RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Oppressive Italy: There are 800,000 people sitting on the coast of Africa, waiting for a chance to cross Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:42 am | |
| It's the summer boat season in Europe. Everyone's out on their boats, including tens of thousands of refugees from Africa making the trip across the Mediterranean. Not all of them make it.
So far this year about 42,000 people have tried to cross the Med to get to Italy. They're from Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria – anywhere in Africa and the Middle East beset by bloodletting. Men, women and children.
About this time last year the comparable number was 3362 arrivals in Italy. The humanitarian problems are escalating at an alarming rate and the EU and UN are thrashing about for solutions.
Sicily bears the brunt of the Italian influx, since the closure of the reception centre on Lampedusa, close to where 366 drowned last October. Greece too is under siege, with the government saying 15,000 undocumented migrants last year attempted to enter Europe.
Italian authorities estimate that there are 800,000 people sitting on the coast of Africa, waiting for a chance to cross.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/europes-boat-people-numbers-make-ours-look-minuscule-20140605-zryze.html |
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