European countries are taking them back from where they came from
The crisis of illegal immigrants to Europe worsens with the spread of Corona
High rates of illegal immigration across the sea this year.
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Migrants are forced to take desperate steps.
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The shores of Europe have been witnessing, throughout this year, some horrific human tragedies, represented by bodies being thrown to the beaches by the waves, at a time when desperate families are forced to travel across the sea on a risky adventure, in search of a safe place.
The Corona epidemic has caused serious economic problems and unemployment in North African countries, at a time when other countries, including Libya, are suffering from the repercussions of the war, which has led to high rates of illegal migration by sea this year, to countries including Italy and Malta, according to the figures. Issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The number of immigrants to southeast Europe increased in 2019, most of them from Syria, followed by Morocco and Iraq.
But European reactions are often harsh.
Humanitarian organizations say pushing back migrants at the border by countries such as Greece, the absence of sea rescue operations in the Mediterranean, and inadequate quarantine arrangements have created huge challenges.
This increase in illegal immigration rates comes at a time when the movement of migrants across Europe has become more difficult and dangerous, due to travel restrictions, the closure of transport routes, and the lack of processing centers.
The busiest lanes
Last week, a man was found drowned on the beach of Sangat, near Calais, northern France.
This man and his friend had tried to cross the English Channel, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, in a rubber dinghy.
His friend claimed that he was only 16 years old, but the French authorities said that the papers he carried with him belonged to a 28-year-old Sudanese migrant, and his autopsy showed that he was an adult.
His companion said he did not know how to swim.
Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel said the "tragic loss" was "a painful reminder of the abhorrent actions of criminal gangs and people smugglers".
Smugglers had previously caused the deaths of migrants after being transported in trucks across the Channel, including 39 Vietnamese who were found dead in a truck in Essex, near London, last October.
Sangat Mayor Guy Alland told CNN on Wednesday that more people were traveling on improvised boats due to the intensification of surveillance and French-British security measures in ports and tunnels last year.
This accident comes on the heels of another accident, in which at least 45 migrants died, after the ship they were traveling in sank, which is the most tragic event off the Libyan coast this year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.
The organizations said that there is an "urgent need to enhance the current search and rescue capabilities."
These organizations add that "the delays that occurred in recent months and the failure to provide assistance were unacceptable, placing lives at an avoidable danger."
Permission to apply for asylum
Activists say migrants should be allowed to enter UK territory to seek asylum, and they say these migrants are forced to take desperate steps, in the absence of legal and safe entry measures.
"We need a way to hear the requests of refugees fairly, without them having to risk their lives," Care4Cales, a charity that helps refugees in France, wrote on Twitter.
Almost 4,900 people have crossed the canal in small boats since the lockdown began, more than twice the number believed to have crossed the canal in the whole of 2019, according to an analysis conducted by the BA Media.
The number of those traveling on perilous journeys to other parts of Europe is on the rise, as Italy recorded 16,942 people arriving by sea until this time in 2020, compared to 11,471 in the whole year of 2019, according to the High Commissioner. To the United Nations for Refugees.
"We know that smugglers and human traffickers have been clearly affected by the epidemic, and the restrictions imposed by countries, but we also know that they can adapt to these restrictions," said Charlie Yaxley, a UNHCR spokesperson to CNN. It is a source of great concern for us, because it also means that refugees and migrants have to cross rough and more dangerous roads. ”
torture
It is believed that migrants are subjected to torture, rape, and other abuse during land trips to Libya "by smugglers, human traffickers, militias, as well as officials of some countries."
Yaxley says that, at present, there are no rescue ships in the central Mediterranean, or European Union programs in this regard, as in previous years, so the Coast Guard used to return migrants who left Libya by boat to Libya to face detention, or other human rights violations.
But the response of European countries is to return migrants to where they came from, or to detain them in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says crossing the Canal is "a very bad, stupid, dangerous and criminal act."
Organizations, including Human Rights Watch, claim that between March and July, Greece returned boats carrying hundreds of migrants to Turkish waters.
The organization says that many asylum seekers have reported that the Coast Guard expelled them from the Greek islands, forced them into unmotorized inflatable boats, and pushed them towards the Turkish border.
Eva Kos, a researcher at "Human Rights Watch" in Greece, says: "Instead of protecting them at this time from this global crisis, the Greek authorities continued to target the most vulnerable people, ignoring their health, in a clear violation of the right to seek asylum."
Greek ministers told the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee, in July, that reports of officials using violence against immigrants, and even being shot at, were "fake news", confirming the country's main role in "keeping the European Union's borders secure."
In an interview with CNN last week, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied reports of a maritime blockade, saying that his country was pursuing a "strict but very fair" border policy, and that Turkey "proceeded to open its borders in early March." "Any incident that does not comply with government instructions will be investigated."
The threat of Corona
Many migrant camps and centers pose a great danger, as they help the spread of the Coronavirus.
On July 30, Italian health authorities confirmed that 129 immigrants were infected with the "Covid-19" virus, in a camp in Treviso, in the Italian region of Veneto.
The Lampedusa camp, which has a capacity of 90, has a population of 1,300.
After more than 200 migrants fled a camp in Sicily last month, the governor of the region, Nilo Musumeci, warned in a statement of an "unsustainable situation", saying: "The migrant issue has also become a matter of public order and health."
The Italian government agreed to send the army to Sicily to maintain order, while the British Ministry of Defense said it had received a request from the Ministry of the Interior to support its border force, which works to monitor transit through the Channel.
The European Union Commission for Migration and Security, Elva Johansson, says that allegations of violence against asylum seekers must be investigated throughout the European Union.
Humanitarian organizations say pushbacks at the border by countries such as Greece, the absence of sea rescue operations in the Mediterranean, and inadequate quarantine arrangements have created huge challenges.
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