“Fortunately France made this gesture” to welcome the SOS Méditerranée boat

Three days after the landing in the port of Toulon of the Ocean Viking with 230 migrants on board, Fabien Roussel declared on franceinfo, Monday November 14: “Fortunately France made this gesture”. the national secretary of the PCF and deputy of the North considers on the other hand “shameful” the refusal of Italy to welcome the ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée.

>>> “Ocean Viking”: why France finally decided to welcome the humanitarian ship

According to Fabien Roussel, the Italians “call on European funds, receive money for a lot of things and so Europe is yes when it pays off, but it’s no when you have to participate in solidarity”. The PCF deputy from the North wish “dismantle” the “trafficking in human beings, scandalous, shameful”. He estimates that “if there were legal areas at the borders of the European Union where you can enter in order to be able to assert your rights”, namely hot spots, “there would not be as many stowaways, and as many deaths in the Mediterranean and in the English Channel”.

Fabien Roussel observes that “creating hot spots and sticking to current legislation is not appropriate” : “We must create dignified reception conditions, and really bring to life a European mechanism for the reception of migrants to ensure that it is not the country which welcomes a boat through which migrants return that is responsible for welcoming all the world”.

The national secretary of the PCF wishes that “each country in the European Union does its part” of responsibility. “The European Union gives lessons to the whole world on respect for human rights and dignity and we are not able to bring them to life within it”, he regrets. Fabien Roussel also proposes to create “status for all” migrants. There cannot be, according to him, “of ethnic difference between Ukrainians who are fleeing the war and Yemenis who are also fleeing the war”.