Italy is backing a controversial proposal to process asylum claims in purpose-built centres in Africa, before refugees risk the often fatal trip across the Mediterranean to Europe.
Angelino Alfano, the interior minister, has added his voice to those calling for the creation of “refugee camps in Africa where screening can be carried out, so that there will be an equal distribution among European countries for those who have the right to asylum”.
He added: “If it’s ‘no’, we will say, ‘stay there’.” He will promote the idea at a meeting of European interior ministers in Brussels today.
Italian media reported that Niger, Sudan and Tunisia were candidates to host the European-asylum-processing outposts.
Italy is facing a second year of record numbers of migrants setting sail for its shores from Libya. About 170,000 people made the trip last year, but more than 3,000 of them drowned after the rickety boats in which they put to sea sank.
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More than 9,000 have already set sail this year, far more than in the same period last year.
About 67,000 migrants are now housed in temporary centres in Italy. According to the UN, deaths at sea this year — 474 — are running at double the rate of last year. “It is now more than five deaths every 100 who sail, compared with two and a half last year — there is a lot of political embarrassment about this,” Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said.
That embarrassment is being felt in Rome, but also in Brussels, where EU officials have also proposed asylum-application processing in Africa to save refugees making the gruelling trip across the Sahara, often enduring imprisonment and beatings at the hands of traffickers in Libya, before risking their lives at sea.
Natasha Bertaud, the EU migration spokeswoman, said on Friday that a test scheme was being considered in Niger.
Ms Sami said that the UN was “open to solutions”, but that the scheme should be put in place only if certain conditions were met. “The country where the application is made must be ready to create a safe area for those requesting asylum, guarantee their rights and give them freedom of movement,” she said. “EU states must also make more places available — this scheme should be a stepping stone, not a block.”
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An Italian navy rescue operation has been replaced by a smaller EU patrol that does not operate in the waters near Libya where many boats sink — leaving rescue operations to the Italian coastguard. “Cargo ships that had stepped in to help rescues are being scared off by rumours that there are jihadists among the migrants,” Ms Sami added.