GEOPOLITICA DEL MONDO MODERNO

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Migrants

150 migrants drowned in the mediterranean sea

Europe di

Nearly 150 migrants drowned after a rubber boat they were traveling in sank recently in the Mediterranean Sea, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said March 29, Reuters reported. A 16-year-old from Gambia, who was rescued by a Spanish frigate and transferred to an Italian coast guard ship, was the sole survivor of the ill-fated voyage. The boat departed from Sabratha, Libya, according to the young man. Rescuers have picked up more than 1,100 migrants in the Mediterranean over the past two days, according to Italy’s coast guard. Almost 600 people have died attempting the perilous voyage across the sea so far in 2017, the IOM said. At least 5,000 people are estimated to have died while attempting the crossing last year, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

source STATFOR

Europe will drown in its own fears of Muslims and migrants: President Erdoğan

BreakingNews @en di

Europe will “drown in its own fears of Muslims and migrants”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on March 15, further hardening his tone just hours after an exchange of words between Ankara and Brussels on the future of a refugee deal. Erdoğan said the “spectre of fascism is roaming” on the streets of Europe, comparing the treatment of non-Europeans there to that of the Jews in World War II. They are scared of everything that is not from there. They are hostile to everything that is not from there”, Erdoğan said. The blocking of Turkish ministers by the Dutch authorities last weekend was followed by protests in Rotterdam, with local police using horses and dogs to disperse demonstrators. The images were widely reported in the Turkish press and prompted an angry reaction from the government.

Majority of migrants want to stay in Libya

BreakingNews @en/Middle East - Africa di

Most migrants in Libya want to remain in the country and do not intend to head for Europe. The revelation came in the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) latest Libya Displacement Tracking Matrix Flow Monitoring Analytical report. Libya remains the main country of intended destination for 56 percent of all 1,946 migrants surveyed, with 17 percent destined for Italy, 7 percent to Germany and 5 percent to France, the report says. The report says 81 to 83 percent of migrants from Egypt, Chad and Sudan surveyed intended to stay in Libya. Only 16 percent of Nigerian migrants intended to stay in Libya while 43 percent intended to travel to Italy, 12 percent to Italy, 12 percent to Germany and the remaining 29 percent to a variety of other countries. The demographic age of migrants surveyed were in their twenties, averaging of 29 and 98 percent were male. Most were from the countries bordering Libya: Niger, Egypt and Sudan. Nigerians were the fourth most represented group making up 10 percent of those surveyed. Economic reasons were given by 88 percent of all respondents as the main factors driving them to leave their countries of origin as well as the main reason determining migrants’ choice of destination. Seventy-four present of respondents said that they had spent over 6 months in Libya.

Over 4,600 migrants died trying to cross the Mediterranean sea in 2016

BreakingNews @en di

The death toll of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, mostly from the Libyan coast, hit a new record for the month of November, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says in its latest report. The report says that 546 migrants are reported to be dead so far in the month of November, compared to 141 in 2015 and 22 in 2014 for the whole of November. Approximately 365 people were reported to have lost their lives in the Mediterranean this week alone in three separate shipwrecks that had set off from the Libyan coast. The figure has been rising steadily over the last few days as rescued migrants disembark in Italy and report how many had set off on their craft. This reported number is compared to the number rescued to arrive at those considered missing at sea. These latest mortality reports make 2016 the deadliest year on record for migrants or refugees attempting the perilous crossing. The latest IOM figures say that over 4,600 migrants died in 2016 with 343,589 arriving by sea to Europe.

IOM repatriates 167 Nigerien migrants from southern Libya

BreakingNews @en di

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced yesterday that it had assisted 167 stranded Nigerien migrants including 48 women, 40 children and 79 men, to return home to Niger from southern Libya on 1 November. The IOM charter flight was coordinated in close cooperation with the Libyan authorities, the Nigerien embassy in Tripoli, its consulate in Sabha, the Libyan Red Crescent in Sabha and IOM Niger. The flight departed from Taminhint airport, 30 kilometres from Sabha and 750 kilometres south of the capital Libyan Tripoli, and arrived in Niamey airport in Niger the same evening, the IOM said. The IOM said that it had interviewed the migrants before they departed and provided health checks to ensure that they were fit to travel.

Found the bodies of 16 migrants on the Libyan coast

BreakingNews @en di

The bodies of 16 migrants have been found on a beach near the western Libyan town of Zwara, the Libyan Red Crescent said on Sunday. The migrants had been attempting to reach Europe, Khames El Boussefi, a spokesman for the Libyan Red Crescent, said. Al Bosaifi said the bodies, which were recovered on Saturday, were all men who appeared to be from sub-Saharan Africa. “We have not been able to verify their nationalities, but they are presumed drowned after their boat sank,” he said, adding that none of the migrants had identity documents. “The remains were handed over to the authorities who will take care of their burial,” he said. Libya is a common departure point for migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. They travel in ill-equipped boats that often break down or sink.

Hot Spot – The Crisis Areas

BreakingNews @en di

There are several hot spot in the world. The events shown below talk about geopolitical crisis, wars and clashes in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia.

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Afghanistan
September 9 The construction of the 3rd segment connecting Iran and Afghanistan started this morning. Ceremony was attended by Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhundi, Mahmoud Baligh, Afghanistan’s Minister of Public Works, and Eklil Ahmad Hakimi, Afghanistan’s Minister of Finance on Thursday at the border point of Chahsorkh in Herat Province of Afghanistan.

 

Syria
September 10 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov reach a ceasefire deal from September 12.

September 12 The Russian special envoy for the Middle East and African countries declared that intra-syrian dialogue could restar in early October. He also said that the new deal reached by U.S. and Russia doesn’t mean the imposition of no-fly zones on syrian territory, but could give a positive effect on the peace process.

September 15 Violence in Syria importantly dropped following the ceasefir, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said. He added that the United Nations is ready to prepared a humanitarian convoy, when Damascus governemnt will give all legal permissions.

 

Lebanon
September 12 Intermittent explosions have been heard since early morning coming from Shebaa Farms and the extremities of Golan. The echo of explosive sounds could be heard as far as Shebaa and Marj Ayoun.
Syrian Army and Hezbollah killed five ISIS militants in the western Qalamoun region.

September 13 An Israeli gunboat launched an explosive device into the water of Lebanon’s southern coast.
No casualties after that a landmine exploded in Marjeyoun under a vehicle belonging to the Spanish.

 

 

Turkey
September 10 PKK militants detonated a bomb-laden vehicle near a police checkpoint in front of the provincial headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the central Beşyol area.

September 12 Militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) were killed in airstrikes by Turkish jets in the Şemdinli.

 

 

China
September 9  Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) activated a contingency plan following a suspected nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

China is ready to participate in the United Nations’ new fast-response peacekeeping force. Minister of National Defense Chang Wanquan said on Thursday that Beijing will fully support the UN Peacekeeping Department’s initiative to set up a “vanguard brigade” of 4,000 rapidly deployable troops.

September 13 China and Vietnam will work together to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea and manage and control disputes, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

 

India
September 9 India and the 18-nation East Asia summit members reaffirmed their support to promote nuclear disarmament and nuclear non proliferation.

September 10 A guy was killed by security forces during protests in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district on Saturday.

 

Pakistan
September 10 At least 4 terrorists and a security guard were killed by paramilitary forces in Punjab’s Rajanpur district on Saturday.

September 13 At least 10 people, including 4 policemen, were injured by a suicide bomber during Eidul Azha prayers in an Imambargah at Shikarpur district’s Khanpur tehsil.

 

Nigeria

September 12 A female suicide bomber was near a military checkpoint in Dikwa. Explosion injured three soldiers at the checkpoint.

September 14 Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) said that its strike forces brought down the Afiesere Ere-Iwhenene major delivery line in Delta State. Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the head of state oil firm NNPC Maikanti Baru and Nigerian government stepped up efforts to keep fuel flowing into Nigeria without repeating the price increase of May and risking civil unrest.
Libya
September 12 Libyan National Army lead by General Khalifa Haftar on Sunday seized the three strategic oil ports of Ras Lanuf, Sidra and Brega from the outlaw militias that have controlled the facilities since 2013.

September 13 Italy is ready to send 200 soldiers and 100 deploy medics in Libya, as Italian Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti declared.

September 15 LNA’s takeover of three eastern oil terminals divided the Presidency Council. Meanwhile, both General Khalifa Hafter and the President of the House of Representatives Ageela Saleh called for oil exports to restart the terminals.

 

Egypt
September 13 A police vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device in the North Sinai city of Al–Arish but should have not caused injuries or deaths.

 

Tunisia
September 13 500 jihadists should have received training over the special forces in US military bases for years, Alon Ben-Meir, a political analyst, revealed.

 

Redazione

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Libyan crisis and human trafficking, the future of EuNavFor Med

Defence/Politics di

Eunavfor Med is ready for the operational phase B2. The war against the traffickers in the Mediterranean will be fought in Libyan territorial waters, «but many political and legal challenges must be solved before we can recommend this transition», says Admiral Enrico Credendino, head of the European mission. Critical issues depends on the failure of the executive of national unity, without which the United Nations can’t authorize the arrest of traffickers and the destruction of the means directly on the ground. On 7 October 2015, the European Parliament announced the strengthening of military missions in the Mediterranean, aiming to board, search and seizure the boats used by the smugglers. While the December signing in Morocco between some members of the Libyan social and political life for the formation of an executive of national unity turned out to be illusory, the head of mission of the United Nations Support (Unsmil), Martin Kobler, has welcomed the release of the establishment of the national unity government approved by the majority of the Libyan Parliament. But this announcement is not official. Waiting for a political stability that averts the threat of Daesh and legitimate EuNavFor Med to a local remedial action aimed to stop the migratory hemorrhage destabilizing Europe, the mission remains temporarily “suspended” at the stage 2, that of the war against smugglers within 12 miles nautical from the Libyan coast. Although the international community supports the prime minister Fayez Al Sarraj, received in Italy by Matteo Renzi, the situation becomes critical. France, America and Britain could intervene with future air strikes against Isis bases in Libya, favored by the current institutional chaos. The Foreign Italian Minister Paolo Gentiloni reiterates the urgency of the national government, and focuses on joint fight against terrorism. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pierferdinando Casini, shares the same opinion, and declares that «The attack on 7 January in Zlitan against a police training center is part of the Islamic State strategy to postpone the settlement of the national unity executive agreed between the parties and the UN». Without a government internationally recognized, Eunavfor Med is designed to stall. The command of the mission, however, suggests a future move to Stage 3, with operations even on the coast, in collaboration with the Libyan forces. The identification of objectives is necessary, to solve the intelligence gap on the smugglers’ business model. According Credendino, «When the stage 2B and 3 will start, other missions will be sponsored by the international community. Therefore the activities of EuNavFor Med and other operations should be coordinated in order to mitigate the risk of fratricide. The European operation’s mandate should be extended for the formation and training of the Libyan coast guard». The third step, which has not yet received the EU green light, would actually be the most effective, because the majority of the smugglers operate in Libyan waters. But as the Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni affirms, «The UN Security Council can’t authorize an intervention without an express Libyan request». As for the results actually achieved, the mission has contributed to the arrest of 46 traffickers and to the destruction of 67 boats. 14 European countries are participating in EuNavFor Med: Italy, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Luxembourg, Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden. Currently, six European warships are engaged offshore Libya: an Italian one, an English one, a French one, a Spanish one and two German, but other ships should be made available from England, Belgium and Slovenia. Four helicopters, many drones and 1300 military will be added to these. The costs of military intervention – apart from an annually European contribution of 12 million Euros – are supported by the individual participating countries. Italy has contributed to the mission with a budget of 26 million euro and 1.020 soldiers.
Viviana Passalacqua

Winter ices migrants flows but not concerns

Miscellaneous di

Only a year ago, in 2014, the most important route into Europe for migrants was across the Mediterranean sea, in boats of up to 800 passengers from the North African coast to Italy (Lampedusa sas primary destination) or Malta: the southern route. So far in 2015, migration along the alternative eastern route has rised.

 

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Matter of fact, during 2012 a fence was erected on the border between Turkey and Greece, forcing migrants to take boats from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands or travel north to the Bulgarian border. In 2014, Bulgaria began building its own fence to prevent this.

In September 2015 alone, 156,000 immigrants took the eastern route compared to just 7,000 in the same month the previous year.

The Schengen area makes things easier once the migrants have entered Hungary or Slovenia, but, on the other hand, things are getting much harder to deal, to administrate for these countries. In early July, Hungary began building a fence on its Serbian border, forcing the migrants on the west route through Croatia, often entering Hungary from there and a second fence was built on the Croatian border in October, pushing people up to Slovenia. Actually, Slovenia is building a fence itself. Balcans countries are struggling in order to face the situation. Albanian Government has already stated that the country will make what’s in it’s possibilty to mitigate the pressure in the area.

European countries are forced, under pressure, to find long term solutions, Germany in first place.

Angela Merkel, German Chancellor and most powerful woman in the planet, is facing risks on her own political body, over migrants crise . When migrants began to arrive in large numbers over the summer, she announced publicly that they were to be welcomed rather than turned away. Considering that an imponent number of Syrians living in Turkey have been able to make a living only because of temporary employment or casual labor, but , as Turkish economy has begun to deteriorate, unemployment has grown by being unaffordable, those Syrians are also leaving Turkey. So, what’s next?

Germany is home to the vast majority of past Turkish immigrants into Europe, and tensions have long been high over the issue. Syrians have a explicit and strong case for asylum, and it is extremely hard to repatriate them. The European Union wants to keep the Balkan countries from confronting one another over migrant flows. At the same time, the bloc wants to keep borders within Europe as open as possible to preserve the union’s structure while apportioning them fairly across the Continent. The Oct. 25 summit likely discussed all of the possible solutions along the migrant route and most summits during last two years have tried the same.

As temperatures drop immigrant flow will arrest the emergency. The latest flows have also revealed a drop in the portion of migrants from Syria and a rise in Afghan and African migrants, partly because of cheap Turkish Airlines flights to North Africa. Unlike Syrians, authorities will find it much easier to send back migrants from these points of origin.

But the fact is that war keeps on radicalizing in Syrian territories, which is much more than a preview on warmer season to come: migrants are most likely not stopping their desperate journeys.

 

Sabiena Stefanaj

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Migrants and borders: Slovenia and Croatia face Hungary’s fence effects

EUROPA di

The endless floyd of desperate migrants keeps the Balcan countries in permanent emergency state. Slovenia and Croatia are facing problematics while Orban’s Hungary had it’s border blocked up by that fence.

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More than 12,000 migrants have crossed into Slovenia in the past 24 hours and thousands more are expected, prompting authorities to ask the rest of the European Union for help dealing with the flood of people.
EU officials said Austria, Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland offered to send police reinforcements.

“We are standing by Slovenia in these difficult moments, Slovenia is not alone,” European migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said after meeting Gyorkos Znidar. The EU executive later said Slovenia had formally requested tents, blankets and other supplies under the bloc’s disaster relief programmed.
Croatia also decided on Thursday to seek international help, the news agency Hina reported. The government in Zagreb said it would ask for blankets, winter tents, beds and containers. Since mid-September, 217,000 refugees have entered Croatia

Slovenia’s Interior Ministry said Croat police were dumping thousands of undocumented people on its border “without control” and were ignoring telephoned Slovene requests to contain the surge.
On Tuesday morning, a train carrying more than 1,000 people from the Croatian town of Tovarnik and some 20 buses of full of refugees from the Opatovac refugee camp were headed toward the Slovenian border.

Migrants began streaming into Slovenia last Friday, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia. Before then, they were heading for Hungary – a member of Europe’s Schengen zone of visa-free travel – and then north and west to Austria and Germany. Sealing the border diverted them to Slovenia, which is also a member of the Schengen zone.
The daily cost of handling migrants was costing the former Yugoslav republic €770,000 Gyorkos Znidar said.

The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called an extraordinary meeting of several European leaders for Sunday, 25th. Juncker has invited the leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.

Not a single migrant has entered Hungary from Croatia since the border was closed with a fence protected by razor wire, soldiers and police patrols.

Orban said “Hungary’s border fence had been meant to turn migrants back from Europe, not divert them along a different path to Germany, and that he had asked Hungary’s Balkan neighbors to help send the migrants back”.
“The right thing to do is not to ensure their passage into Europe but to take them back to the refugee camps they started out from,” he said. “The further they come from their troubled countries, the more difficult it will be for them to return. Therefore these people must remain and humane conditions must be created for them in those places”.

While EU’s efforts seem to be not-sufficiently able to take control of the situation created during Balcan borders, Orban spaces his far-right way of thinking not considering the fact that what’s happening with millennial migrants is much more than a “migrant crisis”: it’s an anthropological change, a continuum circle of people that keeps on walking countries, borders while trying to make their lifes better and safer.

A price of late globalization, maybe; a war and destabilization of the Middle East’s bill to be payed also by occidental countries, indeed.

 

Sabiena Stefanaj

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