Emergency Summit.

[tonyav]

The Italian prime minister calls for an emergency European summit.
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/italian-pm-calls-for-emergency-summit-as-up-to-700-migrants-drown/ar-AAbkaCl

[SirOracle]

Let's hope that we get a summit meeting very soon Tony.

[New Judge]

No. Let's not.

The last thing that the EU needs to convey to economic migrants and their traffikers is that the EU is in any way considering facilitating their easy transit to Europe. Their passage should be discouraged, made as difficult and as unpleasant as possible and on arrival here they should be confined to the area where they land and their claims to settle dealt with there.

Furthermore the other EU Nations should ensure that Italy is handling their claims robustly and in accordance with the rules because, of course, if granted the right to settle in one EU country they will have unfettered access to the remainder.

It is unfortunate for Italy that their southern regions lie closest to North Africa. But that's life.

[jim360]

There's fundamentally no point in making it harder for them to get here unless we also make it easier for them to stay where they are at the moment. Otherwise we'll just see one tragic loss of life after another for a very long time to come.

[anneasquith]

so so sad, just how desperate must people be to travel on these death boats. RIP all of them and those still to travel.

[SirOracle]

Surely that would be the purpose of having a summit.....to obtain some form of consensus of the best possible solution to this serious problem.

Leaving one of our "allies" to handle this problem on their own is unacceptable and possibly immoral.

[New Judge]

The numbers attempting to settle in Europe are simply unsustainable and the current situation is nothing short of an invasion.

It is not the EU's job to make life easier for the rest of the world to stay were they are. It is its job to protect the Union's external borders, especially as the ludicrous free movement rules have seen the internal borders abolished.

[bednobs]

i was wondering if the traffickers are deliberately sinking hte boats

[jim360]

If we hadn't also decided to bomb Gaddaffi into defeat and a bloody, if well-deserved, fate and then washed our hands of the aftermath, I might have agreed with you NJ. But the situation in Libya is, at least partly, of our making -- in as much as we should either never have got involved at all, or should have done a more complete job of rebuilding the country having brought down its leader.

Obviously this is bigger than Libya, but the country is now in the grip of a Civil War. It is not at all reasonable to expect people to be happy staying there. And so they will keep coming. And coming. And risking their lives to get out of the country. Closing our borders is not enough -- never mind the immorality of turning our backs on a people in need.

It's true that we can't in the EU sustain all of the world's population if they come here. Then let us work to give them reason to stay. To do otherwise is to allow these desperate journeys to go on, with yet more loss of life. If you really want to stop them coming, stop them from wanting to leave. There is no other way to deal with this in the long run.

[venator]

I'm going to emigrate to Iceland so as to be ahead of the world population movement

[mikey4444]

I agree with SirO, Jim, and others but not NJ on this. The main reason that the rate of deaths has increased is because sea patrols were lessened this year.

I wonder if the same situation existed prior and during WW2, when millions of refugees were fleeing Nazi oppression ?

Nobody is denying that the numbers of migrants is unsustainable, but to leave completely innocent people, including hundreds of small children, to their fate is not consistent with a real approach to a humanitarian solution to the problem. These people are not animals...they are part of the human race, the same species as everybody on here.

[Apariah]

How is what he said 'pro' Gaddafi ?

Pretty much the same has been said by jim360 above. Do you laugh in his face too?

I agree with NJ. Make is as difficult as possible and return them to where they came from.

According to some news reports one survivor giving accounts is from Bangladesh. Well there's one we know can easily be deported back.

[mikey4444]

I am often accused of being obsessed with Farage and UKIP, but what he said yesterday was disgusting, although shooting himself repeatedly, in both feet, doesn't seem to register with some people. Farage would have made peace with Hitler, if he had been around in 1939.

Stupid comments, from a stupid and opportunistic politician.

[Apariah]

So Mickey444, are you willing to fund them, give up your home and your town for them?

Or do you just want to spend someone else's money to satisfy your right-on liberal views?

[mikey4444]

Apariah..."Make is as difficult as possible" Would that include not providing rescuing arrangements for these people ?

[youngmafbog]

Ah, here we go again Mickey, putting words in people's mouths.

Surely making it as difficult as possible means just like NJ put it. I wonder why you didn't pick on NJ?

And as for your usual anti Farage rant. Why on earth would he support Hitler? Did you actually bother to read what Farage said or was it more convenient to just start a barage of tripe?

I too agree with NJ.

Make it as difficult as possible. And for the record before Mickey puts words in my mouth too, that means sending them back.

[Svejk]

Jim, far from fleeing the civil war in Libya, these people are flocking there from other parts of Africa to take advantage of the chaos.
The Liberal Left have blood on their hands. You have encouraged and facilitated this. And your answer now, more encouragement, more facilitation.
Not one boat, not one person, would be leaving Africa if only you'd listened to common sense people over the years. (or racist bigots, as you prefer to call them)

[anotheoldgit]

/// Migrant smugglers have told the Guardian that the presence or absence of rescue forces in the Mediterranean makes no difference to people so desperate to flee that they would rather chance their luck on the ocean than return
home. ///

So the left wing Guardian are conversing with these criminals are they, perhaps they should now name these migrant smugglers?

I also agree with the judge, and also Apariah, would mikey be p[repaired to take in one or two of these 'unfortunates'?

Perhaps such as mikey should put their liberal feelings into practice by declaring that they would be only too willing to house and support these migrants?

Another question that I wish to ask is why these migrants don't travel south of their continent I am sure their type of life style would be more in keeping their own?