Enough with the deaths of men, women and children at sea. Reply to the letter sent to Ms Ylva Johansson (European Commissioner for Home Affairs) - 2/12/2020

Link to the letter sent on August 31, 2020

https://freedom-dignity-respect.blogspot.com/2020/08/enough-with-deaths-of-men-women-and.html

Link Petition

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/immediate-release-of-migrants-and-refugees-to-detention-centers-in-libya.html

Letter text:

Dear Mrs. Mariacarmela Ribecco,

Thank you for your letter of 31 August 2020 to Commissioners Ylva Johansson were you express your concern regarding the death of migrants in the Mediterranean sea and call for an expansion of humanitarian corridors to the European Union.

The European Commission shares your concerns and strongly regrets any loss of life in the Mediterranean. To save lives at sea and prevent dangerous journeys, the Commission wishes to ensure that vulnerable refugees can find shelter in the EU without having to resort to migrant smuggling networks. The Commission is fully supporting the expansion of safe and legal pathways to the EU, such as resettlement, humanitarian admission and complementary pathways of admission for persons in need of international protection.

The European Commission Recommendation on legal pathways to protection in the EU, issued on 23 September 2020, calls on Member States to continue and expand resettlement efforts and develop humanitarian admission and other forms of complementary pathways for persons in need of international protection, with the overarching objective of increasing the overall number of places for legal and safe admission.

More than 70,000 persons have already been resettled in the EU since 2015 and for 2020, Member States pledged collectively 30 000 places, for which the implementation period has been extended until the end of 2021 due to the pandemic. In addition, member states have developed at the national level, humanitarian admission programmes, such as humanitarian corridors in Italy and France. Those programmes have provided additional safe places of admission to the EU and the EU encourages their expansion.

To address the specific situation of refugees stranded in Libya, especially those in the dentention centers, the EU is committed to provide life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable refugees by funding humanitarian evacuations from Libya to the Emergency Transt Mechanisms (ETM) in Niger and Rwanda. From those countries, UNHCR in collaboration with Member States and other resettlement states are seeking durable solutions for those refugees, mostly through resettlement.

Allow me to give you some recent data on resettlement and humanitarian evacuations via the Emergency Transit Mechanisms in Niger and Rwanda:

 On 29 November 2020, 51 persons of concern left for resettlement to Sweden;

 As of 23 November, 5,929 persons have been evacuated from Libya to third countries since 2017, including 1,437 persons through direct resettlement from Libya; 808 persons for humanitarian evacuations to Italy; 3,318 persons to ETM Niger; and 385 persons to ETM Rwanda.

 On 19 November, UNHCR operated an evacuation flight of 79 persons to ETM in Rwanda. The composition of the evacuees was as follows: 33 Eritreans, 4 Somali and 42 Sudanese individuals, including four children;

 On 15 October, UNHCR operated an evacuation flight of 153 vulnerable refugees and asylum-seekers out of Libya to the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Niger. This UNHCR-chartered flight marks the resumption of life-saving evacuations from Libya, ending a seven-month long suspension. A further humanitarian evacuation flight to Niger is planned to take place before the end of the year.

Resettlement has been and will continue to focus on providing solutions to the dire situation of refugees along the Central Mediterranean route.

Yours faithfully,

Laura CORRADO

Head of Unit