The Aquarius Berths.

The migrant ship, the Dattilo has finally entered the port of Valencia, Spain. Two other ships, the Orione and the Aquarius itself are expected to follow suit soon. The three ships are carrying between them 629 migrants who were rescued off the coast of Libya in the usual appalling conditions of horrid weather and overcrowded rubber dinghies by the NGO rescue ship, Aquarius. The ships were promptly barred from berthing in Italian and Maltese ports and have been floating in the Med ever since, a situation the Italian right-wing, anti-immigration, populist interior minister Matteo Salvini has received considerable flak for. In political bashing, soft targets are popular objects of attack. Mostly because they are easy explanations for situations that are far more complex than we are wont to admit. Italian migrant camps are overflowing and social and economic tensions are spilling over into the streets; the point that facilitates the crisis, Libya, became the lawless land it is because of the overthrow and killing of erstwhile dictator, Moammer Gaddafi, a mayhem precipitated mostly by France; the real destination of the migrants are the wealthier European countries further north, so why should Italy be at the frontline of the crisis and bear the brunt of a movement to countries that had done little to help it? The situation has become sweaty for many Italians and Salvini is merely harvesting political capital out of a situation growing popular, a not infrequent crime in politics. However it is instructive to note that on Wednesday, with the Aquarius affair raging, the coastguard ship Diciotti brought more than 900 migrants to Sicily.

Salvini.

What actually fuels

this crisis is a strange lack of articulation in EU's response to the crisis. And a poor definition of the crisis itself. Are we dealing with real asylum sekers or economic migrants? In most African countries, democracy, with attendant tolerance, is firmly taking root and political repression is on the back foot. Gone are the gory days of Uganda, Chad, Zaire e.t.c. that gave rise to huge waves of political refugees. It is the economic front that has not improved, conditions are even getting worse and the EU may begin taking some profitable actions by recognizing that the bulk of those migrants they are trying to restrain are people fleeing appalling living conditions of want: incessant power blackouts, slave wages, outright unemployment, hunger, lack of pipe-borne water. Horror of basic living conditions. Drawing an ecnomic blueprint for Africa will begin to address this horrid and intractable migrant crisis. It may turn out that a factory in Nigeria may prove less costly to set up than a migrant center in Spain.
The new Spanish government may want to gain some socialist traction by allowing the Aquarius refugees in but Sanchez has to realize drawbacks of populism are not always apparent. Migrants are from a mass of people watching closely the position every European government is taking on migration and Spain may face far more problems if it is generally perceived it has become a soft center in immigration obstacles. More Aquarius ships might be heading in that direction and the government might find itself unwilling to hunt for goodwill.