The UN's refugee agency
warned Wednesday that Syrians fleeing civil unrest may try to reach Italy by
sea and called for Rome to prepare its refugee center on Lampedusa island
before an emergency hits.
The agency said more than
1,000 Syrian refugees had already arrived in Libya, which has long been used as
a launching point for economic migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to
Italy.
"Syrians today are on
the run. Over a thousand have already arrived in Libya, along with those people
who are still fleeing countries like Somalia," Laura Boldrini, UNHCR
spokesperson, said at a press conference in Rome.
"We cannot wait for a
constant flux of refugees washing up on Italy's shores before we announce an emergency,
the government has to act now to prepare Lampedusa for more boat-loads of
people arriving from Libya," she said.
Italy declared the port on
the tiny island of Lampedusa as "unsafe" in September 2011, after
rioting Tunisian migrants angered at their long detention in cramped conditions
set fire to the island's reception center.
"Unless the government
restores the reception center, Lampedusa cannot take in any refugees rescued
off the coast. This cannot wait," she said.
Boldrini's comments came as
a new documentary, “Closed Sea,” hits cinemas in Italy, charting the country's
human rights infringements towards immigrants intercepted at sea in 2009 and
sent back to Libya, where they were imprisoned.
The documentary uses mobile
phone footage of Eritrean and Somali refugees as a group of 200 or so set sail
for Italy. Picked up at sea by an Italian ship, they were taken straight back
to Libya where many were then tortured.
Huddled together in their
leaky boat, they sing prayers to keep spirits up as the water and food runs
out. Cheers erupt when the Italian authorities arrive, but all - pregnant
woman, children and elderly - are taken back.
"You are throwing us
into the hands of assassins, of man eaters," one Eritrean said he shouted
at the Italian guards as the ship approached Tripoli.
In February, the European
Court of Human Rights sanctioned Italy for sending back potential asylum
seekers as part of a controversial pact between former prime minister Silvio
Berlusconi and deposed Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddafi.
Co-director Andrea Segre
said he hoped the film - which is showing in some cinemas in Rome and northern
Italy from Thursday - will impact Italians who have largely turned a blind eye
to Rome's policy on immigration.
Riccardo Noury,
spokesperson for Amnesty International, said: "It's unthinkable to have
any sort of pact with Libya today. There is no guarantee that human rights will
be upheld, and clear evidence of torture of dark-skinned people."
"And the question remains, what happens to those who are sent back
by the Italians? Whether we're talking about Somalis, Eritreans or Syrians,
this must never happen again," he said.http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=376113#
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