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
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13 Responses to “PMQs: Cameron factually incorrect to say majority of Mediterranean migrants not asylum seekers”
yammerhant
More link spamming. Is it working?
PatrioticEritrean
Never deny that Eritreans flee the country, what I am trying to tell you is that the majority asylum seekers are not Eritreans. they are trying to weaken Eritrea and Eritrean people by giving fallse promises that if the young generation flee the country, they provide them with everything. that is one of many strategies, not to mention they imposed a sanction in Eritrea not once twice by wrongly accused Eritrea supporting Al Shabab in Somalia, with out no evidence till today. here is some clue might help you understand who is going to be blame or who is behind this so called human trafficking, Obama himself admitted that his government in conjunction with their so called Partners (Human Traffickers) about it during Clinton Global initiative in 2012. now, who is the Human trafficker you think??? watch it starting 4:38 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E2NV4x5gho
PerVersePoet
It is a fact that many people risking their lives to get to Europe are doing so because they are refugees from Jordan and Lebanon where Cameron has drastically CUT aid while claiming to be giving more to Yemen. These people who otherwise were having to live on less than a $ a day are faced with the choice of risking the journey or staying and starving. What sort of choice is that.