There’s only one “Camp of the Saints” story today, but it’s an intriguing one: a boat carrying 760 culture enrichers was rescued by the Italian Coast Guard and brought to the island of Lampedusa. As far as I can recall, this is the greatest number of migrants to arrive in a single boat since the crisis began three months ago.
The Coast Guard must have been aware that the boat was overloaded — the refugee boats always are — and had assumed at first that there were about 300 passengers on board. It turned out to be more than twice as many — can you imagine what that boat must have looked like? I scoured the news for a photo of the thing, but couldn’t find one (the boat at the top of this post is just one of many file photos).
Here’s a brief account from AGI:
Boat Carrying 760 Migrants Docks in Lampedusa
Palermo — A boat carrying 760 migrants has docked in Lampedusa after being rescued 40 miles south of the island by Italian Coast Guard patrol boats and escorted to the port where it arrived a little after 2:30 p.m. Among the migrants there are dozens of women and children. It had previously been thought there were about 300 people on board, but once it had docked officials discovered that the old fishing boat was carrying more than double the number.
ANSA has a more detailed story, including the fact that pregnant women and children are among the arrivals, demonstrating that a full-scale cultural invasion really is underway:
Over 750 Refugees Land on Lampedusa, Italy Suspects Gaddafi
Pregnant women, children among migrants from Libya
Rome, April 19 — Italy said besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may be to blame for the arrival on a fishing boat of some 760 African refugees on the tiny southern Italian island of Lampedusa on Tuesday.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told a House committee that he suspects Gaddafi may have decided to use people trafficking to hit back at international support for rebels trying to end his 40-year rule in Libya.
As regular readers know, this is exactly what has been discussed here for the last two months: Col. Moammer Ghadafi first threatened, then promised that he would unleash a flood of sub-Saharan Africans on Europe in revenge for NATO interference in the civil war.
The Italian government is finally acknowledging that this is exactly what is happening. Up until now Italy has been doing its best to contribute as little as possible to the war in Libya, trying to appease Col. Crocodile in hopes that he will eat Italy last.
All to no avail; the boats are coming, and Italy is their proximate destination.
The article continues:
In the past Gaddafi has said Africans will move “en masse” to Europe and the Mediterranean will become a “sea of chaos” if he is toppled. Frattini said the boat came from the western port of Zuwarah and that the anti-Gaddafi Libyan National Council will provide Italy with evidence about whether “the Gaddafi regime was starting to organise the trafficking of human beings, as it had threatened to do, from that port”.
All right, suppose the LNC does provide Italy with “evidence” of the Colonel’s responsibility. Then what?
What are the Italians going to do, serve him with a summons and have him arraigned at the International Criminal Court in the Hague?
The entire boatload of enrichment must now be shipped to the mainland where the passengers will be housed at the expense of the Italian taxpayer, with maybe a little bit of help from the EU:
The fishing boat made the hazardous crossing of the Channel of Sicily, where some 800 migrants are estimated to have been lost at sea this year. Its passengers included 17 children and 62 women, several of whom were pregnant.
The refugees are expected to be transferred later on Tuesday to the mainland from Lampedusa, the main stop-off point for many of the over 28,000 migrants to have landed on Italy’s shores this year following unrest in North Africa.
As I pointed out last weekend, despite the optimism of the Italian government, the crisis is unlikely to be over just yet. If the Tunisian authorities can’t spot and detain a boat with 760 many people on it, what can they do?
But Roberto Maroni is continuing to whistle past the graveyard:
Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last week that he was hopeful the worst of the migrant crisis was over thanks to an agreement with Tunisia to boost efforts to stem the flow and repatriate new arrivals in exchange for aid and assistance.
Maroni, however, said he is worried people traffickers will take advantage of the rebellion against Gaddafi’s rule in Libya to bring over migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the continent.
No, really? D’you think?
And concerning the recent friction with France over the migrants, hope springs eternal:
The Italian government has expressed confidence everything will be smoothed over at next week’s summit in Rome between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi.
There’s one more thing worth pointing out: today’s new arrivals at Lampedusa, packed into a single boat, comprised 2.53 times as many refugees than the EU has so far agreed to take off Italy’s hands.
The Italian ship of state is sinking in a sea of cultural enrichment, and the Ever-Closer Union is doing nothing to save it.
“Hang on, Roberto! I’ll help you bail — just let me get my thimble!”
Hat tip: Cantoni.
17 comments:
Baron this is OT but you may be interested in this.
Kuala Lumpur, Apr 18 - A security officer with the Selangor branch of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) did not carry out a patrol on July 16, 2009, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) investigating Teoh Beng Hock's death heard today.
"I did not do a patrol as Allah did not move my heart to do so," said 56-year old Khairuddin Denan who retook the stand today.
Khairuddin broke down when questioned by RCI chairman Tan Sri James Foong on the issue, prompting an almost hour-long recess. Foong had asked: "If God did not move your heart to do your patrols every day, you would not do so?"
http://www.click4malaysia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13356%3Aguard-skipped-patrol-on-july-16-2009-rci-told&catid=77%3Adaily-news&Itemid=196&lang=en
As far as I can recall, this is the greatest number of [760] migrants to arrive in a single boat since the crisis began three months ago.
How sad that sinking a boat or three of only a few hundred invaders might have prevented this massive influx of thugs and criminals.
It is the "broken window" syndrome writ large. Allow several small boatloads of minor league gangsters to land and then brace yourself for the flotilla of rapists, extortionists and killers to follow.
Baron, your Dear Leader Obama has already begun to make sure no court can touch Gaddafi, lord of Many Spellings.
So much for being a man of justice.
They are already here, in the south of England. They all get jobs from Pakistani restaurants, pushing leaflets into doors. A kind of mozlem chain across Europe.
@LAW WELLS: we need to find an African country that will take Osama/obama! (And also Cameron et al)
I am curious about the label "migrants" being applied. One story calls the same people "refugees". The term migrant implies that there is some acceptance by the destination coutry to permit the migrants to enter and establish new lives. Can you be a "migrant" if the new country denies you entry?
If any European government really stood up to all this nonsense, they'd have to then defend their actions.
So, in truth, they're more afraid of the people who would challenge their personal ethics/morality of their decision than they are afraid of the damage to their nations, and more importantly the long-term damage all this is doing to the refugees.
In truth, much of this is due to the West's tolerance of the Tyrannical Libyan leadership. But are the afraid of Gadaffi personally? No.
What they are afraid of is having to justify the personal ethics/morality of doing what is right, which is taking him out of power and helping to establish a proper government. (ie: Nation Building.)
But Nation Building is wrong... except when it isn't... depending on which way the political winds happen to be blowing at the moment.
Prof. Hale --
The news services use the words "immigrant", "migrant", "refugee", and "asylum seeker" almost interchangeably. Following their lead, I do the same -- throwing in an occasional "culture enricher" for variety's sake.
It's my belief that EU "human rights" laws have collapsed the meaning of all these words into the same thing. You aren't allowed to keep aliens out of your country. If they get in, you can't send them back if they are likely to be persecuted -- and which of those third world hellholes is without persecution? -- hence "asylum seeker".
These latest ones are "refugees" because of the uprisings and civil wars, and they have to be granted refuge automatically, unless it can be proven they are convicted criminals -- not an easy task, in general.
So all these words basically have the same meaning now.
I prefer to use "culture enricher", because that adds a layer of bitter irony to all the Orwellian obfuscation.
In hoc signo vinces†
Doing a google image search for Lampedusa refugees shows that these are are not Sub-Saharan Africans they are clearly mohamadians from the Maghreb rim.
This is an immigration deception orchestrated by Cameron and Sarkozy with probably a reluctant Berlusconi in tow, remember a prerequisite of Eurabia is the free movement of people across the Mediterranean Sea this is NO refugee incident this is invasion by invitation of European leaders.
Id like to say that I think "illegal immigrant" is something of an oxymoron because settling on other people's land without their permission is by definition invasion.
Here's an idea:
1. The Italian government makes a few conditions for taking-in new refugee arrivals: Make them surrender any weapons, and mobile phones, cameras or any recording equipment.
2. The Italian government makes a large military-run camp on Lampedusa to temporarily house the immigrants. No filming, enforced with brutal means if necessary.
3. The immigrants get a choice: either stay and starve, or leave on a large ship. The Italians can say "it's going to Europe!" to help persuade the North Africans to get on.
4. A deal is made with a brutal, corrupt president of a West African country - with a few hundred million Euros, lenient treatment, and maybe preferential trading terms in return for a small favour...
5. The large ship with the migrants is sailed just off the coast of the aforementioned west Africal country with the brutal leader.
6. The migrants are released in small boats - with enough food to make it to the shore.
7. The aforementioned country is then given the freedom to treat the migrants as it pleases. (Alternatively, if no willing leader is found, the large ship can be sailed to off the coast of Somalia)
8. The word is then spread among North Africans about their disappeared brothers and cousins...
Problem solved??
LAW Wells,
Maybe KaToffee would like to be exiled to the African island of Sicily.
Hale and Baron and Muninn,
How's about calling them early-retired migrant workers? Too long.
Or maybe we are misunderstanding that these are great African explorers, of the same mold as the men of the Nina, Pinta and the Santa Maria.
Kind like an African NASA program.
By the way, does anybody know if this is prison export or not? That would make room for some additional names.
Meanwhile at the ranch…
Ok, I still glance through the NYT – I need to know what my neighbors think.
And this one
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/20/world/europe/20france.html?ref=world
takes the cake. From the telling subheading “Ventimilla Journal” – i.e. this is just local color, this is not the real news – to These young men are a kind of Ping-Pong ball in a French-Italian political soap opera, the article is soaked in derision towards stupid French and Italians who seem to be playing some stupid games with human beings instead of giving every single culture enricher food stamps and shelter allowance.
If this is a reflection of our powers-that-be’s take on the situation in Europe, I am very uncomfortable as to what Obama’s reaction will be when things get really hot on the old continent.
Who cares what the NYT thinks? American liberal idiots, and always were... what we need is leaders prepared to take all necessary steps to defend their countries...
If Geert Wilders was prime minister of Italy, would there even be such a problem?! Alas, instead there is Silvio Berlusconi, who prefers Bunga-Bunga to dealing with more worldy issues... maybe if it was his daughter involved in a giant Bunga-Bunga party with all the immigrants, he would take more of an interest??
Baron wrote:
"If they get in, you can't send them back if they are likely to be persecuted..."
Unless the migrants are Christians fearing persecution by Muslims in their homeland -- then they'd be sent back without much fuss, I suspect.
Green Infidel:
you have to care. they are in power for at least almost another couple of years. a lot can happen. dont say you were not warned.
Ibertarian -
"they are in power for at least almost another couple of years. a lot can happen."
Are We talking Berlusconi, President Hussein or the NYT?
The first two are the leaders of their countries - the last is only the "leader" of the sheep who choose to read it. (assuming they don't skip to the Arts, or Sports section) And if its credibility is compromised, the number of those sheep will get smaller...
As to the threat posed by your (I'm presuming) president Hussein - I won't dispute that in the slightest.
Post a Comment