Illegal immigration into Italy: Men in boats

Date: 25/10/03

Deaths in the Mediterranean

ON OCTOBER 19th an Italian fishing skipper spotted what he took to be an abandoned boat drifting south of Sicily. But as he drew nearer, he saw people lying motionless in the vessel. “One sat up and made signs with his hands. The others seemed to be sleeping,” the captain said. Only they weren't.

Just 15 of the 28 people aboard the rickety boat were alive. Thrown bags of food, the survivors were too weak to open them. As protection against the elements, they were using corpses that they had been unable to toss overboard. The survivors, all apparently Somalis, said they had been adrift for 13 days after their engine broke down on the third day of a journey from Libya to the Italian island of Lampedusa. They said 50 or more corpses had been consigned to the sea before their boat was found.

Few commentators missed the irony that this tragedy was discovered on the same day as a meeting in France of five European interior ministers to consider how to stop illegal immigrants. Nor is it the only, or the worst incident. In 1996 a launch with 283 would-be immigrants aboard sank in the Malta-Sicily channel - yet the disaster almost went unnoticed because of doubts about survivors' tales. This week, the trial began in Sicily of two men - a Lebanese and a Maltese of Pakistani origin - accused of mass murder. The trial hints at a determination by the Italians to tackle people trafficking; in the past, some traffickers are said to have bought protection. One of the defendants was arrested and released twice before being charged.

The Italian government has pursued a twin-track approach. It wants to show illegal immigrants that it is not worth taking the risk; and it wants to make deals with governments of countries from which they set out. Official figures show that the number of illegal immigrants landing in Italy fell by 40% in the first half of this year. But the tragedy is a double setback. The Somalis left from Libya, a country with which Italy signed a deal in July; and they were not deterred by a law doubling the length of time that illegal entrants can be held after detention and imprisoning those caught re-entering.

The reality is that illegal immigrants usually enter without papers and refuse to give their nationalities, to avoid deportation. Most “expulsions” from Italy, except to Albania, are notional; the expelled simply go underground, or to another European country, after their release from detention. Small wonder that hundreds - some say thousands - of other hopefuls are waiting on the Libyan coast for a chance to reach the promised land. Or to die in the attempt.14#vety=41;enum=0;