Tag: Lampedusa

German conservatives: solution to Lampedusa tragedy is not to accept more migrants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, of course the Leftists and Socialists in the majority in Europe are proposing just that—allow more to enter the EU.  It seems to me to be intuitive that when you “put sugar on the table” (not my phrase), more will come.  Readers not familiar with what happened off Lampedusa, go here.

Interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich: African migrants “economically” motivated, most not truly in need of political asylum.

From World Bulletin (emphasis mine):

Lampedusa asylum tragedy sparks calls for reform in EU’s strict immigration rules. But Germany’s conservatives, who almost secured a new term in September elections, oppose proposed steps.

Germany’s conservative interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has dismissed calls for softening the rules of immigration in Europe and urged for more strict measures against illegal immigration.

“The refugee tragedy in Lampedusa has shaken all of us. We should do everything to ensure that such a tragedy would not happen again,” Friedrich told German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, ahead of the Tuesday’s EU interior ministers meeting in Luxembourg. But Friedrich strongly opposed to the recent suggestions made by German opposition parties to the government for relaxing the strict immigration rules and accepting more refugees to Germany.

Interior minister Friedrich argued that most of the migrants coming from African countries were “economically” motivated, rather than being refugees in need of political asylum. German minister stressed that Europe should make stronger efforts in cooperation with the African states to support development efforts in these countries.

Readers, often the open borders gang is happy to blur the lines on the definition of refugees, but know that those looking for a better life economically are not “refugees” or “asylum seekers.”

Immigrants are shopping for the best social welfare deal they can get in Europe!

Germany’s conservative interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich on Tuesday has also called for stronger measures within the EU against what he described as economically motivated immigration that exploits Germany’s social security system.

Friedrich expressed Germany’s discomfort at growing number of immigrants who are coming to Germany from other European countries thanks to the EU’s freedom of movement principle, but not studying or working and paying their taxes. These are increasingly becoming a burden and problem for German cities and municipalities he argued and urged for measures. “Freedom of movement does not mean having a freedom to change your home country just to benefit from the higher social service standards of another country,” Friedrich said.

Go here for more on Germany’s immigration problems.

Lampedusa death toll expected to rise

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 11th:  Refugees breed ill will on Lampedusa, here.

Update October 9th:  German interior minister—the solution is NOT to allow more in, here.

This is a story you could hardly have missed over the last few days when more than a hundred of mostly African illegal aliens drowned trying to reach the island of Lampedusa in Italy.  It was even reported in my small hometown paper, but I would be remiss in not noting it here since we have written so much over the last five plus years about the boat people trying to get from Africa to Italy or Malta.

Emergency workers among bodies

In fact, at least some of the Syrians now blocking the port of Calais in France say they made the journey across the Mediterranean, landed in Italy and simply traveled northward in Europe unmolested by immigration authorities.

From The Independent:

With 111 bodies recovered from the waters off the Italian island of Lampedusa after a boat carrying 500 African migrants capsized, search and rescue teams had to abandon their efforts amid poor weather conditions.

The scale of the tragedy was evident when a ferry delivered 140 more coffins to the little island as preparations were made for mass funerals at five different sites in Agrigento on the Sicilian mainland. More than 350 people are now feared dead.

Coast Guard captain Floriana Segreto, said: “In total among the living and the dead when have accounted for 266 people. But our work is not finished.” Emergency services said that half of those confirmed dead so far were women.

The disaster occurred early on Thursday morning when a 20m boat carrying migrants mainly from Eritrea, Somalia and Ghana got into difficulty less than a mile from the shore of Lampedusa. Someone on board set light to a piece of fabric to attract the attention of nearby ships, but the flames spread, forcing the desperate refugees into the sea.

Vito Fiorino, a Lampedusa resident, said he was the first to come across dozens of migrants scattered in the Mediterranean Sea while he was on an early morning fishing expedition. He told the Associated Press that some of the survivors told him they had been fighting to stay alive for three hours and did not have the strength to grab the life-ring he threw to them. “It was a scene from a film, something you hope never to see in life,” he said.

Read it all.

Photo is from this story at the London Evening Standard, where we hear this:

….the independent UN investigator on the human rights of migrants said the boat wreck highlighted the dangers of harsh measures against people seeking a better life in another country.

I guess what this means is—we can’t beat the criminals so just open the borders world-wide and let them all in!

Pope lectures on Lampedusa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
The Pope on Lampedusa yesterday. Photo: Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images

Lampedusa is the Italian island that is usually the first bit of land the mostly Muslim illegal aliens come to when leaving North Africa via boat.  Lampedusa and Malta have been plagued for the last few years with the arrival of boat people, some claiming they want asylum—asylum from the turmoil that the US and European countries (including Italy) helped create with their enthusiasm for the Arab Spring and the destabilization of Libya.

Now the Pope unexpectedly arrives on Lampedusa, says Mass and lectures about the “globalization of indifference,”  which is fine, of course, as long as he only exhorts individual Christians to PRIVATE giving (opening their homes and wallets) and does not continue to demand Caesar’s money for the church’s charity.  And, frankly, that is exactly what is happening at least in America as long time readers of RRW know—the political activities of the Catholic Bishops are being funded by you through taxation.

Here is the story from the New York Times:

ROME — Pope Francis traveled on Monday to Lampedusa, the tiny Mediterranean island that has become a gateway to Europe for thousands of desperate asylum seekers and migrants, as well as an unknown number of others who have died during the perilous crossing from North Africa.

It was the pope’s first official trip outside Rome, and he used it to draw attention to a continuing humanitarian problem while chiding the world for its indifference.

“These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to leave difficult situations to find a little serenity and peace…..

Serenity and peace!  Then why do they riot and clash with police on Lampedusa, here is one instance of many!  In that post we quoted a line from The Independent:

Until the recent mass influx of north Africans, Lampedusa was a quiet community that relied on fishing and summer tourism for a living. The endless flow of arrivals and the catastrophic effect this has had on tourism have seen tempers fray.

Gee, not a peep out of the New York Times on the catastrophe for Lampedusa residents.

Not all arrivals are in need of asylum—many are economic migrants not protected by any international law regarding refugees and asylum.  ‘Economic migrant’ is just a fancy phrase to describe illegal aliens.  The NYT continues:

New arrivals on the island, about 75 miles north of Tunisia, are fed and fingerprinted and then separated into three groups: economic migrants, who could be repatriated after their cases are reviewed, and asylum seekers and minors, who after a few days are sent to detention centers on Italy’s mainland.

And here, when the Mayor of Lampedusa calls this a “humanitarian disaster” I don’t think he is talking only about the boat people.  I think he just might mean this is a human tragedy for the Italian people.

While praising volunteer associations, law enforcement officials and residents of the island for the assistance they have provided to the migrants, the pope criticized the “globalization of indifference” that he said was widespread among too many others. We “have forgotten how to cry” for migrants lost at sea and “take care of each other,” the pope said in his homily.  [Maybe Pope Francis could take some of the “refugees” back to Vatican City with him—ed]

Officials in Lampedusa said they hoped the pope’s visit would bring attention to what they saw as a humanitarian disaster.

“This island is the setting of one of the most epochal dramas of our time, but it is ignored,” said Giuseppina Nicolini, the mayor of Lampedusa. “The numbers of those lost at sea are those of a war, but a silent war that no one speaks of, except a few blogs that no one reads.”

Who is silent in the “silent war” (the suffering Italians?) because it surely isn’t the mainstream media that is silent on the plight of the migrants, and what “blogs” is he talking about?

For more on Lampedusa, click here for our complete archive.