REPORTAGE
On Monday in Malta, four countries (France, Germany, Italy, Malta) signed a pre-agreement to create a mechanism for the automatic distribution of asylum seekers and migrants landed in Malta or Italy.
The idea is that this mechanism be extended to other Member States in order to better accommodate shipwrecked rescuers in the Mediterranean Sea. The text will be submitted for approval to all countries of the European Union at a European Council in Luxembourg on 8 October. It provides for the creation of a reception center in Marseille.
Europe 1 has visited the city to find out what the associations and organizations of migrants support think of the idea of setting up a rotation of the ports of reception. While Rome argues for Marseille to be on the list, SOS Méditerranée co-founder and CEO Sophie Beau believes that the most important is European solidarity.
Coordination of European countries needed
"The idea is to have a landing platform close so that the survivors can be quickly landed in a safe place and then there is a distribution mechanism between European countries including France", explains Sophie Beau at the microphone of Europe 1. "It does not seem unreasonable to imagine that the European states can coordinate to receive a few thousand people each year". In the last two months, the humanitarian vessel Ocean Viking has rescued 650 sinking migrants landed in Italy or Malta.
Migrants are taken care of in reception centers for asylum seekers financed by the State (19,50 euros per person and per day). But the system is saturated, as Fabrice Brunet of SOS Solidarités stresses: "The situation is already appalling now, we will not be able to effectively deal with this influx," he says. He continues: "There is not enough room to accommodate all asylum seekers, the state has to start funding and offers additional funding to have additional facilities for these people."
More than 3,000 places in reception centers are already funded in the Bouche-du-Rhône, twice as many as three years ago.