[image: African migrants stranded on a boat comi] Letter to the editor (FT) on boat people heading for Europe
Sir, I fear that Paddy Ashdown is too optimistic about possible solutions to the tragedies of those drowned trying to cross into Europe by sea (“An inhumane answer to the Mediterranean migrants’ plight <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/db27a7e4-60ed-11e4-b935-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=uk>”, November 1). It would be nice to imagine that this problem involves no more than perhaps 100,000 potentially genuine asylum seekers from a few war-torn countries in northeast Africa and the Middle East, who could be easily absorbed into various European countries. It seems to me that the realities of the whole issue of asylum and immigration, and of this particular channel for entry, are less comforting from anybody’s standpoint. The only reason immigration into the richer countries is under any kind of control is because of a rather well kept secret within political debate. With very few exceptions, nobody is allowed to claim asylum in any of these countries without first having become an illegal immigrant there; and nobody in fact does claim it unless they have actually been caught trying to enter, or remain in, their chosen country of destination.* If all illegal entrants were guaranteed safe passage to Italy on the sea crossing, the **number** of countries of **origin**would soon expand beyond the existing ones to further parts of Africa and Asia, and the**numbers** contemplating the journey could **quickly** rise to tens if not hundreds of**millions**.* A quite high proportion of these would in fact have strong grounds for being granted asylum in almost any European country under current rules. Most would of course be heading eventually to other Schengen countries, or to the UK via further illegal crossings from Calais.*The civil infrastructures and welfare states of Europe would collapse under such an impact; and the influx would not slow until these collapses had made Europe much less attractive as a destination.* The 180,000 safe arrivals of illegal immigrants on the Mediterranean crossings this year, and the 3,000 deaths in the attempt, have both risen torecord levels since the start of the Italian navy rescue mission, which is apparently now to be scaled back. It seems reasonable to conclude that both largely resulted from it. It would indeed be inhumane to allow people to drown in dangerous crossings assuming that resources are reasonably available in western naval forces to rescue them. Yet there is no viable solution through European countries busting their own immigration controls by guaranteeing safe illegal entry. *Instead rescues should divert people back to the countries of embarkation.* As intermediate countries on the intended journeys, Egypt and Libya have almost no motive to curtail the passages as things stand, nor does it seem credible that their effective co-operation in doing so could be purchased by European countries. However, they would I think be obliged under international law to accept disembarkations from foreign naval vessels of those rescued in international waters after leaving their shores on unsafe journeys. Andy Thompson, Worcester Park, Surrey, UK Source. <http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/87441a38-5f97-11e4-986c-00144feabdc0.html> __._,_.___ ------------------------------ Posted by: "beowulf" <[email protected]> ------------------------------ Visit Your Group <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/grendelreport/info;_ylc=X3oDMTJmZjFpdGFiBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDdnRsBHNsawN2Z2hwBHN0aW1lAzE0MTU2NjEyOTI-> [image: Yahoo! Groups] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo;_ylc=X3oDMTJldTVwYzBiBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzIwMTk0ODA2BGdycHNwSWQDMTcwNTMyMzY2NwRzZWMDZnRyBHNsawNnZnAEc3RpbWUDMTQxNTY2MTI5Mg--> • Privacy <https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/groups/details.html> • Unsubscribe <[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe> • Terms of Use <https://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/terms/> __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
