Nearly 2,200 people died or went missing in 2023 while trying to cross the central Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to reach Europe. It is the deadliest route in the world and a watery graveyard for thousands of asylum seekers whose bodies wash up on the coast of North Africa every day.
Lampedusa, the small Sicilian island that is closer to Tunisia than Italy, has seen an increase in migrant arrivals since last summer. To contain what right-wing governments in Europe describe as an "invasion", Europe has once again erected walls on its borders, adopting controversial agreements with countries from which migrants depart, such as Tunisia, which has overtaken Libya as the main departure point for people. trying to reach Italy.
One of the most controversial agreements, however, was signed in early November by Italy's far-right government, which announced plans to set up centers in Albania to accommodate 3,000 asylum seekers.
The deal was criticized by aid workers and NGOs, who described it as "another blow" to EU solidarity and compared it to the UK's deal with Rwanda. Italy and the UK may have set a dangerous precedent that other countries facing rising migrant arrivals could follow.
2024 could see non-EU countries being turned into detention centers in exchange for a promise of EU membership. Serbia and Bosnia - countries at the center of the Balkan migration route - could benefit from such deals.
The latest signal of this new change in direction came before Christmas, when negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached a political agreement on a new pact on migration and asylum. The pact would include a pre-entry screening process and increase reliance on non-EU countries to control migration issues. By approving its agreements, Brussels aims to shift responsibility for protecting asylum seekers beyond its borders.
In 2024, we may see fewer migrants on European soil but more deaths at Europe's gates, with asylum seekers forced to take increasingly dangerous routes to avoid violence at the hands of border officials./ BGNES
