It was the first days of September and I was on the phone. On the other side, a friend. Immediately, she received a call alerting her to the arrival of a boat on the coasts of Lanzarote. She had to go without delay and equipped despite the administrative difficulties and limitations to assist the migrants who had appeared on the island a few minutes ago.
September, the month of "the return", becomes a sorrow and a constant of our concerns and priorities as the first land line with North Africa. The incessant increase in arrivals to the waters of the Atlantic that devour so many unfortunates on their route to the EU fills the newspapers, social networks, and local gatherings. Fortunately, no deaths have been recorded so far.
In a small and impressive island like Lanzarote, its population (of about 160,000 people) as well as the tourism of the moment coexist with a cruel and barbaric problem: women, children, teenagers, men have paid unaffordable prices to criminal mafias with the aim of throwing them into the sea with the hope of stepping on safe ground, European soil. They risk their lives, and they are perfectly aware of the risk they assume and that each furrow can be the last. From this, we can only draw one reflection: famine, little development in their places of origin, war or frequent violence makes them contemplate that if they do not do so, they would be even worse off.
The current Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU had set itself, among its main priorities, to comply with EU law, to comply with the mandate of art. 80 TFEU, insofar as the Migration and Asylum Pact was based on the principles of binding solidarity and shared responsibility.
However, it seems quite doubtful to believe that said Pact will see the light in the current presidency, since Hungary and Poland maintain an uncooperative attitude and contrary to such principles, which has led to the failure of the existence of legal and safe channels of access or entry into the EU in its fight against the migratory crisis until our days. It is worth remembering in this regard the words of the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, -Péter Szijjártó- a few days ago: "Migration should not be managed, it should be stopped".
In those words resides the vote against a decision that requires the unanimous agreement of all 27 EU member states, which translates into the stagnation once again of an agonizing situation without proposals for joint solutions.
Likewise, the management in other countries (the Macro camps in Greece, cages in Bulgaria, floating prisons in the United Kingdom, overcrowding in centers for minors) have led to the criminalization of migrants, producing a stigmatization of the enemy that causes an increase in contexts of hatred and xenophobia in civil society.
This reflection contains the call to VIVA VOZ to the commitment to achieve a rigorous regulatory framework and the consolidation of safe channels of access or entry to the borders close to the African continent. Only in this way, so many lives would not suffer the desperate and tremendously risky ordeal on their route to the EU.
