Legal News
IOM tells EU to step up and take responsibility for migrants fleeing war zones (19 January 2015)
Date: 19/01/2015
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has issued an appeal to EU member states to do more to help with the huge numbers of refugees from Syria and other war zones, who are risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
Website EU.Business.com reports that the Swiss-based International Organisation for Migration warned on Friday (16/01/15) that the death toll among migrants being trafficked across the Mediterranean Sea in “ghost ships” would rise, unless the EU took more responsibility for accepting refugees in member states.
In 2014, a total of 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy – four times the number in 2013.
People traffickers charge migrants thousands of pounds to be transported in unseaworthy and overcrowded vessels, many of which founder at sea or are deliberately steered towards Italy’s coastline before being abandoned by the gangs.
Many of the migrant “ghost” ships have come to grief off Italy’s shore, causing hundreds of migrant to lose their lives.
IOM Chief of Mission in Italy, Federico Soda, said:
“The emergency is not in the number of people involved or a risk that they will overburden Europe – a bloc of countries with a population of about 500 million people,” said Mr Soda.
“The emergencies are the conflicts, instability and great uncertainty in a number of countries close to Europe, which people are fleeing.
“If we put these numbers in perspective, we'll see that Turkey is hosting about 1.8 million Syrian refugees, and Lebanon – a very small country of 4 million people – is dealing with over one million.”
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