‘No more lip service’, says MEP warning of migration’s security risk

Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi has called for concrete action in the face of the Lampedusa shipwreck, believed to have claimed over 650 migrants’ lives, in a meeting of the Socialists and Democrats debating migration.

“No doubt, we will have yet again another minute of silence next week in the Strasbourg plenary but this does not exonerate the EU from addressing this huge problem with concrete measures. We should stop talking and presenting speeches and really do something. Paying lip service does no credit to the EU in such circumstances,” she said.

“I had thought the Lampedusa tragedy taught the EU a lesson and would have kicked the EU into doing something. I would have thought that the poignant line-up of coffins would have jolted the EU into action. It was not meant to be and a year later we are here again, crying over spilt milk – except that it is human lives that have been spilt in a cemetery called the Mediterranean sea.”

Mizzi said the human tragedy was “also a security risk for all of Europe” and that the medical risks from the migrant influx “could not be underestimated”.

“I welcome the 10 points which have been drafted, but we have had much talk, many speeches and messages of condolences, so we will only know that something will be done when we see real action.

“A number of solutions were offered including establishing refugee centres in exit countries, revising the Dublin regulations amongst many others, but they had fallen on deaf ears. I hope and trust that this time the EU is really jolted into action,” Mizzi said.