MALTA — (Report) The standoff in June between Malta and Italy over the fate of over 600 migrants on board the Aquarius — a rescue boat operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) — made headline news for the wrong reasons.
Italy leaves Angela Merkel stunned and alone in her open borders demands.
The Financial Times called it “the summit to save Merkel”, but this mini get together of EU leaders, over a swelling and persistent migrant crisis, saw Italy dictating terms and Merkel fighting for whatever power she has left.
Why do they flee?
The current mass exodus of people from Central America to the United States, with the daily headline-grabbing stories of numerous children involuntarily separated from their parents, means it’s time to remind my readers once again of one of the primary causes of these periodic mass migrations.
Paul Krugman, professor of international trade and economics at Princeton University
The speed of America’s moral descent under Donald Trump is breathtaking. In a matter of months we’ve gone from a nation that stood for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to a nation that tears children from their parents and puts them in cages.
— Paul Krugman, New York Times column, June 21, 2018
The Italian government is furthering its agenda of refusing to accept migrants. While Italy has been providing support to foreign NGO rescue vessels, and will continue where necessary, no such vessels within Libya’s zone of control are extended that service, being referred instead to Libya’s coastal services. Going forward, NGO rescue vessels, when in distress in Libyan waters are not to expect Italy to handle the crisis when Libya can address it.
AFP reports:
Europe is facing the most significant refugee crisis since World War II. All attempts at resolving the issue have failed, mostly because they have ignored the root causes of the problem.
On June 11, Italy’s new Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, blocked the Aquarius rescue ship, carrying 629 refugees and economic migrants, from docking at its ports.
The propagandistic nature of the liberal media: Interview with Florian Zollmann
by Ian Sinclair
Open Democracy
5 June 2018
A Libyan man who took photos of himself posing at various spots across Benghazi, Libya in 2000 and then revisited the locations 18 years later in 2018, to photograph himself at the same Benghazi places post Hillary Clinton-NATO “liberation.”
Despite the good will of some of the participants, the Paris conference for Libya did not have the desired effects. For Thierry Meyssan, this can be explained by the double language of NATO and the United Nations, who are pretending to want to stabilise the country while their actions in fact continue the Cebrowski plan for the destruction of state structures. The spectacle in Paris was steeped in a profound ignorance of the particularities of Libyan society.
