As a guest on the set of “Mots croisรฉs” on Monday, June 1st, Socialist Party (PS) deputy Michel Vauzelle expressed his solidarity with the clandestine migrants coming from the Mediterranean. According to him, Europe has a moral duty and must assist Italy and Sicily.
Even as on Tuesday, June 2nd, a camp of 350 illegal migrants was evicted from under the La Chapelle metro bridge in Paris, Michel Vauzelle, the Socialist Party deputy for Bouches-du-Rhรดne and guest on the “Mots croisรฉs” show on Monday evening, insisted on reminding everyone of Europe’s moral duty in the migrant crisis. What role for France? What role for the European Union?
Solidarity, an echo of the spirit of January 11th?
The Socialist Party deputy and vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the National Assembly believes that the reaction of the French following the recent shipwrecks in the Mediterranean has revealed a feeling of solidarity and support that is inseparable from the events of January 2015. “I would say it is a repetition of the spirit of January 11th, with the French unable to bear, at a certain point, seeing that there were 800 deaths on a boat, and they turned towards what is their morality,” he declared. According to him, it is a “human reaction” of solidarity. He added, “I think there is a spirit of refusal to see a Europe that gives lessons, incapable of agreeing on a generous policy.”
From Mare Nostrum to Triton, unsatisfactory operations
Michel Vauzelle specifically criticizes the handling of the Mare Nostrum operation by Italy alone, without help from other EU members. An operation too burdensome for a single country, it was replaced on November 1st by the Triton operation, coordinated by Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. Its aim was to support Italy in facing the influx of migrants by sea. However, skepticism has been voiced since the implementation of this new operation, as it is clear that Europe has drastically reduced its rescue operations. With a budget far below that of Mare Nostrum, the results of the Triton operation are criticized and sometimes judged ineffective. The shipwrecks have not ceased, and the Mediterranean Sea is turning into a maritime graveyard.
The Socialist Party deputy highlights the limitations of the Triton operation, which goes against every sailor’s duty to assist a shipwreck victim: “If a hand is Arab or Black, Christian or Muslim, [you must] first pull the person out of the water and prevent them from dying. That, after all, is the role of Europe when these people arrive off the Sicilian coast.”
Finally, he mentions the penalizing situation of the island of Lampedusa, facing Tunisia and Libya, and expresses his determination not to let it manage these waves of migrants alone. He concludes: “It’s unbearable to display this show of an indifferent Europe that leaves Italy and Sicily to fend for themselves.”
