I know my geography is not stellar but I can read a map

[Suff]

And what I want to know is why, when a fishing boat capsizes 15 miles off the Libyan coast, Italian and Irish vessels are the first to the rescue. Vessels which are going to sail hundreds of miles to land these people in the EU...

http://news.sky.com/story/1530862/race- ... t-capsizes

This is not maritime rescue. This makes both the Italian and Irish navy vessels a conduit for illegal immigrants....

[Diflower]

I'm so glad you said that Suff, when it came on the news my reaction was 'Eh??????!!!'

[Workingman]

I said, on another thread, that EU navies have ships with landing craft to pick up these illegals and drop them back on N. African beaches and then destroy the boats. Why are we not doing that?

Rescuing people just outside of Libyan territorial waters and them making them an EU problem is bloody nonsense.

[Suff]

Then the BBC posts this without the slightest comment on responsibility of the boat owners or the people themselves.

A distress call was picked up in Sicily and one of the first ships on the scene was an Irish navy vessel, the LE Niamh. But as she launched her boats, the migrants apparently moved to one side of the fishing boat, causing it to capsize.

Apparently it's all our fault for not having a huge flotilla of boats on hand to pick up every idiot who pays to overload a ship or boat which then gets into trouble...

It seems to me that the problem is escalating. Overload the boat, radio for help, picked up in Tripoli by the way, excellent radio's if nothing else, get the illegals off the boat and go back for more. Job done more money in the pocket. Well until the illegals all rush to the side of the boat to be "rescued" and capsize it because the boat is overloaded by 14 times it's carrying capacity.

[Kaz]

You do have to wonder, don't you?

If they are capsizing on purpose, which does seem likely, then it's a risky business as the Irish captain said on Breakfast this morning that they had 167 survivors on board, but 25 (I think) bodies, including a child's

These people are desperate and obviously willing to risk their lives, but it really REALLY should not be our (ie Europe's) problem. It is a huge humanitarian issue so where are the UN when you need them> Why can't the UN pick these people up, and then deal with it, in a fair and humanitarian way?

[Aggers]

It is a huge humanitarian issue so where are the UN when you need them?

The idea of a UN organisation was an excellent idea, and could have solved
many of the world's problems if it functioned effectively. Why are the world's
leaders reluctant to achieve this? Can't they see any further than the bottoms
of their gardens?

[Workingman]

I am not sure what exactly making it a UN problem would achieve. With the exception of the US, Russia and China the only countries with the sorts of naval vessels capable of making any meaningful difference are already in the area. They have satellite reconnaissance able to track anything bigger than a coracle in the Med.

It is not a lack of resources that is the problem, it is a lack of political will. Until that is addressed the problem, and the illegals, will not go away.

[Kaz]

It would take the responsibility from individual countries, it is a world problem that the world should solve.

[Workingman]

But it would also add another level of bureaucracy.

The problem is one for the 1st World created by those from the 3rd World, and those countries outnumber 1st World UN members. They might also take exception to any attempts at deportations without due process, even though international laws have already been broken by the migrants. Everything would get bogged down in talks about talks. The UN is simply not set up to deal with mass migrations, nowhere really is. From a numbers involved and methods employed this is a relatively new phenomenon and the book to deal with it has not yet been written.

[Suff]

Well they had better get it sorted out. Because this is only the very smallest beginning. When climate change really kicks in and they find they can't grow food any more, half a billion people will be on the move in Africa and almost a billion in Asia and India.

If they don't find a way of dealing with this in the next decade, then we can kiss our 1st world goodbye. It will be a 3rd world slum before we can finish uttering "illegal immigrant"....

There are already 2m people officially designated as "Climate Refugees" in the Horn of Africa. As that spreads, the expectation that it's OK to just move and take will grow. After all, the alternative will be to stay and starve.