PMQs: Cameron factually incorrect to say majority of Mediterranean migrants not asylum seekers

Left Foot Forward

The largest group by nationality attempting the Mediterranean crossing in recent months have been from Syria

 

Prime minister David Cameron was wrong to claim during today’s PMQs that the majority of Mediterranean migrants are not asylum-seekers.

Cameron’s comments came in answer to a question from SNP MP Angus Robertson about the UK’s refusal to take part in an EU refugee quota system. The SNP leader in Westminster called it a “stain on the conscience of Europe”.

In response, Cameron said the majority of refugees making their way to Europe via the Mediterranean were economic migrants and that European authorites needed to go after the people traffickers bringing them to European shores.

“We have an asylum system in this country when people are fleeing torture and persecution. The vast majority in the Mediterranean are not asylum seekers but people seeking a better life,” Cameron said.

But according to human rights group Amnesty International, the largest group by nationality attempting the Mediterranean crossing in recent months have been refugees from war-ravaged Syria.

Last year Eritreans and Syrians alone amounted to nearly 50 per cent of those boarding boats in the Mediterranean. According to the EU’s frontier agency Frontex, Syrians and Eritreans accounted for 46 per cent of the 170,000-plus people who reached Italy by boat in 2014. Eritrea has been described as ‘Africa’s North Korea’ due to its repressive and isolationist government.

Amnesty International UK’s Refugee and Migrant Rights director Steve Symonds said David Cameron was “completely wrong” to say the vast majority of Mediterranean migrants were not asylum-seekers:

“At least half of those risking their lives in the Mediterranean are fleeing persecution in places like Syria, Eritrea and Somalia.

“We all know that PMQs is a political knockabout, but the Prime Minister has a duty to stick to the facts – not least on an issue where tens of thousands of people’s lives are at stake.”

James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Forward. Follow him on Twitter

No related posts.

13 Responses to “PMQs: Cameron factually incorrect to say majority of Mediterranean migrants not asylum seekers”

  1. damon

    I was in Tel Aviv in January last year and there were lots and lots of Eritrreans there.
    I used to spend some time in the internet cafes where they hang out.
    They looked pretty desperate and had walked through deserts and risked death to get away from their country. It’s a bit of a war-like nation by the sound of it. How many people died in the miserable drawn out war to bring about its independence?

  2. GTE

    Take Calais.

    All of those trying to get to the UK are economic migrants. Without exception.

    Unless you can show they are fleeing persecution in France …. Good luck.

  3. Cole

    We wouldnt want a bunch of hard working aspiring people in the UK, would we? Of course these Kipper types don’t understand that many of our most successful businesses were started by immigrants.

  4. Rick

    These illegal immigrants need to be turned back and sent home asap.

  5. Derek

    https://www.facebook.com/WestminsterInsiderNews

Comments are closed.