5 October 2014
The tragedy off Lampedusa in October last year – when an estimated 200 asylum seekers died after their boat capsized in Maltese search and rescue waters – has had a profound impact on the way immigration is now discussed and tackled at international level.
Although the death rate associated with perilous Mediterranean crossings has always been high, such large-scale loss of life in a single incident was met with almost unprecedented international outrage, shock and indignation. As a result, European governments – and in particular, the European Commission – were forced to acknowledge that a good deal more needs to be done to prevent similar tragedies in future.
The EU is now in the process of resuscitating its earlier (and not terribly successful) border patrol agency, Frontex. Perhaps more effectively, Italy has since unilaterally assumed responsibility for all migrant crossings in the central Mediterranean through its own programme, ‘Mare Nostrum’. Even private life-saving operations such as MOAS, recently launched in Malta, have responded to calls for assistance by (among others) Pope Francis.
