Death boats

By Salama A Salama

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It is that time of the year again when hundreds of Egyptians take to sea in a desperate attempt to reach Europe. Many of their boats end up sinking, this at the time when European and Arab officials are contemplating another union. We don't know what this union can do exactly. We don't know how this union can help the young and desperate men who risk their lives for a low-paid job that they may never have in Europe. One is tempted to think that this union is solely designed to help Europe with its immigration problem.

This summer hundreds are likely to embark on voyages that may be their last. They will have sold their meagre belongings and borrowed from family and friends to pay up for a trip that has all the advantages of Russian roulette. What they may not know is that the European parliament has just passed a law calling for the arrest and deportation of anyone living illegally in Europe. Illegal immigrants have been given one month to leave the country, or they can face up to 18 months imprisonment followed by deportation. Arab governments bordering the Mediterranean have left this tragedy in the hands of the police. Now the authorities are chasing the middlemen and racketeers who run the biggest human trafficking operation known in modern history. Meanwhile, the immigrants converge at assembly points on Libya's shores in scenes reminiscent of the European- bound slave trade of centuries past.

While Arab countries continue to mull over the definition of the proposed union and its relation to Israel, Europe passed strict laws to limit immigration, hoping thereby to keep terrorists and Islamic extremists away. Europe doesn't need those immigrants anymore for it can get all the labour it wants from countries that joined the EU recently or are about to join it. Immigrants from the former Eastern bloc are better trained, willing to work for low wages, and more at home with European culture.

So what are our governments doing to protect the rights of millions of Arab immigrants that Europe exploited for decades and now wants to throw out? What are we doing when Berlusconi's Italy hunts them down like criminals, arrests and deports them?

Our Labour Ministry claims to have prepared protocols for cooperation with Italy by which the latter would give working permits to a limited number of trained Egyptian workers every year. We are told that the protocols were discussed during Mubarak's recent talks with Berlusconi in Rome. But we don't know if they will ever be implemented or how.

What good is the "Union for the Mediterranean" when we cannot find a way of resolving the worst problem facing Arab countries from Morocco to Syria? What good is it when unemployment and poverty are the norm and millions of our young men can think of nothing better than a low-paid job in Europe?

Dozens of conferences have been held and many joint projects have been proposed with Europe to absorb the hordes of illegal immigrants and curb the phenomenon of the death boats. But talk is cheap.

We in Egypt face a similar problem, with hundreds of Eritreans and Ugandans moving through, hoping to get illegally into Israel. Egyptian authorities are tracking them down in much the same way Italy, Greece and Libya are rounding up Egyptian immigrants. It is a tragedy that the authorities here don't seem able to resolve. It is a tragedy that will only stop when the thousands that end up drowning or imprisoned are given the chance of a decent life in their home countries.