[Salon] Death in the desert and the sea

https://www.german-foreign-policy.com/news/detail/9828

Death in the desert and the sea

Berlin and the EU celebrate a decline in the number of unwanted refugees. Death toll on escape route to the Canary Islands reaches record high. Berlin, on the other hand, wants to prevent Syrian doctors from returning: Germany needs them.

17JAN 2025

Fewer refugees

In the EU, the recent decline in the number of refugees who entered the with unapproved has been recorded with great satisfaction. As the refugee protection agency Frontex announced on Tuesday, around 239,000 irregular arrivals were registered throughout the EU last year - 38 percent less than in the previous year. The decline is mainly based on the fact that there were significantly fewer crossings on the so-called central Mediterranean route. Only 67,000 refugees entered Italy in 2024 - 59 percent less than in 2023, when there were 163,000. According to Frontex Executive Director Hans Leijtens, this is "due to better cooperation with North African countries, especially Tunisia". 1] Of course, the escape routes began to shift at the same time as usual. Thus, the number of refugees who used the eastern Mediterranean route - which leads from eastern Libya in particular to Greece - rose by 14 percent to 69,000, while around 47,000 from West Africa transferred to the Canary Islands - an increase of 18 percent. With more than 17,000 people also fled to the EU via Russia and Belarus than in the previous year. However, 80 percent of them were Ukrainians who sought to escape war service.[ 2]

"Not an accident, but a plan"

The "cooperation" with Tunisia and, to a lesser extent with Libya, which is due to the decline in the number of refugees, are agreements with both countries negotiated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni; the deal with Tunisia is supported by the EU (german-foreign-policy.com reported [3]). It is known that both Tunisia's President Kaïs Saïed and the government in Tripoli, which of course only controls the west of Libya, have deported refugees to the desert; at the beginning of September, around 130 refugees were abandoned on Tunisia's border with Algeria - as usual, without water and food and their mobile phones. Although it is known that this happens regularly, reported the director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Tunisia, Salsabil Chellali; the exact number of deportations and deaths, however, is unclear. 4] Last week it was announced that Libya's government had deported more than 600 refugees, crammed together on trucks, to the desert city of Dirkou in northern Niger. How many had died on the way is unknown. The EU loods mass deportations to countries such as Libya, where "the desert is becoming a cemetery," says David Yambio of the NGO Refugees in Libya: "This is not an accident, that is the plan."[ 5]

The deadliest year

The EU cooperation with Tunisia and Libya in refugee protection not only leads to more and more people being killed in the desert. It also goes hand in hand with an increase in the number of deaths during the crossing of the sea into the EU – because the refugees once again have to take more dangerous routes. According to statistics from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of refugees who died on the crossing across the Mediterranean to Europe has decreased, it was 2,333 in 2024, less than in 2023, when it had risen to 3,155. According to the IOM, the total number of people who died while fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe since 2014 amounts to 31,272.[ 6] However, the information provided by the organization, which requires particularly high documentation standards, is considered too low. In addition, the death toll during the crossing from West Africa to the Canary Islands skyrocketed last year. The Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras recorded at least 9,757 deaths there for 2024, a good half more than the year before. It speaks of the "deadliest year" since its work began in 2002.[ 7]

Empty promise of protection

When it comes to taking action against unwanted refugees, Berlin not only relies on the murderous defense of refugees by the EU and on the cooperation of Turkey, which prevents refugees in particular from Syria and Afghanistan from continuing their journey in exchange for billions of payments from the Brussels budget. 8] The German government is also delaying the entry of Afghans, to whom it had promised admission to Germany with a pompous demand after the Taliban took power. As reported, a good 3,100 Afghans, who have received such a commitment in principle, are currently staying in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, where Berlin wants to carry out additional checks. There they get into trouble, as the German control bureaucracy drags on for many months. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, for example, reports on a case in which an Afghan is still waiting for permission to enter Germany for a good year and a half after his relocation to Islamabad coordinated with German authorities and ten months after an interview by German officials. He had to go into massive debt for the necessary transitional visas in Pakistan; his children cannot go to school, and the pressure from Pakistan, which is no longer willing to serve as a transfer station for German authorities, is increasing. The first Afghans were already deported from Islamabad to Afghanistan. 9] Berlin is still delaying the promised admission – or because of this – more and more.

German interests

However, the federal government is able to use unbureaucratic procedures where it can use refugees as workers in shortage occupations. For example, it has long been looking at the return of Syrian refugees – especially those who have not yet found gainful employment in Germany. An exception, however, are the 5,800 Syrian doctors who support the German health system with their work; the Federal Republic has "an interest in keeping these people", as one is "dependent" on their activities, Federal Development Minister Svenja Schulze said on Wednesday on the occasion of a trip to Damascus. 10] According to Schulze, a significant number of Syrian doctors are considering returning to their country of origin in order to contribute to reconstruction there. In order to make this possible without losing the refugee doctors, Berlin is first preparing to change a regulation, which has so far provided that those in need of protection lose their protection status as soon as they travel to their country of origin. This should no longer be the case automatically in the future. 11] In addition, Schulze promises so-called hospital partnerships; hospitals in Germany cooperate with hospitals in Syria. This in turn, Schulze explains, will enable Syrian doctors to "get involved in Syria from Germany". 12] If they remain in the Federal Republic, they help to prevent an even more far-reaching weakening of the German health system.

[1], [2] Thomas Gutschker: Meloni's initiative has an effect. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 14.01.2025.

[3] S. Ab in die Wüste and Ab in die Wüste (II).

[4] Simon Speakman Cordall: In Tunisia, refugees and migrants are expelled to the desert, left helpless. aljazeera.com 12.09.2024. S. also Berlin and Human Rights (II).

[5] Elizia Volkmann: Libya expels 600 Nigeriens in 'dangerous and traumatizing' desert journey. theguardian.com 10.01.2025.

[6] Migration within the Mediterranean. missingmigrants.iom.int.

[7] Las fronteras españolas, más mortales que nunca: 10,457 personas han fallecido intentando acceder al país. elsaltodiario.com 26.12.2024.

[8] S. on the extension of the refugee defense pact and Erdoğan in Berlin.

[9] Friederike Böge: Pakistan pushes Afghans away. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09.01.2025.

[10] New partnerships between German and Syrian hospitals. bmz.de 15.01.2025.

[11] Syrian refugees in Germany: Syria's foreign minister sees no need for a quick return. tagesspiegel.de 15.01.2025.

[12] New partnerships between German and Syrian hospitals. bmz.de 15.01.2025.