They just keep coming…
Up to a million await calmer spring seas before risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean…
*
Up to a million migrants have gathered in Libya, from where they will attempt to sail across the Mediterranean for Europe and, ultimately, the UK.
New estimates reveal that there are two million migrants massed in the North African country and that half of them plan to sail to the European mainland and travel on to Britain in the hope of building a new life.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), most have travelled from sub-Saharan states such as Ghana and Sierra Leone, attracted by Libya’s reputation as a centre for people smugglers. Most are expected to wait until the spring, when the seas are calmer, before making the crossing on unseaworthy and crowded vessels.
* Just like 200 years ago, the West is paying the jiziyah to the ‘Tunisiennes”
European border authorities have opened negotiations to police Libya’s vast desert borders. Last week, the Italian government struck a deal with Libya to hold back the thousands who try to reach Italy.
* How much $$$$ was ‘agreed?’
The issue is highlighted in tomorrow’s BBC Panorama programme, which details how European leaders tried to reach an agreement with Libya, a country that until recently was named by Britain as a state sponsor of terrorism. Of the thousands of African boat people who enter Italy each year, about 80 per cent are believed to make their way to France or the UK, with the latter their preferred destination.
The risks, however, are great. Researchers for the programme managed to track down a number of those seen in last year’s startling images of refugees clinging to a vast tuna net cast loose on the Mediterranean.
* Either way, Gaddafi is licking his chops:
‘It would be accurate to say you’ve got about a million people in Libya who are looking to get to Europe at some time in the future,’ said Laurence Hart of the IOM. ‘The numbers setting sail from Libya are so great that half of the military budget of Malta – 350km from North Africa – is spent trying to deal with migrants sailing north.’
The Illustrated PIG has a lot more on the organized mass-migration out of Africa to make Europe into EUrabia (or shall we call it greater African economic zone?)
*
Best link of the day:
Whoring with Willie Clitman at the Illustrated PIG
Warning: graphic images!
*
