Tensions have arisen in recent days between France and Italy over the management of migratory flows, particularly after the criticisms of Gérald Darmanin on the immigration policy of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“It’s not really the time for controversy, there is really an emergency in the Mediterranean”, challenges Friday May 5 on franceinfo Sophie Beau, general manager and co-founder of SOS Méditerranée when strong tensions have arisen between France and Italy on the subject of migrants. Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, criticized Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, “unable”according to him, “to solve migration problems” in his country as France faces an influx of migrants trying to cross the Alps. Sophie Beau denounces the lack of “means of rescue” while “the situation remains absolutely critical in Libya and more recently in Tunisia”she explained.
franceinfo: What do you think of this falling out between France and Italy?
Sophie Beau: This is not really the time for controversy. It is rather the time to take political responsibility because there is really an emergency in the Mediterranean. The International Organization for Migration published an extremely sad report very recently, reporting that the first quarter of this year 2023 is the deadliest in the central Mediterranean since 2017.
“The central Mediterranean axis remains the deadliest migratory axis in the world. These figures speak for themselves. There is a need to act, there is no need to talk.”
Sophie Beau, General Manager of SOS Méditerranéeat franceinfo
Are you continuing the rescue operations at the moment?
We are continuing our rescue operations in the Mediterranean. There are many crossings. The situation remains absolutely critical in Libya and more recently in Tunisia. The situation has also deteriorated for sub-Saharan migrants. There are a lot of departures and therefore a lot of arrivals actually in Italy, but also a lot of shipwrecks with always the same problem: there are not enough rescue means, no State rescue means and an extremely difficult for humanitarian ships today.
MSF denounces an increasingly hostile environment for the NGOs that organize rescue at sea. Is this an observation that you make?
Attacks on humanitarian ships rescuing people whose lives are at risk at sea continue. The government of Giorgia Meloni had designated the NGOs as scapegoats for their policy last October. A practice now is to designate ports of disembarkation for the survivors in the most distant ports of the central Mediterranean, which takes our rescue ships away for days from the distress zone.
“There are still ongoing attacks, administrative and judicial harassment on ships. The context is really very complicated.”
Sophie Beau, General Manager of SOS Méditerranéeat franceinfo
Very few of us operate at sea. There is a severe lack of rescue resources and we have witnessed all these shipwrecks, several hundred deaths over the last two weeks of April.
What do you expect from the European Union?
We need a real rescue fleet in the central Mediterranean Sea because there are thousands of dead. This is really what is looming this year again. The humanitarian emergency, with the weather improving with the arrival of spring and summer, is picking up again. We must reconsider the policy of supporting the Libyan coast guard, since since 2018 they are supposed to coordinate search and rescue in a huge distress zone in the central Mediterranean. They don’t, they are absolutely failing. And yet, the European Union continues to support these coastguards as well by sending millions of euros to the authorities in Libya.