But, how about using the Australian model (which is saving lives) and turning the boats back to Libya and other launching points in North Africa? It is the only option to save Europe!
Our correspondent in Malta is reporting that this latest wave of migrants is (according to Italian press) being herded on to boats in failed states (Libya! Thanks Hillary!) without even having to pay traffickers. In other words, it is a deliberate plan to push invaders to Europe, something ISIS is promising to do!
From Malta Today:
With a new and large-scale boat tragedy reported on the Mediterranean, UNHCR has appealed afresh to governments across the region to prioritize the saving of lives, including by urgently expanding and upgrading search and rescue capacities.
The latest incident involves the capsizing of a double-deck boat on Monday in waters about 120 kilometres south of Lampedusa. 142 people were rescued and eight bodies recovered.
But some 400 others said by survivors to have been aboard are feared lost.
“I was deeply shocked when hearing the news that another boat, an overcrowded boat capsized in the Mediterranean and where four hundred people died. This only demonstrates how important it is to have a robust rescue-at-sea mechanism in the central Mediterranean,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said.
[….]
So far in 2015, some 31,500 people are known to have made crossings to Italy and Greece – the first and second largest countries of arrival respectively. And numbers have recently been picking up further. According to the Italian Coast Guard more than 8,500 people have been rescued from several dozen boats and rubber dinghies since 10 April. If the 400 deaths are confirmed from the latest incident the death toll so far this year will have reached 900.
Amnesty International said that all indications point to a continued rise in the number of migrants and refugees making this trip as the weather improves, violence and persecution continue in countries like Syria and Eritrea, and instability persists in Libya, the launching point for the majority of the people-smuggling voyages across the Mediterranean.
See our ‘Invasion of Europe’ archive here.
Americans this affects you!
US readers, pay attention to Malta since some of those same illegal migrants rescued by the Maltese navy are being sent to your towns in America.
This week we learned that some went to South Carolina!
Update: NGOs want safe and legal access to Europe for all! Here!