The EU agreements with Meloni push more dinghies to the Canary Islands

BarcelonaThe NGO Open Arms rescued 374 people in the Mediterranean in just four days last week. It is the second mission the organization has undertaken in the central Mediterranean this year, after rescuing 9 more people in January, in an operation where their ship was anchored and without permits to sail for 20 days. Open Arms' spokesperson in Italy, Valentina Brinis, explains that in this mission, the 111th, they rescued "many families and children". The youngest were two babies: one a month old and the other twelve weeks old.

This is the positive side of a reality, that of boats attempting to cross to the other side of the sea, which do not always have a happy ending. In the last three years, the number of people who have died in the waters of the Mediterranean has not stopped increasing. Since the beginning of 2024, at least 1,315 migrants have already lost their lives there, according to calculations by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which warns that the real figure is much higher because many shipwrecks go unnoticed.

Data indicates a change in trend in migratory routes. According to the latest report from Frontex, the European agency managing borders, there have been 113,400 attempts to cross into Europe irregularly in the first seven months of 2024. This is 36% less than in the same months last year. The route that has seen the biggest drop has been the central Mediterranean route, which goes from Tunisia and Libya to the islands of Lampedusa and Sicily, in Italy. Although this is still the main entry route for migrants to Europe by sea, with 32,239 people since the beginning of the year, the report notes that this year has seen a "decrease" which "can be attributed mainly to the preventive measures taken by the Tunisian and Libyan authorities to disrupt the activities of smugglers". The policies of the European Union, complicit with the Italian government of the far-right Giorgia Meloni, have led to a reduction in arrivals on the migration route to Italy. But, as a consequence, the migratory flow has surged on other routes.

"If you close one road, people will open another"

The spokesperson for Open Arms in Italy recalls that in the last year the Meloni government, with the support of the European Union, signed an agreement with Libya and Tunisia for them to act as a brake on migrants wanting to reach Europe, with the objective that "migrants no longer board ships". Last July, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised Tunisia 1,000 million in exchange for preventing the departure of migrants. As a consequence, according to data from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arrivals in the country have been reduced by 62.5% in just one year.

But, as Brinis warns, "if you close one route, people will open another." In the same period, the West African corridor – stretching from the African continent to the Canary Islands – registered an unprecedented number of arrivals. According to Frontex, this route increased its flow by 154% year-on-year, exceeding 21,600 people.

The International Organization for Migration confirms this trend: in the first three months of 2024, 13,115 migrants arrived irregularly in the Canary Islands from the coasts of West Africa, five times more than those who crossed during the same period in 2023. Of the 201 boats that arrived in the Canary Islands between January and March, at least 12 capsized. The other main entry route to the European Union, the one connecting Turkey with Greece, has also seen a 54% increase in passers-by with almost 29,700 people.

Taking into account that, every year, in September and October, irregular arrivals by boat to Europe increase because the good weather window ends, the coming months will be decisive to check if the trend is confirmed. On the other hand, lifeguards have recently noticed that the boats with which migrants travel are more precarious: "Lately, we have seen many people coming in iron boats with fiberglass," says Brinis, who describes these vessels as "a death trap".

Violations in third countries

Regarding the Frontex report, Brinis assures that the data showing a reduction in arrivals in Italy "are not positive". "We know what happens to these people stopped in Libya and Tunisia: they are victims of human trafficking, rape..." In addition to the ease with which third countries can use immigration to blackmail Brussels, as has happened with Turkey, Morocco or Libya, many organizations have repeatedly warned of the human rights violations committed by the authorities of Libya and Tunisia against asylum seekersuse immigration to blackmail Brussels, as has happened with Turkey, Morocco or Libya, many organizations have repeatedly warned of the human rights violations committed by the authorities of Libya and Tunisia against asylum seekers waiting at their borders. In May, Heba Morayef, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, denounced illegal collective deportations and arbitrary detentions of NGO workers for providing assistance to asylum seekers: "The European Union should urgently review its cooperation agreements with Tunisia to ensure that it is not complicit in human rights violations against migrants and refugees or in the repression of media, lawyers, migrants and activists," she lamented. On the other hand, in Libya, a failed state where human trafficking has become a normalized practice, it is common for migrants to spend months or years held by mafias.For Brinis, "the problem is at the beginning: we must ensure that people can move safely". That is why he claims that the "solution" is to "increase the number of visas that European states give to citizens of African countries". "We only see the people who arrive from African countries irregularly, but not the asylum applications we reject," he laments.

The most common nationalities among people who have attempted to cross the border are Syria, Afghanistan, and Mali. This data shows, once again, that the majority of people who risk their lives at sea in precarious boats to reach Europe are fleeing armed conflicts or the violence imposed by the regimes that govern their countries.