — where more than 1 million migrants, refugees and others have crossed since last year. But thus far, aid groups and officials say, those fears have not become reality.
Many are fleeing the wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, using Turkey as a launchpad to Greece, from where they try to travel deeper into Europe. But the crossing from North Africa to Italy is much longer and has historically been more perilous. Although some Italian officials have portrayed it as such, last week’s horrific shipwreck does not yet appear to signal a new and sudden surge of migrant traffic into Italy. And as of now, there is no indication that more Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans are suddenly voyaging to Italy — although that, U.N. officials say, may yet change.
Stoltenberg said numbers were “significantly down,” which he added “confirms our collective efforts are making a difference.” “The question is whether there has been a switch in routes because of the Turkey-E.U. deal, and so far, the answer is ‘no,’ ” said Barbara Molinario, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Italy.
Under a recent deal between the European Union and Turkey, migrants arriving on Greek islands from the Turkish coast since March 20 face deportation to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece. There was a big spike in arrivals in Italy in March — before the E.U.-Turkey deal was implemented. But officials cite better weather and other factors unrelated to the agreement. And in April, after the E.U.-Turkey agreement began, migrant traffic into Italy actually decreased. Overall, migrant arrivals to Italy from Jan. 1 to April 20 are marginally lower than the same period in 2015, roughly 25,000 now compared with about 26,000 then, according to the UNHCR.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says Greece has had fewer than 70 migrant arrivals a day over the past 10 days, down from staggering totals of nearly 1,500 a day before the deal was struck. “We think that weather probably has the main impact on the numbers arriving to Italy via Libya,” said Joel Millman, spokesman for the International Organization of Migration. “At this point, it’s not fair to say it’s a substitute [route], but it could be in the future.”
Compared with the months before the E.U.-Turkey deal, there has been no significant change in the mix of migrants — mostly from Africa — entering Italy. Nevertheless, the country has been a key destination in the past for asylum seekers from the Middle East. In 2014, tens of thousands of Syrians arrived on the Italian shores from Libya, their numbers significantly dwindling last year as they crossed from Turkey to Greece. In fact, about 90 percent of those who were entering Europe through Greece were asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
[Pope Francis tours front lines of migrant crisis][Pope Francis tours front lines of migrant crisis]
Warships from the NATO military alliance began patrolling the Aegean Sea in February to help stop the overwhelming surge of migrants. On Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Turkey that the numbers of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea in Europe are “significantly down” and that international coordination helped bring down those figures. But he urged authorities not to abandon efforts prematurely as human smugglers can easily change routes and tactics, including trying to bypass NATO patrols and other measures in the routes between Turkey and Greece.
On Tuesday, a team from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spoke with some of the 41 survivors of last week’s alleged accident, who had arrived at Kalamata, a town on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula, the agency said in a statement. They claim that a ship went down during attempts to transfer more migrants aboard. There are some signs of a possible shift in migration routes unfolding in the upcoming months. Last month, Egyptian authorities detained 85 Syrians — including 31 children and 24 women — who crossed into Egypt illegally from Sudan to join relatives already in Egypt, according to UNHCR officials, Egyptian police sources and Syrian activists. The Syrian refugees were recently released from detention centers along the border, said Yehia Khelidy, a UNHCR spokesman in Egypt.
“If confirmed, as many as 500 people may have lost their lives when a large ship went down in the Mediterranean Sea at an unknown location between Libya and Italy,” the agency said. Other officials working with migrants and refugees in North Africa said they were preparing for more Syrians, Iraqis and Afghanistan to pass through Sudan and travel to ports in Egypt and Libya to connect with smugglers.
One of the survivors, an Ethiopian man named Mohamed who was traveling with his family, told the IOM: “I saw my wife and my 2-month-old child die at sea, together with my brother-in-law. . . . The boat was going down. . . . All the people died in a matter of minutes.” In the Tunisian town of Zarzis, several bodies of people attempting to cross to Italy from Libya washed ashore earlier this month, said Mongi Slim, the head of the Tunisian Red Crescent in southern Tunisia. The dead were all from sub-Saharan Africa, but also included “a white person,” who he said may have been from the Arab world.
The survivors “drifted at sea for a few days without food, without anything,” Mohamed said, adding that he thought “I was going to die.” He said the travelers intended to go to Italy, not Greece. “We are expecting more people to come from Syria, Iraq, even Afghanistan,” said Slim. ”Sudan could become the new gateway to Libya, and then Europe.”
“The testimonies we gathered are heartbreaking,” IOM Athens Chief of Mission Daniel Esdras said in a statement. “We await further investigations by authorities to better understand what actually happened and find hopefully evidence against criminal smugglers.” For now, however, the boats to Italy are carrying Africa’s impoverished and oppressed. People like Muaz Mahmud, 25, who fled Ethiopia with his wife and 2-month-old baby, who boarded one of several small boats in Tobruk last week crammed with other families like them.
[Europe begins sending back migrants] After a few hours at sea, during the early morning, the boats approached a larger ship, already overcrowded with several hundred passengers, Mahmud said. The smugglers ordered him and his family to transfer to the bigger ship, along with the rest of the refugees. But the ship soon began taking on water, presumably from the extra weight of scores of new people. Panicked passengers jumped into the waters to swim back to the smaller boats.
With summer approaching and the seas becoming calmer, the accounts of the tragedy may be a harbinger of a deeper emerging crisis. “The boat was going down, down in the water,” Mahmud said. “The people died in minutes. We swam to save our lives.”
So far this year, about 25,000 migrants and refugees have reached the shores of Italy from North Africa, according to Italian authorities. Although those numbers are slightly more than the 24,000 who arrived during the same period last year, the United Nations and other refugee organizations are expecting more people to take rickety boats plying the risky routes across the Mediterranean to Italy. In the chaos, Mahmud lost sight of his wife and baby. When he reached one of the smaller boats, it was clear he would never see them again.
According to the IOM, the reports of the latest tragedy, if proved accurate, would raise the number of migrants who have perished on the Mediterranean Sea’s central route between North Africa and Europe to nearly 800 this year. “My wife and child died,” he said.
In addition, about 380 migrants reportedly have died in 2016 on the eastern Mediterranean route, between Turkey and Greece, and about five migrants on the western route linking Morocco and Spain, the IOM reported. The survivors included 37 men, three women and a 3-year-old child. They were all now in one boat. But the boat’s motor didn’t work. They were drifting. At some point, another smuggler’s boat arrived, but it was there to pick up the driver of Mahmud’s vessel. He assured the survivors that he would go for help and headed back to Libya, Mahmud said. They never saw him again.
Last year, through the entire month of April, the IOM reported that more than 1,730 migrants died or disappeared. “We were all crying,” Mahmud said.
A contentious agreement between the European Union and Turkey has dramatically reduced the number of refugees reaching the Greek islands. Balkan nations are closing their borders as well, preventing travel from Greece to Germany and beyond. That has triggered fears that more refugees and migrants could attempt to enter Europe from Egypt or Libya. For three days they drifted on the seas, sustaining themselves on “junk food” and a small amount of water, Mahmud said. They were finally spotted and rescued by a Filipino merchant ship and taken to the port city of Kalamata in Greece.
[How Europe is punishing migrants] Today, their futures remain uncertain. The Greek authorities have given them one-month residence permits, but it is unclear whether they will receive asylum.
Almost exactly a year ago, as many as 700 migrants and refugees were thought to have died when their boat capsized north of Libya. It was the deadliest known sea disaster involving people crossing the Mediterranean in efforts to escape conflict or poverty. “We told them, “Please help us,’ ” Mahmud said. “We don’t know where we will go.”
On Wednesday, the UNHCR again stressed its call for more “regular pathways” to Europe for refugees and asylum seekers, including “resettlement and humanitarian admission programs, family reunification, private sponsorship and student and work visas for refugees.” Raghavan reported from Athens and Tunisia, Faiola from Berlin. Heba Habib in Cairo contributed to this report.
“These will all serve to reduce the demand for people smuggling and dangerous irregular sea journeys,” the agency said.
Raghavan reported from Athens and Deane from London.
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