Consider This from NPR - Aboard a rescue ship, migrants talk about their journey to Europe

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

The United Nations says more than 2,500 people died in the Mediterranean Sea this year as they tried to reach Europe. Those who survive the journey on smuggler's boats mostly arrive on Italy's shores – where their future will be determined, in large part, by the EU's new migration process, should it be ratified next year. This fall, NPR's Ruth Sherlock joined a rescue ship run by the charity Doctors Without Borders where migrants picked up at sea told her about the risks they took escaping their country and their hopes for a new life in Europe.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The European Union is closing 2023 with the far-reaching agreement to overhaul migration policy, long one of the most polarizing issues for the EU. Margaritis Hinas, the vice president of the European Commission, hailed the deal that was finalized last week. With this historic agreement, we are opening a new chapter of a Europe of migration that we want to be proud of. Under the deal, which has yet to be ratified, the EU aims to distribute the impact of migration more evenly across the 27-country bloc.

For years, Italy, Greece, and other frontline states along the Mediterranean have demanded more help from their EU neighbors. Camille Lecoze, Associate Director of the Migration Policy Institute, explains how the new deal would help support those frontline countries. The agreement is really trying to show countries on the frontline that the other member states will show solidarity. And that's going to be manifested by what's called relocation, you know, that a member state is taking responsibility for asylum seekers that have arrived at one of these frontline countries or provide financial contribution, operational support. The pact also streamlines assessment of migrants at external EU borders. The goal? To speed up decision-making and the repatriation

of those who don't qualify for asylum. Ulva Johansson, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, calls the deal a success. Finally, after so many years, we have managed to agree on a common, comprehensive migration and asylum policy. It's not only a win for EU and Europe, it's a win for migrants. Many migrant advocates strongly disagree. Amnesty International said the pact would set EU asylum law back decades. The EU has adopted laws and regulations

that are in violation of human rights and that are also putting into question the rights to asylum. That's Hélène Soupillot-Stavide from the French NGO Terre d'Azile that advocates for migrants. Critics of the deal argue it would weaken the rights of migrants, lead to lengthy detentions, particularly of minors, and shift asylum responsibility to non-EU countries. All of this comes as growing anti-immigration sentiment continues to fuel the popularity of far-right politicians. Migration is likely to be a key issue in EU elections next June, not something that has made the timing of a breakthrough all the more important for EU leaders. Consider this. Although the EU

has agreed on its most comprehensive immigration deal in years, thousands of migrants continue to risk their lives to reach Europe, a place where their future is increasingly uncertain. Coming up, NPR's Ruth Sherlock takes us aboard a rescue ship in the Mediterranean, where we'll hear from migrants about the risks they took escaping their country and their hopes for a new life in Europe. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Thursday, December 28th. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.

The United Nations says more than 2,500 people died in the Mediterranean Sea this year as they tried to reach Europe. Those that survive the journey on smugglers' boats mostly arrive on Italy's shores, where their future will be overseen by the EU's new migration process should it be ratified next year. Earlier this fall, NPR's Ruth Sherlock joined a rescue ship run by the charity Doctors Without Borders. It's 2 a.m. and the team on the rescue ship the MV Geobarance has just spotted a small boat in distress. The migrants on board have used the light of their phones to attract attention. Rescuers from Doctors Without Borders or MSF move in to help. It's pitch dark. We're in the Mediterranean Sea, about 50 miles off the coast of Libya, and the small fishing boat is so packed with people

that if anyone panics or moves too quickly, it could capsize. Come down, come down. Baby, baby, baby. Somebody warns there's a baby amid the crush MSF do manage to get everybody safely on board the GeoBaron And then, hours later, there's a second boat By morning, the team has saved 258 people Among them are families

And even children making the journey to Europe alone. Now I'm 16. When I was in Libya I was 15. As this boy is still young, we'll protect his identity. He's a whip-smart kid who's taught himself near-perfect English by watching American movies. He grew up in the civil war in Syria and is the oldest of three siblings, he says. He always felt responsible for his family. Their life was not safe, so that's why I left Syria, to help my family and to bring them to Europe. At 13, he started saving money. Then last year, at 15, he went to Damascus airport and boarded a plane alone to Libya, another country at war.

There, he paid a smuggler to cross the Mediterranean. But the boat was caught by the Libyan Coast Guard, which is supported by the European Union, to stop this migration. The Coast Guard are notoriously violent. They were shooting on us, around us, around the boat, hitting the boat for two times. They were trying to follow us on the sea. He and the others on board were taken back to Libya, to a detention centre.

The police there was hitting me. Give me your dollars. I don't have a dollar, sir. Hitting me. Give me your dollars. He thought if he was hitting me a lot, I would make a dollar from nothing. I don't know. He says he was barely given any food and the drinking water was salty. And when he fell ill, there was no doctor. No one was kind.

No one. No one was kind. After you got out that first time, you could have gone home. Actually, yeah, I could. I thought about going back to Syria, but if I get back to Syria, I will lose my future and my family's future. He says in the year he spent in Libya, he was thrown into detention four times

and made five attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Rescued with him from the smuggler's boat are two women I also meet on the MV Geobarance, Aya and Reem al-Sakr, cousins from Syria who've shown this same determination to reach Europe. They're making this journey with Aya's four children, aged between six and just ten months old. Rima al-Sakr says they decided to leave Syria after both their husbands were killed in the war. Aya was pregnant with her youngest at the time.

They sold their homes and jewellery and flew to Libya with the children. They spent six months in a rented apartment searching for a smuggler to get them to Europe. At one point, Aya says, she and the children and Reem were kidnapped for ransom by a minibus driver along with other Syrians. They demanded money from us or said they'd kill us. They beat the men and said awful things to the women and scared the children with weapons. When the kidnappers told Reem to call a relative who could pay a ransom,

she took a huge risk, calling the Libyan police instead. And in this case, the authorities intervened. I meet them on their second attempt to cross to Europe. On the boat, there was dizziness and vomiting and fatigue. The children were sick too. It was hot in the day and cold at night. And then the engine cut. Drifting in the darkness, without a satellite phone to call for help, they and the 16-year-old Syrian boy could have joined the more than 2,500 migrants who've died in the Mediterranean this year. If we're yelling or screaming, who will hear us? But on this night, they were spotted by the MSF team on the MVG Abarance. It was the best time of my life.

I started crying because I made it, you know. Like, four hours before, we were thinking about dying or something. The night before we dock in Italy, the Alsaker cousins play music on a small speaker that's shaped like a disco ball and flashes lights. It's the one possession they've made sure to keep during their long journey as a distraction for the children. It becomes a party, with dancing and singing. A moment of light relief after so much trauma. And the next day, at the Italian port of Salerno,

I say goodbye to Reem and Aya Alsaker and her children. She's so, so, so happy to be here, Aya says. They're met by the Italian authorities and the Italian Red Cross and taken to a processing centre. The rescued migrants hope this is the start of a new life. But the next day, by the train station, I see many of the migrants again, and they look lost and in shock. I'm at the station in Salerno,

and in the small square in front of the station there was about 80 to 100 of the guys who were on the MSF ship and they've spent the night here and they've all received expulsion orders from Italy. Don Antonio

is a priest with the Catholic charity Caritas. He says many told him they simply didn't understand what was happening and that after being handed these expulsion papers, the migrants were left outside the gate of the local government building, miles out of town. Many didn't have money or even a phone. The Caritas volunteers bring the migrants to speak with a lawyer. The expulsion documents claim the migrants opted not to request asylum in Italy, but many here tell the lawyer that there was no proper translation, so they didn't know what they

were signing. And now, after all they've been through, they risk being deported back to their home country or detained in Italy. As for Reem and Aya al-Sakr and the children and the 16-year-old Syrian boy who travelled alone to Europe, they've slipped away on trains bound northward. I couldn't reach the whip-smart boy with fluent English. His plan was to join relatives in Ireland. But I did track down Aya Asakar. She tells me she and the children have made it to Germany.

Her parents live there, and this is the first time they've met their four grandchildren. She says there were tears of joy. She's claimed asylum there and she and the children are now living in a government centre while their papers are processed. She doesn't know how long this will take, maybe over a year. It can be hard living in the centre, she says, but at least she's brought her children to safety. NPR's Ruth Sherlock. Earlier in this episode, you heard reporting from NPR's Eleanor Beardsley.

From NPR, it's Consider This. I'm Wanda Summers.