"Boat of migrants" makes plea at European Parliament

A "boat of migrants" on Wednesday arrived in front of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) here to accost the European Parliament (EP), where its passengers were received by members of European Parliament (MEPs), in particularly by European Greens.

A letter from three migrants was delivered there, so as to be passed on to the president of the EP, Martin Schulz.

The event, organized by a collective of action and rights groups, featured three migrants, namely Ali Ahmed, Mohamed Bance and Samuel Babe, who fled Libya in 2011.

They told Schulz: "Here are your own words, dear president Schulz: 'Europe can do and must do more. It is more than time to finally change our refugee and migration policies,'" they write. "We just want the right to stay and work so we can sustain ourselves and our families."

The organizers of this symbolic action said they aimed to highlight poor European migratory policy toward countries on the other side of the Mediterranean human rights and the hypocrisy of European states that do not help Italy.

Hatem Gheribi from the Watch the Med said thousands of migrants die at sea due to a direct consequence of the migratory policy of the European Union, adding 19,000 migrants were saved by cargo ships in the Mediterranean between November 2014 and April 2015, versus only 1,700 by Frontex boats.

William Lacy Swing, director of the International Organization for Migrations (IOM), spoke out for the reestablishment of operation "Mare Nostrum." Endit