RABAT // Stormy seas killed 21 migrants and left some 200 missing when their overcrowded boat capsized last Friday in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya, as they sought better lives in Italy. World leaders are meeting tomorrow at the G20 summit in London to seek answers to a financial crisis choking off foreign investment from wealthy countries needed to develop poor ones, even as it snuffs out the European jobs sought by the thousands of migrants who brave the Mediterranean each year.
In a speech yesterday in London before the summit, the World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, urged leaders not to neglect the needs of poor countries. "People in developing countries have much less cushion: no savings, no insurance, no unemployment benefits, and often no food." Such conditions drive thousands of mainly African and Asian migrants to set out each year for Europe, braving deserts, police and treacherous seas. For many, the journey proves fatal.
The boat that went down on Friday was one of two overcrowded boats that struggled unsuccessfully from Libya towards Italy over the weekend. The second, carrying around 350 migrants, was rescued about 50km off the Libyan coast after an Italian merchant ship heard its distress call, the Associated Press reported. Most migrants rely on unscrupulous local smugglers for trasnport, said Sara Hamood, a researcher on migration in Libya who has studied the issue firsthand. "The boats are rudimentary, and often there is no one on board who actually knows how to operate them - just a migrant acting as pilot for a reduced fee," she said.
Despite the risks, Libya has gained popularity as a gateway to Europe in recent years as Moroccan and Spanish authorities have tightened security at the Straits of Gibraltar, long the most travelled route, said Mohamed Khachani, the president of the Moroccan Association for Migration Studies and Research. "Libya is close to Europe, and the sea journey is short and less hazardous than at other points of departure," said Ayman Zohry, a migration expert and head of the Egyptian Society for Migration Studies.
He and others say the Libyan leader Muammar Qadafi "makes it easy for Africans to enter Libya". Some stay there, Mr Zohry said. But many others continue to Italy, where immigrants have risen to seven per cent of the population, according to a BBC report last month. That poses new challenges for a country struggling with high unemployment and historically more accustomed to producing migrants than to receiving them.
Public concern over immigration has become a front-page issue in Italy's news media and a talking point for the far-right Northern League, a partner in the centre-right government of the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi. In the past year, immigration worries have prompted authorities to send soldiers on to the streets of Italian cities and fingerprint Roma communities. They have also seen Italy reach out for help to Libya, a former colony and current trading partner that is many immigrants' last stop before reaching Italian shores.
In February the two countries signed an agreement to establish joint sea patrols in the Mediterranean, intended to become effective on May 15. In a separate initiative the same month, the European Union offered Libya ?20 million (Dh98m) to help it strengthen border controls. But while the EU and European countries are courting Libya for help combating illegal migration, the priorities of Mr Qadafi are divided, said Dana Moss, a Libya expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
After decades as a pariah state, Libya has begun co-operating with European neighbours on securing its borders, Ms Moss said. But the Libyan leader's desire to act as Africa's senior statesman also puts him under pressure to allow African migrants into Libya, "and these things are naturally going to clash". Ultimately, tighter borders are not a solution as long as poor countries remain poor, said Ms Hamood, the researcher.
"Even people who have been through journeys where they lost other people on the boat are willing to try again," she said. "It shows the level of desperation that they feel." "This is why the EU policy of control and patrols has not given better results," said Mr Khachani, from the Moroccan Association for Migration Studies and Research. "It's necessary to make conditions in migrants' countries good enough that they no longer want to leave."
jthorne@thenational.ae