LIBYA / ITALY: As a European Union/Africa summit on immigration is taking place in Libya, Italy says it needs more cooperation with African nations to stem flow of illegal immigrants

Record ID: 348410

  • Title: LIBYA / ITALY: As a European Union/Africa summit on immigration is taking place in Libya, Italy says it needs more cooperation with African nations to stem flow of illegal immigrants
  • Date: 25th November 2006
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF MEETING ON IMMIGRATION
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA9MUS6XBKYSOCD0CWOPE6L5JG5
  • Story Text: Another boat arrives on Italy's shore packed with African immigrants who have been picked up at sea after a perilous sea journey from the north African coast.
    Thousands of migrants have arrived at the southern Italian island of Lampedusa this year. Many have spent months crossing the Sahara dessert and end up paying traffickers for a boat ride from the Libyan coast to Italy in search of a better life. Most arrive on shore dehydrated and exhausted by their journey and are too weak to walk. Some never make it and are lost forever at sea.
    The flow of migrants is so great, Europe is pushing the issue of illegal immigration to the top of the European Union agenda.
    But the Italian prime minister Romano Prodi insists that only by increasing cooperation with African nations can the flow of migrants be controlled. Prodi has called for a European initiative to pump more aid into Africa's poorest countries, that educational campaigns be conducted to warn migrants of the perils of the journey to Europe and to crack down on the organized crime behind the trafficking trade.
    "We need a policy that is active also in Africa, we need to be working with the African Union and with the countries where immigrants come from in order to have active cooperation," Prodi told Reuters, adding that simply patrolling the coastline was not enough to fix Europe's illegal immigration problem.
    Many who arrive on Italy's shores manage to escape deportation and end up on the street in a daily grind to survive. The dream of earning money to return home rich all too often ends up in tatters. Many illegal immigrants can be seen in the capital Rome, selling fake handbags or other goods on the streets. They only earn enough money to live from hand to mouth.
    Abdul has been in Italy for eight years after entering with a tourist visa issued when leaving his native Senegal. Selling pirated CDs by day and working as a security guard for a night club, Abdul has managed to save some money. But despite his apparent success he says life in Italy is very hard.
    "If before coming here I knew what it was like (to live in Italy), I would have stayed to work in my country' Abdul said, speaking in Italian saying he has forgotten his native French language.
    "I'm 28 years old. I've been here for nearly eight years, with lot's of difficulties, without my family. In the first four years I did not go back home to Senegal even once. I miss my family a lot. But what can I do? That's the way of the world. I need to have the strength to go ahead and, if God wishes, I'll go back to my country one day," he said.
    Many people who arrive in Italy from Africa are not as lucky as Abdul. Those who work cleaning cars, picking fruit and working in Sicily's vineyards rely on charity groups who at least provide them with a bed to sleep in at night.
    In the Sicilian capital Palermo, over 400 immigrants of mainly African origin, cram into beds at a charity centre run by Benedictine monks. Immigrants are regularly turned away for lack of space.
    But not only is day-to-day life difficult, illegal immigrants also run the daily risk of being caught by police and deported back home. It is a life on the run.
    Abdul has some advice for those who dream of a better life in the European promised land.
    "My brother, you are better off if you stay in Senegal. Italy is not at all easy to work in but they don't believe this. When I go back, they see I have fine clothes, I have a car and they think that I have a great life here. They don't know that if they come here they'll suffer from many things. They'll work and work every day, with no Saturdays, no Sundays, no rest. My advice is to stay in Senegal and work. And if they want to come here, to come with a regular visa. If you have no visa, it's a big, big risk to take the ships to Sicily. It's really no good," he said.
    But despite these harsh realities, the flow of migrants continues to increase. Experts predict that the exodus will continue until the economic disparities that influence illegal immigrants to take these great risks are addressed.
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