The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Squabble over immigrants found clinging to tuna nets

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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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Squabble over immigrants found clinging to tuna nets

John Hooper

26 migrants ffrom Libya left at sea as row continues.

THE GOVERNMENTS of Mediterranean countries are turning the sea between them into a "wild west in which human life has lost its value and people in danger are left to fend for themselves," a United Nations official said on Monday.

Laura Boldrini, a Rome-based spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, was speaking as Libya, Malta, and Spain continued to wrangle over the fate of 26 migrants from Africa, more than two days after they were plucked from the Mediterranean. The three governments were refusing to take in the migrants, stranded on a Spanish vessel last reported 80 miles south of Malta, about halfway between the island and the Libyan coast.

Ms. Boldrini said she understood that, like 27 migrants saved by Italian rescuers at the weekend, the members of the latest group were found clinging to tuna nets on the high seas. "That appears to be the case," said Ms. Boldrini, who noted that a further 57 migrants photographed by Maltese rescuers last week had since disappeared without trace and were thought to have drowned.

The approach of summer has seen an upsurge in the number of fragile open boats setting off from the shores of Libya in the hope of a landfall on Italian territory. Those rescued at the weekend were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa where they told officials on Monday they had spent six days at sea and three days on the rim of the tuna nets, which were being hauled by a Maltese-owned boat. Pictures of the migrants holding on to buoys supporting the nets of the vessel on Monday provoked indignation in Italy. Tana de Zulueta, a Green party MP, said: "The oldest of all humanitarian laws, that of rescue at sea, is being ignored."

Malta has been struggling for years to persuade the Libyan authorities to cut migration from the country's coast. Libya says it does not have the means to patrol its long coastline adequately. Malta's Interior Minister Tonio Borg said on Monday the latest crisis was solely a matter for Spain and Libya, "since the rescue took place in Libyan waters and the clandestine migrants are on a Spanish fishing vessel."

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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