APRIL 20, 2015
RHODES, GREECE (CNN)
At least three people are dead in another incident involving
a sinking migrant ship in the Mediterranean.
A rescue operation is ongoing off the Greek island coast of
Rhodes.
A spokeswoman for the Greek Merchant Marine Ministry told
CNN the ministry received a report Monday morning of a boat carrying migrants
sinking off the coast of Rhodes.
The Greek Coast Guard, along with several private vessels
responded to the emergency according to the spokeswoman.
At least 83 people were reported on board, however the Greek
Merchant Marine Ministry said the number may increase.
Fifty-seven survivors have been transferred to Rhodes.
Of those, 23 were taken to hospital in Rhodes. Three people
are reported dead: a man, a woman and a child.
//--------------------------------------//
THE RESULT OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RECKLESSNESS OF NATO AND USA
IN DESTABILIZING LIBYA AND OTHER COUNTRIES: UP TO 700 FEARED DEAD AFTER MIGRANT
BOAT SINKS OFF LIBYA.
APRIL 19, 2015
ROME, ITALY (REUTERS)
As many as 700 people are feared dead after a boat carrying
migrants capsized off the Libyan coast overnight, the Times of Malta reported
on Sunday.
Twenty eight people were rescued in the incident, which
happened in an area just off Libyan waters, 120 miles south of the southern
Italian island of Lampedusa, the newspaper's website reported.
The emergency was declared at about midnight. The boat is
believed to have capsized when migrants moved to one side of the vessel when a
merchant ship approached.
After the disastrous adventures of the elected drunk Texas
cowboy (George Bush), and the appointed morons Condomlisa Rice, Dick Cheney and
the other clowns of the US government in invading Iraq and destabilizing the
region, causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people and spending
trillions of dollars of taxpayers’ money, these same or similar clowns decided
to overthrow and kill Gaddafi of Libya.
The result has been a further destabilization of the region and the
flood of illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean countries of Greece, Italy,
Spain, etc.
In our opinion, even a little child could have predicted the
consequences of the actions of these elected or appointed morons. Yet we let them do whatever they wanted and
now we pay the price and we will be paying the price for many years to come.
In a final analysis, we believe that all these adventures of
the elected or appointed clowns or puppets were calculated to intentionally
destabilize the regions and created never-ending liabilities for the
taxpayers. The price paid and continues
to be paid is great, and we believe that we have not realized yet what has
happened and all its consequences: few
countries pay attention anymore to what the EU, NATO or USA say. Countries like Russia, China, India are
emboldened and created their own economic pacts. In response, the US is trying to create
additional economic expansion deals with Germany, Cuba, and even Iran.
//--------------------------------------------------//
EU FACES FURY AFTER NEW MIGRANT SHIPWRECK TRAGEDY
APRIL 15, 2015
REGGIO CALABRIA (ITALY) (AFP)
Rights groups lashed out at the EU on Wednesday for
scrapping rescue operations in the Mediterranean, saying it had endangered the
lives of thousands of desperate migrants making perilous journeys across the
sea.
The criticism came as Italian coastguards said no more
survivors had been found from a shipwreck off the coast of Libya on Sunday
which may have killed 400 people.
"European governments' ongoing negligence towards the
humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean has contributed to a more than 50-fold
increase in migrant and refugee deaths since the beginning of 2015,"
Amnesty International said.
"How many more people have to die before European
governments acknowledge that relying on a patchwork quilt of resources for
search-and-rescue operations is not enough?" the group's Gauri Van Gulik
said.
The EU stopped funding Italy's Mare Nostrum rescue mission
last year, in favour of the surveillance patrols currently being carried out by
its border agency Frontex.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that Europe
should do more to end the wars that led people to embark on the world's most
deadly smuggling route.
Italian coastguard spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said that
even before the latest sinking more than 500 migrants, many refugees fleeing
wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, had died so far this year trying to cross
to Europe.
In a particularly tragic twist to Sunday's tragedy, the boat
appears to have overturned because of the excitement caused by the sighting of
rescuers.
Survivors who were brought to Italy told charity workers
that as many as 400 others perished.
According to the International Organization for Migration,
which has interviewed some of the survivors, between 500 and 550 people, many
of them young, were crammed onto the vessel at the time.
The charity Save The Children said some were thought to be
unaccompanied children.
- 6,500 migrants in two days -
Italian coastguards, who intercepted 42 boats on Sunday and
Monday alone carrying 6,500 migrants attempting to make the hazardous crossing
to Europe, confirmed that they had saved 145 people from the sunken boat and
found nine bodies.
Coastguard spokesman Commander Filippo Marini told AFP they
had not found any more "survivors or anything else which would indicate
more victims".
He said he could not exclude that more lives had been lost,
and said the kind of vessel from which the 145 were rescued usually carried
many more people. Search operations were continuing in the area Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch researcher Judith Sunderland said:
"The intolerable number of victims is only going to grow if the EU does
not guarantee rescue operations in the Mediterranean."
- 'A global issue' -
Without mentioning maritime rescue efforts, the EU's
Mogherini said: "There are instruments the European Union has that can be
used more and better."
She was referring to the Dublin Convention, which determines
which EU state should be responsible for each refugee.
With conflict and crisis acting as "the root cause of
people deciding to risk everything and travel", she also said rising
unrest -- and lack of policing -- in Libya was contributing to the surge in
people-smuggling to Europe's coastlines.
"The majority of the flow goes through Libya which
means that the other... thing we have to do is try to solve the Libyan
crisis," she said.
Calling for "more solidarity" among EU states in
dealing with the influx, Mogherini said the surge was "a global issue that
we cannot pretend not to see".
Italian authorities say more than 15,000 migrants have arrived
so far in 2015. There were 15,000 in April alone last year and an average of
25,000 each month between June and September.
Italy is divided over what to do with refugees and migrants
once they arrive on its soil.
The interior ministry has ordered regional prefects to find
emergency housing for 6,500 migrants -- a move condemned by the opposition,
which argues the policy of rescuing immigrants encourages others to attempt the
risky sea journey.
Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant Northern League,
on Tuesday urged local officials not to cooperate.
Yet on the Libyan coast Wednesday, a group of 260 African
migrants were detained by the Libyan navy as they tried to make the same
crossing to Italy.
"I wanted to go to Europe because the situation in Somalia
is so difficult what with the civil war. But I got arrested," said Abdel
Rashid, a Somali.
These crooked northern Europeans created all this disaster and yet they have been refusing to provide the hundreds of billions needed to secure the borders.
This is not going to end well at all. In regions that have very high unemployment,
these illegal migrants are not welcomed.
Things will get worse, much worse.
