News Nearly 700 refugees / migrants feared drowned

Second Summer

Second Summer

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Italian PM Matteo Renzi has led calls for more European Union action on sea migration after the latest deadly capsize of a boat in the Mediterranean.

Demanding a summit on the issue, Mr Renzi said trafficking was "a plague in our continent" and bemoaned the lack of European solidarity.

The 20m (70ft) long boat was believed to be carrying up to 700 migrants, and only 28 survivors have been rescued.
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More: Mediterranean migrant deaths: EU faces renewed pressure - BBC News (19. April)

I guess I never quite realized the volume of migrants travelling this route and how many regularly die in accidents like this.
 
Apparently, the EU has downsized their rescue readiness in the Mediterranean, because they're afraid it will just encourage more migrants to attempt crossing.

It's a difficult situation to handle, especially for the EU countries where most of the migrants arrive. (Italy, Spain and Greece, I'm guessing.) These countries are not the most wealthy to begin with, and the flow of migrants represents a drain on their resources.

I believe before the Arab Spring when Libya and Syria fell apart, this wasn't as much of an issue ....
 
Wow, I was not aware of the numbers of emigrants heading for Europe. It reminds me of Cubans arriving in the US in the most dangerous vessels, so many people have perished. Even riding in inner tubes. :(
 
Where are these "migrants" coming from? Libya and Syria? Or elsewhere? (If so, where?)
 
Joe said:
Where are these "migrants" coming from? Libya and Syria? Or elsewhere? (If so, where?)
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From what I understand, their origin is mostly Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, and west Africa. A lot of them travel through Libya, something which would have been impossible in the days of Ghadaffi.
 
Indian Summer said:
From what I understand, their origin is mostly Syria, Eritrea, Somalia, and west Africa. A lot of them travel through Libya, something which would have been impossible in the days of Ghadaffi.
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Thanks for the explanation. :)
 
Moll, thank you, that was quite interesting! (And shocking).

Although, from my own experiences with German media, not surprising, unfortunately.
 
I find this picture helpful to understand why refugees from Syria would want to come to Europe...

syria.jpg

Clearly, they are in it solely for the money...
 
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The big question is, how can Europe realistically respond to this crisis? Countries in southern and most of eastern Europe are generally poor, barely able to help themselves these days. This big wave of immigrants from even poorer and war-torn nations will be a drain on their very limited resources (health care, education system, job market, housing, ...) and is actually very dangerous to their stability, and therefore to the stability of Europe as a whole. These are the perfect conditions for racism and far-right ideologies to thrive.
 
The U.K. had agreed to take 200 Syrian refugees this year, so any move upwards is a good thing.

The U.S. is taking a whopping 1,000.

Meanwhile, Germany is expecting 800,000 this year.
 
I think David Cameron was just making a token effort to appease public opinion as he knows his backbenchers are very anti-immigrant/EU. I was just watching the news and they were debating whether they should start saying the refugee crisis instead of the migrant crisis as some people have less sympathy with migrants.
 
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