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Following the newest spike in boat arrivals to the Italian island of Lampedusa, Euronews View spoke to MEP Pietro Bartolo about what migration means for Italy and Europe and whether or not the continent can discover a viable and truthful method to resolve the disaster.
The small Italian island of Lampedusa made worldwide headlines once more final week after a surge in boat arrivals to Europe noticed not less than 11,560 individuals land on its shores.
The 6,000 resident-strong island, which is nearer to the Tunisian coast than mainland Italy has been the focus of migrant routes for many years.
Nonetheless, the newest spike in arrivals was seen as one more signal of a rising predicament for Europe, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen each visiting Lampedusa to pledge a doubling down on the continent’s efforts to curb it.
On the identical time, critics imagine a concrete resolution to the humanitarian disaster, which has turn out to be a extremely divisive subject for many Europeans, is but to be discovered.
In the meantime, hundreds stay stranded in what has been described as tough circumstances, with many extra anticipated to make the identical harmful journey throughout the Mediterranean Sea.
Euronews View spoke to MEP Pietro Bartolo (PD, S&D), a surgeon and Lampedusa native who served because the chief medical officer for refugees and migrants arriving on the island for 27 years, about perceptions of migrant arrivals in Italy and Europe, deserves of the present political strategy to the ever-unfolding state of affairs, and whether or not Europe can discover a viable and truthful method to resolve the disaster.
Euronews View: For many individuals, particularly journalists and activists, the newest information out of Lampedusa felt like a ‘Groundhog Day’-type state of affairs, the place it doesn’t matter what is completed, the story repeats itself. What’s it that we now have did not study?
Pietro Bartolo: The story that appears to be repeating, for my part, is that of dangerous agreements with third international locations from which migrants depart or transit.
We’ve got ample expertise displaying that decreasing migration and asylum insurance policies to externalising borders and the so-called “strategic partnerships”, particularly if signed with international locations which have poor human rights and rule of regulation information — from Turkey to Libya, and now Tunisia — doesn’t resolve the issue.
Quite the opposite, the numbers inform us that departures are rising. Furthermore, it’s a disgraceful technique that goes towards the values of the Union, giving a clean test to dictators with a purpose to hold the stream faucet closed, with out questioning what the destiny of those that wish to attain Europe for a hopefully higher future shall be.
Due to this fact, if there may be one fact that we now have not discovered, it’s that the EU should change its strategy when shaping its migration insurance policies; we’d like authorized channels of entry.
Euronews View: You have been born in Lampedusa and know the island group fairly properly. Has the response of Italians dwelling on the island to individuals arriving modified over time?
ADVERTISEMENTPietro Bartolo: The inhabitants of Lampedusa have all the time been a mannequin of solidarity and hospitality.
Even after the excessive variety of arrivals of the final days on the island, an actual solidarity race has taken place, with individuals who have opened their houses to feed, welcome and quickly help migrants.
This has all the time been the strategy of the Lampedusans. On account of its geographical location, Lampedusa is the primary strip of land between Africa and Europe, a pure touchdown place for these crossing the Mediterranean, each for flocks of birds and for individuals fleeing battle, starvation and violence.
This marked the id of those that dwell right here. As well as, Lampedusa is a land of fishermen, and for fishermen every little thing that comes from the ocean is welcome.
Euronews View: In your opinion, what are Europeans failing to see or don’t perceive in relation to refugees and migrants arriving on the continent?
ADVERTISEMENTPietro Bartolo: They don’t realise that migration is just not an emergency however one thing structural, it has all the time occurred and is an integral a part of the historical past of humanity.
Those that flee political and spiritual persecution, starvation and poverty in quest of a greater future, have the correct to strive.
Folks should perceive that this epochal problem of our century is just not solely an issue regarding international locations bordering the Mediterranean, however should be handled on the European degree.
Solely a sharing of duty and a collective effort by all 27 member states will result in concrete outcomes.
Euronews View: How do you touch upon final week’s go to of European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen and Italy PM Giorgia Meloni to the island?
ADVERTISEMENTPietro Bartolo: Sadly, it is considered one of many symbolic visits that doesn’t result in concrete proposals on the best way to take care of a dramatic state of affairs, and we have had loads of these visits within the final decade.
I used to be enormously disillusioned by the European Fee President’s assist for the EU-Tunisia settlement.
Euronews View: How do you are feeling about individuals, together with specialists and journalists exterior of Italy, believing that the majority Italians agree with Meloni’s stance on migration?
Pietro Bartolo: I don’t assume issues are that means. They need us to imagine that that is the reality however it isn’t, and my election serves as a kind of proof on the contrary.
Over the past European election marketing campaign, I spoke solely about migration, bearing witness to what I noticed and touched first-hand within the thirty years by which I used to be a physician, appearing because the accountable medic who gave migrants their first medical examination after disembarking on the island.
For those who add up the votes within the two constituencies by which I used to be elected, I had essentially the most, second in total variety of preferences solely to [the far-right Lega party leader Matteo] Salvini, who topped the listing in all constituencies.
I can even inform you one other factor: within the encounters I’ve over the weekend in faculties with college students but in addition in different contexts all through Italy, there may be all the time somebody who approaches and tells me: “Thanks, listening to you was enlightening. They’ve taught us a complete completely different narrative these years.”
We mustn’t ever cease telling the reality in regards to the migration phenomenon. Not solely for individuals who search to rebuild their lives but in addition for Europe and its residents.
Euronews View: What could be a good resolution to the difficulty, and is it reasonable to count on the political will wanted to implement it following the upcoming European election in 2024?
Pietro Bartolo: I hope that there shall be a major reform on this legislature already. I realise it might appear unrealistic, however we can’t discourage ourselves and quit on such an necessary subject.
The EU has the chance to amend as soon as and for all of the Dublin Regulation which places the burden of managing migration disproportionately on the international locations of first entry.
Ultraconservatives and Eurosceptics choose to gasoline fears and hatred of migrants for electoral causes.
They speak about unlawful immigration, pretending to not see that at present those that arrive in Europe are primarily asylum seekers, individuals fleeing wars, violence or pure calamities.
The negotiations to approve the brand new Pact on Migration are underway, and I’ll do every little thing I can to deliver a couple of change after all in direction of solidarity and sharing of duty, and to discover a method to mediate it that goes within the course that progressive forces have been hoping for for years now.
We have to change the paradigm and tackle the migration phenomenon with a humane, rational, and long-term strategy.