Lampedusa’s Libyan Burden

Whilst the media’s attention has been transfixed by David Cameron’s successful efforts to entangle the UK in yet another conflict, this time in a civil war in which we have neither stake nor interest, the human traffickers of North Africa have seen this as a golden opportunity to make a killing. Cynically exploiting the EU oligarchy’s penchant for favouring exotic alien incomers over their own people, our deliberately lax immigration system and perverse human rights legislation, they have been ferrying North Africans of various nationalities across the sea to Lampedusa. The initial wave was Tunisian, but now Libyans make up the bulk of the most recent arrivals.

As with the earlier influx of economic migrants masquerading as refugees, this current batch, as can be seen from the video footage below, appears to be exclusively male. Why would European countries wish to accommodate thousands of men who possess a psychology shaped by a religion – Islam, naturally – that states that all women who are not covered up are basically whores who are ‘asking for it’ and get all that they ‘deserve’? The admission of such people into our societies will lead to an increase in violence against women, specifically our women. If this were the only reason not to admit them, it would be a compelling one, but there are many other reasons for keeping them out too.

This week’s Libyan invasion of Lampedusa has swamped the island’s holding facility for such incomers. With room to accommodate 850 economic migrants, it has had to contain 2,000. So far this year, 9,000 North African economic migrants have used political unrest in the Arab world as a pretext to enter Lampedusa with a view to gaining entry to the EU labour market. So blasé have the human traffickers become with respect to the EU’s unwillingness to protect its own nations from hostile alien settlement, that a Moroccan ferry appeared off the Lampedusan coast this week carrying 1,500 Libyans. We are told that it was turned back, but where will it turn up next? What would happen in future if a flotilla of such vessels appeared just off some European shore? This is invasion. If David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy have an itch to employ our armed forces to protect our nations’ interests – as is their only proper use – then why do they not deploy them to prevent this human flood out of Africa? All of those who have arrived on Lampedusa this year should be repatriated to their countries of origin immediately. This is the only way in which we can send out an essential message: do not come, for you are not welcome and you shall not enter.

Unsurprisingly, the Independent earlier this week ran a leading article entitled ‘Europe has an obligation to these desperate African refugees’. It too makes reference to the ferry, but claims that it carried 1,800 people whom it baselessly denied were economic migrants.

Fortress Europe has closed its gates. This week a ferry left Tripoli carrying 1,800 people. The vessel was first turned away from Malta. Then it was refused permission to put ashore at Lampedusa, the small island south of the Sicilian mainland. The passengers on this vessel are not economic migrants, but refugees from a war zone. Most are believed to be North Africans who were working in Tripoli when the revolt against Muammar Gaddafi's regime began. Their mistake is to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Yes, their mistake is ‘to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time’, for if ‘most’ on board were supposed to be North African migrant workers, why wasn’t the ferry ferrying them to their home countries? The idea that they were seeking entry to the EU as refugees is thus risible. These people are quite clearly economic migrants who should be returned post-haste to their countries of origin. The ferry ought to be escorted by military vessels to the nearest safe North African port where it can begin to unload its human cargo.

Still, at least the comments section attached to this Independent article reveals that at least a proportion of its readers vigorously disagree with the sentiments of the leader article. These readers appear to possess more sympathy with the attitude of Marine Le Pen, who rightly visited Lampedusa to highlight the plight of the long-suffering islanders who have had to cope with this unbidden human incursion from North Africa. The islanders' patience is wearing thin, and PI News reports that 100 of them have recently held a protest against North African migration to their island. Will the leaders of the EU listen? Sadly, I fear that they and the mass media will stigmatise the Lampedusan islanders as 'bigots'. More on the beginnings of this year's North African influx to Lampedusa can be found here.