Africa Migration Crisis Reaches "Biblical" Proportions

by Stefania Bianchi

(IPS) -- The European Union is coming under increasing pressure to change its asylum and migration policies after sub-Saharan African immigrants died trying to cross over into Spanish territory.

Over the past two weeks, some 2,000 people have tried to cross the border at Ceuta and Melilla into Spanish territory by storming the fences that surround the two cities on the North African coast adjacent to Morocco.

Some 14 people died and scores were injured as Spanish and Moroccan troops attempted to block them. Hundreds of people are now being housed in a makeshift camp in Melilla, often referred to as the European Union's southernmost town.

African Union (AU) leader Alpha Konare, who was in Brussels for the launch of a new EU policy on Africa, told the EU executive that the bloc must not build prison fences around Africa.

"It's not security measures, it's not prisons in Madrid and walls in Africa that will solve the problem. Young people are taking on huge barbed-wire fences, and we need to understand why. These Africans are not delinquents, they are expressing a demand for solidarity," Konare told media representatives.

The African leader also criticized the European media for painting a one-sided and unfair picture of the human rights crisis.

"The press has a duty to explain why immigrants behave in the way they do. This question is not addressed, instead the whole of Africa is called into question," he added.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso acknowledged that African immigrants needed help, but said there was a need to look at the "structural reasons" forcing people to migrate in this way. "We have seen this situation coming. Now we are seeing the effects and we must act," he said.

"The problem of immigration, the dramatic consequences of which we are witnessing, can only be addressed effectively ... through an ambitious and coordinated development cooperation to fight its root causes," he added.

The plight of immigrants besieging "fortress Europe" has also been highlighted by the European Parliament, the EU's only democratically elected institution.

Enrique Baron, leader of Spain's Socialist group, said the immigrant crisis was of "biblical" proportions. "Nobody can say at this moment how many people are in this situation, crossing the Sahara on foot," he said.

The issue also clouded EU interior and justice ministers talks in Luxembourg Wednesday. The ministerial meeting was due to focus on a debate over retaining telecommunications and internet data for combating terrorism, but following the pressing humanitarian problems at Europe's southern borders, it switched focus to immigration.

Highlighting the size of the problem facing the EU, European security commissioner Franco Frattini warned the interior and justice ministers that about 30,000 would-be immigrants are waiting in Algeria and Morocco to enter the EU.

He said that "intelligence suggests that around 20,000 immigrants are waiting in Algeria ready to begin their journey to Morocco and then Ceuta and Melilla, with another 10,000 already waiting in Morocco."

Human rights groups are asking Spain and the EU to ensure refugee protection both inside and outside of the bloc.

Medecins Sans Fronti�res/Doctors without Borders reported last week that it has found hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, including pregnant women and children, in the Moroccan desert.

The Moroccan government has reportedly begun transporting hundreds of men, women and children in bus convoys towards the border with Algeria, claiming that the migrants passed through there before entering Morocco.

Amnesty International says very little collective effort is being made to ensure refugee protection, and says EU proposals so far fail to adequately address root causes.

"Rather than enhancing refugee protection in the world, the overall direction of EU policy appears to be far more geared towards keeping people out of the EU at all costs," Dick Oosting, director of Amnesty International's EU office, told IPS.

Amnesty is urging EU governments to take immediate steps to implement refugee protection measures.

"Shamefully, EU member states are shifting the burden of refugee protection to other countries which may be ill-equipped to deal with the ever-increasing numbers of displaced people. The overall effect is not only to strain the EU's own credibility, but to threaten the very integrity of the international refugee protection system," added Oosting.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says shipping people back to Morocco is not the answer to the crisis.

"Protecting these extremely vulnerable people should be the Spanish government's priority. Morocco must do far more to respect the basic human rights of migrants before it can be considered a safe country for returns. This is hardly the time to be discussing an EU returns agreement with Morocco," said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at HRW.

Peer Baneke, general secretary of the European Council of Refugees and Exiles, said Europe is thrusting the responsibility for border control and refugee protection onto its neighbors.

"We are seeing an attempt to construct new Berlin walls around Europe that has tragic consequences and will not work. Countries at Europe's periphery will continue to be tempted to deny refugees their right to seek protection, while people fleeing for their lives and liberty will be forced to take ever greater risks," he said.

Baneke said it was vital that the EU is seen to be upholding its own values, "beginning with ensuring that anyone claiming a right to protection has their case heard fairly and efficiently."