Who will stop the tide of these desperate people? --- As migrants make ever-more dangerous attempts to flee their stricken countries for a safer haven, we investigate a European-wide problem --- Imagine carrying your baby into a windowless metal box, your elderly mother at your side. Imagine the door closing behind you, leaving you and your family in total darkness, not knowing when – if – you will see daylight again. Some 35 Afghans went through this experience, though only 34 lived to tell the tale. They were found in a shipping container at Tilbury Docks in August after the boat carrying them arrived from Belgium and dockworkers heard their screams. -- It is natural to focus on the Afghans’ dreadful crossing from Zeebrugge to Tilbury. But at least as important is the journey that brought those lost souls to a port in Belgium. To get there, they had to make another significant crossing, over the border of the European Union. -- Quite which route they took into the EU remains unclear, not least because there are so many possibilities. Most EU countries have scrapped frontiers with each other via the Schengen Agreement, but Europe still has a lot of borders: its external frontiers, where the EU meets non-EU nations, are 8,400 miles long. Its coastline is longer still: 41,000 miles in all, equivalent to one-and-a-half times the circumference of the earth. -- The EU’s Mediterranean and Aegean coastlines are around 18,600 miles long – 8,400 miles of which are Greece and its 3,000 islands. The United Nations estimates that so far this year, 110,000 illegal immigrants have come into the EU via the Med. Frontex, the EU border agency, says that the number of illegal crossings detected on the “Central Mediterranean” route from North Africa to Italy rose by 288 per cent last year. --- The Romans called the Mediterranean Mare Nostrum, meaning “Our Sea”. But “Our Sea” is not hospitable to outsiders. At least 800 would-be immigrants are known to have died in the Mediterranean this year. The toll for the whole of 2012 was 500. So who are these people, who are increasingly willing to gamble with their lives trying to reach Europe in overcrowded boats, rafts and even inflatable dinghies? -- Frontex says that Eritreans and Somalis are the most numerous, with most saying they left home “due to security and economic concerns”. It is estimated that 20 boats a day leave Libya heading for Italy, another unforeseen consequence of the removal of Muammar Gaddafi, whose security forces would ruthlessly suppress such travellers. Next across the Med come Syrians fleeing their civil war, mostly sailing from Egypt. Around a third of all illegal immigrants to the EU are Syrians. --- What should a civilised country do when people from war-torn foreign countries drift towards its shores? The debate is sharpest in Italy, which has seen hundreds die in its waters. Last autumn, a ship carrying more than 300 people sank off the island of Lampedusa, leaving Italians to confront their drowned bodies – including a young couple who died embracing below decks. The resulting national trauma prompted Italy to launch a dedicated military mission – Operation Mare Nostrum – to rescue illegal immigrants. -- The operation is, unsurprisingly, controversial. Italy says almost 117,000 migrants arrived by sea in the 12 months to July 31. More than half of those came ashore not from jerry-rigged rafts, but Italian naval vessels. Critics say reducing the risk of death in this way only encourages more migrants to attempt the crossing. Angelino Alfano, the Italian interior minister, has described his country as the “world champion” of welcoming illegal immigrants. Operation Mare Nostrum cannot continue into next year, he says. -- After Italy, Greece and the eastern Mediterranean are the next most popular entry points, “a hot spot of irregular migration”, according to Frontex. In 2012 the EU effectively sealed Greece’s land border with Turkey, placing a barbed wire fence 13ft high and 7 miles long along the Evros river. The fence did not end the problem of illegal migration, however. Before the fence, around 7,000 illegals crossed into Greece each month overland. That has dropped to almost nothing, but the number of illegal crossings from the sea has risen from a few hundred to around 5,000 a month. Most unlawful entrants from Afghanistan – who account for 20 per cent of all illegals – enter the EU via Greece. --- Once on EU soil, where do migrants go? Italy estimates that two-thirds of its new arrivals move on to other, richer EU countries; politicians in Germany and elsewhere suspect the Italians of encouraging that movement, in contravention of EU agreements. Many migrants attempt to claim asylum, arguing that being sent home would put them in danger. Last year, there were 76,000 claims lodged in Germany and 62,000 in France, compared with 23,500 in Italy. -- But if illegal immigration is an EU problem, surely the answer lies at EU level? Italy certainly thinks so, appealing for other member states to fund the £88 million annual cost of Operation Mare Nostrum, a call supported by the European Commission. --- The British Government, currently thinking hard about loosening its ties with the EU, especially over issues relating to immigration, has not leapt at the opportunity to send British money and warships to patrol the Italian coast. Yet neither have other countries who proclaim their commitment to “ever closer union” moved to help support the Italian operation: French and German politicians see few votes in using taxpayers’ money to bring illegal immigrants safely into the EU. Even if all EU countries did agree to cooperate, no one has a realistic plan for what to do with the poor and bedraggled hordes, once they are on dry land. -- So Europe falls between two stools. It has effectively internationalised its borders – to enter Italy is to enter the EU – but remains reluctant to internationalise the management of those borders. And if Europe’s response remains faltering and uncertain, the same cannot be said of the other actors in this drama. The urgent, desperate imperative that drives people, with babies in their arms, into shipping containers, is clear, and shows no sign of waning. The Afghans at Tilbury Docks suffered horribly, but that will not stop others from attempting to follow them. -- Read More, James Kirkup, Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11041382/Who-will-stop-the-tide-of-these-desperate-people.html