Ongoing refugee crisis in the Mediterranean: Change in direction of policies needed to alleviate humanitarian tragedies

The recurring drowning of ever increasing numbers of migrants in the Mediterranean is all the more shocking because European political leaders have until now failed to set up an adequate, powerful successor to the operation ‘Mare Nostrum’.

Developing a genuine and fair immigration policy including deeper cooperation with the countries of origin and departure of migrants and a diplomatic “feuille de route” is a must. “Many EU Member States in particular apparently still have to learn that many policies, especially immigration and migrations policies, are common policies and have to be tackled jointly in a spirit of solidarity and burden sharing”, CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger stated.

CESI also believes that stepping up rescue efforts substantially must be a part of the solution of alleviating the situation in the Mediterranean and is thus urgently needed. In this context, CESI welcomes yesterday’s announcement by the foreign and interior ministers of the EU Member States to extend rescue operations. CESI represents a large number of public sector workers at the EU-level, including workers of police forces. Already in a resolution in 2013, CESI underscored the important role played by public service workers employed in the fields of humanitarian and rescue tasks as well as crisis management and security, and stressed that their tasks must not fall victim to recent trends to engage in austerity and cuts in public expenditures.