the crossing of the Mediterranean, an increasingly perilous route for exiles

At least 78 dead and hundreds missing. The search was still in progress, Friday, June 16, to locate the victims – and possible survivors – of the sinking of a migrant boat off the coast of Greece, which occurred on Wednesday. According to Greek media, which published aerial photos of the overloaded boat, between 500 and 750 people were on board the vessel. “There was not an iota of free space”explained the coast guard of the country, quoted by the Greek newspaper At Avgi.

While politicians, NGOs and judges wonder if this shipwreck could not have been avoided – the trawler had been spotted before sinking, but reportedly refused any assistance –, the methods of the smugglers challenge. For several months, these boats carrying exiles wishing to reach Europe have been taking longer and potentially more dangerous routes. Rescuers also face boats in poor condition but increasingly loaded.

With more than 50,000 irregular entries by this route, the number of migrants crossing the central Mediterranean towards the European Union has “more than doubled” in 2023 compared to the previous year, the Frontex agency said on Friday. As highlighted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest for crossings in this area since 2017.

Longer and riskier routes

To reach Italy and thus avoid the long Balkan route to northern and western Europe, migrants usually leave from Libya, where they have sometimes been imprisoned and enslaved. The country’s political instability since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 has allowed smugglers to organize crossings with complete impunity.

But since October 2022, the departure area for these boats has moved to the region controlled by dissident Marshal Khalifa Haftar. “After Tunisia and western Libya, we are facing an increase in departures from the eastern regions”, explains to franceinfo Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the IOM. If it is less monitored by the Libyan Coast Guard, “this maritime route is much longer and often takes boats to Greece, although this is not the initial objective [des migrants]“, she explains. To reach the Italian islands of Lampedusa or Sicily, for example, distances from eastern Libya can be three times longer than from the west.

The phenomenon has grown to such an extent that the Italian government has multiplied meetings with Marshal Haftar this year. Last May, the President of the Italian Council, Georgia Meloni, received the Libyan soldier in Rome to try to stem this wave of departures, as reported by the InfoMigrants site. But, without any real counterpart, Italy is struggling for the moment to obtain results in this dialogue.

Asked by franceinfo on Wednesday, Jérôme Tubiana, head of migration advocacy at Doctors Without Borders, believes that the locking of borders between Turkey and Greece, which includes “totally illegal refoulement of asylum seekers”, pushes exiles to take more dangerous routes to reach Europe and increases the risk of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean. Above all that, in this area, the emergency services are far from intervening at each distress signal.

In a statement of April 12, the UN pointed the finger at “gaps in rescue operations” which are increasingly felt on “the most dangerous sea crossing in the world”. Delays, and sometimes a total absence of State intervention, which are even accompanied by “hindrances” to the action of NGOs present at sea. For the United Nations, the result of this policy is clear: “search and rescue efforts by non-governmental organizations have declined significantly” since the beginning of 2023. While the migratory flow has not stopped.

Smugglers with “ever more dangerous” practices

By operating from eastern Libya, the organizers of these clandestine crossings seem to be able to charter larger ships, observe international organizations. “There is a noticeable increase in larger boats, which are just as overloaded, notes Safa Msehli. They are no longer rubber dinghies or small wooden boats like we saw in Tunisia or western Libya.”

In Cyrenaica, territory of Marshal Haftar, the city of Tobruk in particular “was the starting point for boats that could carry an average of 500 people”, details the IOM spokesperson. According to the first elements of the investigation carried out in Greece, it is from this area that the shipwrecked on June 14 also left, two or three days earlier. And to embark on this outdated trawler, the migrants would have paid around 4,500 dollars per person, as reported by the Greek newspaper Ekathimerini, who collected testimonies from survivors.

“The smugglers take advantage of these people. They pile them up on boats that are unsuitable for such crossings. Their methods are always more dangerous”, warns Safa Msehli. Although the investigation has yet to confirm it, it appeared to NGOs and the IOM that many passengers on the ship which sank on Wednesday “did not have canoes or life jackets”, she reveals. The technique, already observed, allows the smugglers to reduce congestion on the ship, and therefore to cram more people into it.

“Since they are only very rarely on board, the traffickers do not care whether the boat will arrive at its destination or not.”

Safa Msehli, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration

at franceinfo

Thursday evening, the Greek police arrested nine men, all of Egyptian nationality, one of whom is suspected of being the captain of the boat, according to France 24. Suspected of being smugglers, they must be presented to a judge Monday 19 June. If this procedure could lead to convictions, this is far from being the case for all shipwrecks. “There is a lack of financial and legal means for States to tackle this trafficking”regrets Safa Msehli, who criticizes just as much “the absence of state initiative to bring rescue at sea (…) and of safe and official paths to avoid all these perilous journeys”.

Since 2014, at least 27,000 people have perished on this migration route, including 25,000 at sea, according to data from IOM’s Missing Migrants Project. “Unfortunately there are phantom shipwrecks, of which we have no trace, except for unknown bodies stranded in Tunisia or Libya”, deplores Safa Msehli. If they sank in deep waters, like the wrecked trawler on Wednesday, these ships have a slim chance of being found. “Crossings in the central Mediterranean have always been risky, recalls the spokesperson. But another great danger is that international opinion gets used to these shipwrecks and becomes insensitive to the fate of these migrants.”