Tweet
Source: https://www.voanews.com/europe/europ...fuel-migration
European Leaders Fear Economic Impact of Coronavirus Will Fuel Migration
By Jamie Dettmer
September 29, 2020 09:40 AM
Refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp wait to board a ferry that will transfer them to the mainland, at the port…
FILE - Refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp wait to board a ferry that will transfer them to the mainland, at the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 28, 2020.
European officials fear the coronavirus pandemic will spark eventually another massive migration wave from Africa and the Middle East. “The social and economic consequences of COVID are going to get worse and that will mean more people deciding to search for a better life,” Malta’s foreign minister warned last week.
Evarist Bartolo is urging European countries to invest more in African countries to help boost their economies to generate wealth and jobs so people are less likely to migrate.
He points out that about two-thirds of asylum-seekers are economic migrants, not war refugees. Pandemic-shattered economies in sub-Sahara Africa will fuel migration in the future, he fears.
The coronavirus pandemic is acting currently as a dampener on migration, analysts say. The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, IOM, reports approximately 50,000 migrants have arrived this year so far to Europe, largely by sea — considerably fewer than in previous years. The IOM reported that 110,669 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2019. At the height of the migration crisis more than a million migrants entered the EU, according to the United Nations...
***********************************
Source: https://wtop.com/middle-east/2020/09...sion-in-italy/
Tunisians fleeing economy, not COVID, cause tension in Italy
The Associated Press
September 30, 2020, 3:13 AM
RAS JEBEL, Tunisia (AP) — Once it was just the jobless young men who set off from Tunisia’s rocky northern beaches for Sicily, usually defying their parents in hopes of a better future.
Now Tunisian families, even those with work or seemingly good prospects, are following that path across 130 kilometers (80 miles) of open water — nearly 10,000 since the beginning of the year and far more than have left in recent memory. The stretch of Mediterranean can be dangerous, the chance of getting asylum in Europe is near zero, and a long quarantine in a ferry anchored offshore will be followed by expulsion if they’re caught.
But many who leave from the Bizerte coastline think the potential reward far outweighs the risk. Those with relatives in Europe are the ones with the new cars and kitchen upgrades...
European Leaders Fear Economic Impact of Coronavirus Will Fuel Migration
By Jamie Dettmer
September 29, 2020 09:40 AM
Refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp wait to board a ferry that will transfer them to the mainland, at the port…
FILE - Refugees and migrants from the destroyed Moria camp wait to board a ferry that will transfer them to the mainland, at the port of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, Greece, Sept. 28, 2020.
European officials fear the coronavirus pandemic will spark eventually another massive migration wave from Africa and the Middle East. “The social and economic consequences of COVID are going to get worse and that will mean more people deciding to search for a better life,” Malta’s foreign minister warned last week.
Evarist Bartolo is urging European countries to invest more in African countries to help boost their economies to generate wealth and jobs so people are less likely to migrate.
He points out that about two-thirds of asylum-seekers are economic migrants, not war refugees. Pandemic-shattered economies in sub-Sahara Africa will fuel migration in the future, he fears.
The coronavirus pandemic is acting currently as a dampener on migration, analysts say. The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, IOM, reports approximately 50,000 migrants have arrived this year so far to Europe, largely by sea — considerably fewer than in previous years. The IOM reported that 110,669 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2019. At the height of the migration crisis more than a million migrants entered the EU, according to the United Nations...
***********************************
Source: https://wtop.com/middle-east/2020/09...sion-in-italy/
Tunisians fleeing economy, not COVID, cause tension in Italy
The Associated Press
September 30, 2020, 3:13 AM
RAS JEBEL, Tunisia (AP) — Once it was just the jobless young men who set off from Tunisia’s rocky northern beaches for Sicily, usually defying their parents in hopes of a better future.
Now Tunisian families, even those with work or seemingly good prospects, are following that path across 130 kilometers (80 miles) of open water — nearly 10,000 since the beginning of the year and far more than have left in recent memory. The stretch of Mediterranean can be dangerous, the chance of getting asylum in Europe is near zero, and a long quarantine in a ferry anchored offshore will be followed by expulsion if they’re caught.
But many who leave from the Bizerte coastline think the potential reward far outweighs the risk. Those with relatives in Europe are the ones with the new cars and kitchen upgrades...