{"id":174,"date":"2023-01-30T16:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T16:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unhcrr.info\/?p=174"},"modified":"2025-05-30T16:56:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T16:56:56","slug":"unhcr-welcomes-deal-to-end-latest-migrant-stand-off-in-mediterranean-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/2023\/01\/30\/unhcr-welcomes-deal-to-end-latest-migrant-stand-off-in-mediterranean-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"UNHCR welcomes deal to end latest migrant stand-off in Mediterranean Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The development comes after the Governments of France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain and Portugal ended a disembarkation stand-off involving the migrants \u2013 who had set out from the Libya coast \u2013 by agreeing to take them in and process any asylum claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">High Commissioner Grandi\u2019s comments follow the rescue of the migrants near the Italian coast. They were reportedly picked up by two ships; one was operated by EU border agency Frontex, the other by Italian police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement, the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/en\">UNHCR<\/a>&nbsp;chief noted that at an EU Summit in June, some Member States had agreed to a more collaborative and well-managed approach to dealing with people rescued at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also underlined that while States \u201chave obligations to save lives\u201d under international law, those rescued at sea did not have \u201cthe unfettered right\u201d to choose their final destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe hope that these arrangements will now be quickly and effectively implemented,\u201d he said. \u201cAs well as ending an ordeal for these individuals, this sets a positive example of how\u2026countries can uphold sea rescue and manage borders while simultaneously meeting international asylum obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Noting that solutions are needed that go beyond \u201cpiecemeal or ship-by-ship arrangements\u201d, Grandi warned that \u201clives will be at risk with each new attempted boat journey\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He cautioned that EU arrangements for managing the rescue, disembarkation and follow-up processing of migrants are far from adequate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Too little was being done to address the desperation that drives people to flee by sea in dangerous boats, Mr. Grandi insisted, just as these migrants had done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the beginning of the year, 50,872 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This compares to 109,746 at the same point last year, and 241,859 by the middle of 2016, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iom.int\/\">IOM<\/a>, the UN Migration Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although slightly fewer people now risk their lives travellingfrom North Africa to Italy than to Spain, it remains the region\u2019s deadliest sea route, with 1,104 deaths to date this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is almost four times the number of drownings as the Spanish route has registered since 1 January, despite having almost similar arrival totals, at around 18,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The development comes after the Governments of France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain and Portugal ended a disembarkation stand-off involving the migrants \u2013 who had set [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3,4,8,2,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights-for-refugees-news","category-humanitarian-news","category-protection-news","category-refugees-news","category-relief-news","category-un-news","category-unhcr-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175,"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhcr.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}