New Delhi
31 March 2011
Libya and some other African countries, United Nations under secretary general for
humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos said in an interview
to this newspaper.
"Borders should remain open. Europe has a moral responsibility to help people who
have far less than they do. Tunisia and Egypt [have] kept [their] borders open. [Europe]
needs to do exactly the same thing," Ms Amos said towards the end of the first-ever visit
to India by a head of UN office for coordination of humanitarian affairs (UNOCHA).
Her remarks came at a time when the European Union was fighting off accusations from
Italy and international humanitarian organisations alike for not doing enough to manage
the exodus from north Africa, particularly Libyans who would qualify for asylum or
refugee status, unlike the economic migrants from other African countries.
Italy has accused France of not showing solidarity in allowing Tunisians to enter French
territory from the Italian border town of Ventimiglia. Italy says it has already received
thousands of Tunisians and many more persons from Libya were expected as the
situation deteriorated in that country; therefore, other European countries must share the
burden of taking care of the influx of immigrants.
Compounding the woes of Italy was a simmering anti-immigrant sentiment and
Islamophobia in Europe. A French politician, Ms Marine Le Pen, who recently travelled to
the southern Italian island of Lampedusa has warned that Europe could no longer accept
the wave of immigrants from Africa. Lampedusa was only a few hundred-odd kilometres
from Tunisia's coast and the number of immigrants on the island had exceeded the local
population. On Thursday Italy began relocating the migrants from Lampedusa to the
mainland.
The UN's inter-agency missions had entered eastern Libya through Benghazi for
assessing the humanitarian situation there, but they had not been able to travel to the
Western part of Libya held by Muammar Gaddafi's forces. "We are continuing to try to
negotiate [for] unhindered access in the west," Ms Amos noted.
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