EUROPE OR DEATH

Europe is faced with what is almost one of the most serious problems since the Second World War - it has been swamped by a wave of illegal migrants. Unable to take in such a large number of refugees, the European Union [EU] has become hostage to its own principles and is being forced to go against the values of solidarity and human rights cultivated by it.

These migrants are fleeing from war and poverty, mainly from the Middle East and Africa. The overwhelming majority of the migrants resort to desperate and foolhardy attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea in overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels. Many of them drown.

This subject was only widely publicised after the tragedy near the Italian island of Lampedusa when approximately 900 people perished as a result of the shipwreck of two vessels carrying illegal migrants on 19 April.

Literally the next day an announcement was made about a change in the EU's migration policy. Over the last month the leaders of the European countries have possibly spent more time studying this issue than in all the years of the EU's existence. This is how serious the situation is.

You see, according to Professor Thomas Spijkerboer from the Free University of Amsterdam, the problem of refugees perishing at sea has already existed for 25 years now. The European politicians simply did not notice it, he thinks. In the opinion of the scholar, from the moment tighter controls began to be enforced on the frontiers of Southern Europe, the number of refugee deaths increased.

According to the data of the UNHCR [UN High Commission for Refugees], whereas in the 23 years from 1990 to 2013, 3,188 deaths were recorded, in 2014 alone more than 3,500 have already been registered. At least 218,000 migrants arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean last year. Well, in 2015, in the first four months alone, more than 1,800 people have perished at sea.

The flow of refugees has not been stemmed by stepping up controls on the European frontier, but has simply moved elsewhere. The migrants are choosing ever more dangerous routes. For example, in order to get to Italy from the territory of the so-called Horn of Africa (the peninsula which forms Somalia and Ethiopia) the migrants are using a very risky route across the Sahara desert. Those who survive get to Libya where the people smugglers are waiting for them, ready to dispatch them across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe for an average price of 2,000 dollars.

One of the shortest ways is by small boat from the Turkish city of Izmir to Greece, a distance of only three to five kilometres. The average price charged by the people smugglers ranges from 1,800 to 2,400 US dollars. Another way is across the river Maritsa, which flows along the frontier between Bulgaria and Turkey. The price of a one-way ticket is 500 euros. When they arrive on the Bulgarian bank, the refugees are met by a guide who guarantees to get them to the countries of Western Europe for a certain sum. The price of a "ticket" to Germany, for example, is 3,000 euros.

The Yazidis, Pasha, Saher and Aid, who escaped from the terror of "Islamic State" in Iraq, told the German publication "Die Welt" that they had already paid approximately 11,000 US dollars to various people traffickers. They said that crossing the Serbian-Hungarian frontier would cost another 1,700 euros each.

A considerable number of the refugees who do manage to get to Europe, are not particularly interested in staying in those countries that they first reach, i.e. Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and others. Most are trying to get to countries like Germany, France and Sweden where extensive migrant communities exist and where it is easier to get a foothold once they have arrived in an environment where help is available finding a job and somewhere to live.

But danger lies in wait for them here too. At the beginning of May 14 migrants in Macedonia were mown down by a train when they were walking along the track, using it to show them which way to go. According to official data, in the last 12 months at least 30 people have perished in similar circumstances in that country. But that is not the only danger. Both in Macedonia and neighbouring Serbia, the media regularly publish materials about attacks on columns of migrants by local gangs. But the authorities and official institutions in both countries very often do not give the refugees any protection.

Most of the illegal migrants are caught by the police who escort them to special camps where they may have to stay from six months to several years, depending on the country. In Greece, according to the latest statistics, there are 470,000 migrants, but only 2 per cent of them have been registered in accordance with all the rules. In Italy the ratio is equal to 6 per cent.

The living conditions are moreover terrible in the overwhelming majority of the camps. In the Macedonian capital Skopje, according to eye-witnesses, the camps are overcrowded and sometimes there are not even enough beds. There is a shortage of food as well. The sanitary conditions are extremely bad. In Greece, people are kept in overcrowded cells, which differ very little from prison cells. In Great Britain all the hostels are run exclusively by private companies which are primarily in it for profit and are convinced activists of non-governmental humanitarian organisations. Conse-quently, there is "rust in the bathrooms, damp walls and no light in the corridors". The French authorities do not always manage to provide refugees with accommodation. The hostels are overcrowded. Approximately 30 per cent of asylum-seekers have to live on the street. But there are good examples as well. In the Netherlands those awaiting a decision on being granted asylum live in big blocks, in rooms with no more than five people, allocated according to sex and nationality. Families are accommodated in individual small flats.

According to data from the European statistics agency Eurostat, in total in 2014, refugee status was granted by the states of the European Union to 185,000 people arriving from third countries, which is almost 60 per cent higher than in 2013. But Sweden, Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain account for as much as 80 per cent of the total number of those granted asylum.

On 13 May the European Commission unveiled a new project for resolving the migrant crisis, the most controversial point in which was the plan to accept illegal migrants according to a national quota system. This would be determined according to the size of the country, the volume of the economy, the population density, as well as the number of migrants who had previously claimed asylum in those countries. According to the commission's estimates, Germany should take the lion's share - 18.42 per cent, while the smallest of all should be taken by Cyprus - 0.39 per cent.

The European Commission has also put forward proposals for combating the flows of migrants. Here an increase in the financing of rescue operations is proposed, the rapid deportation of migrants who do not have permission to remain in the EU and collaborating with Libya's neighbouring countries in order to shut down the migrants' escape routes. The new policy also includes legal aid for migrants coming to Europe who frequently turn to criminals for assistance. The European leaders are discussing these proposals at a summit at the end of June.

Besides this, the head of EU diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, has appealed to the UN Security Council for permission to use the armed forces to tackle the people traffickers that are operating in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Without a UN mandate, any attempts to stop or destroy motor launches and small boats carrying people traffickers in Libyan or international waters would be illegal.

Germany and France are avid supporters of the plan. Britain has rejected a quota system for settling migrants and has suggested sending migrants back to their countries in order to render them humanitarian assistance there. Denmark, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Baltic countries do not agree with the quotas either. According to Britain's home secretary, Theresa May, the plan proposed by the European Commission will encourage even more people to become refugees and make the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. This statement was made in response to the words of Federica Mogherini, which she uttered from the UN tribune that no migrant rescued from the sea should be sent back to his homeland against his will.

As was to be expected, Libya's permanent representative at the UN, Ibrahim Dabbashi, told the BBC that his country is opposed to this: "The European Union did not consult with the government of Libya. We were not informed of the intentions, of the scale of the military operations in our territorial waters."

The radio "Liberty" interview with the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Anne Brasseur, who said that in principle there was no-one to talk to in Libya the moment, may be assessed as a reply to this statement. The authorities there are not only fragmented, but have mingled with criminal elements, among them those who are involved in the people trafficking business to the European Union via the Mediterranean.

In May last year Libya's Interior Minister Salah Mazek stated that his country could even "facilitate" the dispatching of thousands of Africans to the European Union, since, in travelling around Libya, they are spreading disease, committing crimes and selling drugs. "Libya has paid the price. Now it's Europe's turn to pay," he said.

This statement sounds especially sinister against the backdrop of the threats resounding in Europe's direction on the part of the "Islamic State" ["IS"]. A couple of months ago, the Libyan fighters linked to IS published video footage on the Internet showing the execution of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. This was accompanied by threats to take revenge on Europe: "We are here in the Islamic land of Libya to the south of Rome. We are sending you yet another warning."

In Europe fears are being expressed that IS fighters might be among the thousands of refugees arriving in the EU. According to some information, the fighters of the "Islamic State" have already started to infiltrate the flows of migrants heading for Turkey.

Many Europeans who are dissatisfied with Brussels' policies, no longer regard their future as such a rosy one. According to the historian David Engels, "illegal immigration is casting light on all the hypocrisy of our present system which is faced with two catastrophic and destabilising alternatives. Either take universalism right to the end and turn the European Union into a huge refugee camp where not only illegal migrants, but also indigenous Europeans will soon find themselves in awful conditions. Or to reject the "common" values, thereby undermining all the ultra-liberal and multicultural systems that took shape after the fall of the Berlin wall..."