The two weights of immigration: the case of Belarus makes us forget the landings in Sicily

ROME. The tragic images that bounce off the Polish-Belarusian border overshadow other equally dramatic images: those that come from the landings in Sicily, with people complaining of injuries and torture suffered in Libya, women and children who risk everything to cross the sea. But those outclass these. And the Italian government feels a great loneliness in its calling the Europeans to look towards the Mediterranean and Africa. But no. The attention of most of the European capitals, and consequently of the EU institutions, only turns to the East. One can understand a little: Belarus is there, attached to Poland and the Baltic countries, wedged within the territory of the Union. And then, just look a little further, on the one hand it is evident that that mass of wretches who are pressing to enter makes Germany especially anxious, on the other there is the shadow of Putin that stands out over the whole affair. So the dossier goes far beyond the story of those ten thousand migrants encamped in the cold. It has become a strategic issue for the EU. With many greetings to the Mediterranean.
Speaking with our Ministry of the Interior, for days there has been a great sense of isolation. The European Commission had committed to substantial investments in Tunisia, Libya, and the sub-Saharan countries. Only a few months ago, when it seemed that the Central Mediterranean route was about to explode, North Africa had finally become a European emergency. Commissioner Ylva Johansson had visited those countries and given her word that Brussels would help them. The Italian government, with Mario Draghi, Luigi Di Maio, Luciana Lamorgese, thought it had finally stirred the waters. And instead, with the passing of the months, nothing. A little something in Tunisia. Nothing in Libya. Even less below the Sahara. But in this way, obviously, certain virtuous paths of stabilization have remained on paper. In many cases it has gone backwards. And the effects are being seen. Bursting departures on unsteady small boats, fortunately later recovered by NGO ships. Fishing boats that arrive autonomously in Lampedusa, and there the reception center is bursting with almost 1000 people, or even inside the port of Pozzallo (Syracuse). The landing of 1000 migrants from the Sea Eye 4 ship in Trapani has just finished and another 306 are about to arrive in Augusta aboard the Ocean Viking. An inexhaustible river of people on the run, pushed by greedy and unscrupulous smugglers, who show no sign of stopping even when the sea is bad. So inside they see that money and attention are running towards the eastern border and they are saddened.
Mario Draghi himself has to deal with an acceleration that he certainly did not expect. Not even twenty days ago the President of the Council, in Brussels, at the end of the European Council dedicated to immigration, read the final communiqué of the summit with an air of satisfaction. The European financing of the wall on the Polish border, he argued, “should be proposed by the Commission, which is against it, and approved by the European Council where many disagree, we first of all”. On the other hand, the ambiguity of the text, constructed by the skilled hands of diplomacy, was such as to allow completely opposite interpretations and to push Draghi to ensure that “for a strange heterogenesis of the ends what must have been a paragraph of the possible financing of the walls contains this possibility “. Indeed, “it opened a glimpse into the discussion that had closed a year ago on the asylum and immigration pact”.
After yesterday, everything suggests that Draghi has allowed himself to be dragged a little too hastily by optimism and the desire to see resolved an issue that has been open to Italy for years. Government diplomatic sources also confirm this: the dispute over migrants that Belarus is overthrowing in Poland has suddenly become the Union’s priority. North Africa, Libya, the Mediterranean, everything takes a back seat, together with the Italian hopes of seeing Europe in solidarity with regard to landings and redistribution. Certainly, the topic will be at the center of the confrontation between Draghi and French President Emmanuel Macron tomorrow in Paris, where the Conference on Libya is scheduled, organized to preside over the last fragile preparations for the elections that could sanction the partial return of Tripoli at Christmas. to democracy. Even the funds, for the special financing plans for the countries of departure of migrants in Africa, which according to Draghi the European Commission should have prepared, could end up being questioned, because someone already wants them to be diverted to Poland. The Eastern route is worrying, as it is also charged with geostrategic implications and possible war scenarios. With Russia at the gates pushing on the borders of countries that belonged to the former Soviet area of ​​influence, Europe must move decisively, in order not to leave any side uncovered. Once again the Mediterranean can wait. The winter season and the cold, which discourages departures by sea, help to shift the gaze elsewhere, at least for the next few months.