On February 26, a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants from Turkey to Europe crashed on rocks close to the southern Italian coast, killing at least 59 people, including 12 children.

This incident has reignited the discussion on immigration to Europe and Italy from different countries, especially from African and Asian countries. The reasons behind the increasing number of immigrants and how the international community can tackle the problem have been a debatable issue. 

Unfortunate incident

Reuters reported that a provincial government official in Italy said there were 81 survivors and 20 hospitalized patients. There were immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. 

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi visited the area and stated that up to 30 individuals might still be missing. The precise number of passengers on the boat, which had departed from Turkey a few days before, had not been determined, although rescuers estimated it to be carrying “more than 200 passengers,” according to the BBC. 

Standing up for immigrant rights, Pope Francis has stated that he is praying for the deceased, the missing, and those who have survived.

Role of the international community

Gamal Eid, an Egyptian human rights lawyer, told Jusoor Post that these incidents are recurrent and will continue if the root cause is not addressed. 

“In order to define any phenomenon, we must find its reasons. Those illegal immigrants who die every day on the European coasts escape from suppression, corruption, and poverty in their countries,” he said. 

Eid added that natural disasters are also cause for people to flee their countries in order to save their lives. He stressed that the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria pushed some individuals to leave their countries after losing their homes, families and livelihoods. 

“However, not all citizens of poor countries leave them. There are countries that are poor, like Ghana, yet the regime is not corrupted and tries to improve the livelihood of its citizens. It is oppression and tyranny that makes a person leave his country,” Eid said. 

Monitoring organizations reported that since 2014, over 20,000 individuals have perished or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea.

As far as international laws are concerned, Eid asserted that the receiving countries are not allowed to send an immigrant back to his country. If the hosting country cannot keep the immigrant, it gives him the right to choose whichever country he wants to travel to and must grant him his human rights until he departs its territories.

“The UNHCR fully support immigrants, whether legal or illegal. Those who suffer political or religious oppression in their homeland and cannot prove it, the UNHCR helps them to find a decent place to live in,” he added. 

Eid referred to the role played by the UN in Poland, where thousands of Ukrainians have poured in due to the war in their country, saying, “The UN offers humanitarian assistance to Poland to help it receive the fleeing Ukrainian immigrants.”

Eurostat reported that 681,200 non-EU nationals were discovered to be living in the European Union illegally in 2021, a 22% increase from the previous year.

It is worth mentioning that Pew Research Center reported that around one in six (12-17%) of all non-EU-EFTA citizens residing in Italy were unauthorized immigrants, who made up about 1% of the country’s population in 2017. For the past ten years, tens of thousands of asylum seekers have arrived in Italy. Many have had their applications for asylum denied, and some have stayed in the country illegally.

Tight security measures 

For his part, George Isaaq Gerges, member of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), told Jusoor Post that illegal immigration should be banned to save the lives of people who are found dead daily on the coasts of European countries. 

“Any county is responsible for protecting its citizens,” Gerges said, adding, “Countries should tighten security on their coasts and must heavily deploy coast guards in order to prevent any suspected human trafficking and migrant smuggling.” 

He emphasized that there are citizens in some countries who are willing to leave their families and risk their lives to travel to a foreign land instead of experiencing daily suffering in their own homeland.