France Fraternités denounces the “total hypocrisy” of the Member States of the European Union

After the shipwreck off Greece of a fishing boat carrying migrants, Pierre Henry, the president of France Fraternités reminds on franceinfo, Thursday June 15, the urgency of cooperation in the Mediterranean between NGOs and organizations states in order to save lives.

>> Greece: at least 79 migrants dead in the dramatic sinking of a boat

franceinfo: Nearly 80 bodies were found after the shipwreck off Greece. Is it an endless tragedy?

Peter Henry: For ten years, there have been more than 1,000 deaths in the Mediterranean and it is a real chestnut tree. In reality, shipwrecks have continued to recur. In April 2015, off Sicily, there were 700 deaths. François Hollande was then president and declared: “We must increase the number of boats and overflights as part of Operation Triton and fight more effectively against traffickers”. We are eight years later and nothing has really happened. More exactly, everything has hardened considerably. A report was published by the newspaper Der Spiegel last year and accused the former management of Frontex, the European border and coast guard agency, of having knowledge of illegal returns of migrants to Greece and to have even co-financed refoulements. We are full of hypocrisy.

Frontex says the migrants refused help. What’s your reaction ?

We need an independent international investigation to really know what happened. This boat has been spotted for several days. From the moment this boat is overloaded, the question is that of a safe port of disembarkation. However, this question of a safe port of disembarkation where migrants and refugees will be able to protect their lives and assert their fundamental rights has been an element of incessant controversy for almost ten years. In fact, for almost ten years, the Member States of the European Union have considerably reduced surveillance and means of rescue at sea. This question is permanent and recurrent. This is what we have to work on.

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, raised the question of legal access routes for migrants in Europe. Is this a change of direction?

Gérald Darmanin takes up a proposal formulated by all the NGOs working on this subject for almost ten years. It raises the question, of course, of the legal pathways to asylum in Great Britain, which do not exist. The question obviously arises throughout the European Union. It arises in the relationship with Italy, with Malta, with Spain; it seems obvious. It’s not like we haven’t known for ten years. In reality, we are today in a standstill which is dramatic and which leads to deaths. I remind you, these are documented deaths. When I talk about 1,000 deaths in ten years in the Mediterranean, these are the numbers we know, but it’s probably much more.

“The European Union has, in a way, delegated to non-governmental organizations the fact of going to save at sea”.

Pierre Henry, President of France Fraternities

at franceinfo

I want to insist on the cooperation that seems to me necessary in the Mediterranean between NGOs and state organisations. It is absurd that Italy, Greece and Malta have launched administrative and criminal investigations against NGOs that only save lives. It is a state activity that has been going on since 2016.

Marine Le Pen accused Thursday on franceinfo the NGOs of “complicity” with the smugglers. How do you react ?

It is a horror and an abomination. NGOs never go looking for migrants, as I often hear. They rescue at sea. This does not induce the treatment that will be reserved for people who have been sheltered, namely: “will they stay on our territory or not?” This kind of statement by Marine Le Pen is absolutely unspeakable. Fortunately, there are NGOs like SOS Méditerranée to save lives in danger in this sea which has become a huge cemetery. When I see that there are three days of national mourning in Greece, I want to believe that the Greek authorities have become aware, but frankly, we are faced with total hypocrisy. We need a change of gear in the policy of the Member States of the European Union on an issue which is very difficult and which has been seized upon by populists all over Europe. This is what we must work on, without ever forgetting the founding values ​​of the European Union.