[1] In response to seven days filled with tragedies suffered by boat people off the coasts of Africa, Asia and the Americas, the International Catholic Migration Commission sounds a loud “Mayday!” to governments, international institutions, civil society organisations and the media to respond with urgency and humanity to the plight of the men, women and children in these crossings.
 
Published reports over just the seven days January 16-23 have described:
Jan. 17:  At least 500 asylum seekers from Burma and Bangladesh pushed out to sea on boats, and abandoned, without engines, and according to survivors, with little or no food or water and their hands tied.   In one report, more than 100 migrant workers were feared drowned after a warship forced their barge back out to sea, leaving it adrift.

Jan. 18:  310 migrants were feared dead January 18—already more than half of the total reported for the full year 2008—after three boats sank between Africa and Yemen, with only 110 rescued or otherwise making it to shore.  Most of the survivors in such crossings are refugees from Somalia or fleeing violence in Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Congo.  Among the men, women and children making these crossings, many are beaten, raped; the boats are so crowded some actually suffocate.  As the boats near land, many are thrown overboard—whether they can swim or not—in shark infested waters.
Jan. 22:  Haitian boat people shipwrecked in the waters between British, Dutch and US territories in the Caribbean, with 12 of 25 passengers missing. 
Jan. 17, 18, 22, 23:  The number of boat people on these crossings increased dramatically in 2008.  In Thailand, a recorded 4,886 Burmese boat arriving in 2007-8 was up 57% from the year before; in crossings to Yemen, arrivals of 50,000 showed an increase of 70% from 2007.  In 2008, the islands south of Italy and Greece have seen similar increases over the year earlier n the number of migrants and refugees arriving by sea.  In the first three weeks of January, the US Coast Guard alone reported having interdicted in the Caribbean and repatriated 357 Haitian boat people, including women and children—nearly three times the rate in the first six months of 2008.
Jan. 19, 23:  Post-arrival detention practices are increasingly characterised by extreme overcrowding, mixing of criminal inmates with non-criminal migrant detainees; mixing of men and women and children, including in toilet and bath arrangements.  Centres were reported as regularly having more than double their capacity; for instance, with a capacity of 280, the detention centre on the Greek island of Lesvos was reported to be holding 990 during a visit in late November.  At least one centre is so crowded that detainees are not permitted daily exercise in the courtyard.  On the Italian island of Lampedusa, the centre built for 850 was holding 1,800 when, on Saturday January 24, some 700 of the immigrant detainees broke out of the centre, complaining of conditions and shouting “Help us!”
 
These reports are graphic, but not unrepresentative.  They offer a glimpse of misery on sea crossings this week: men, women and children fall victim to violence and trauma on land crossings as well: across deserts, in trucks, on trains. The reports also depict how often the misery continues after these voyages for those who survive, are arrested and detained. 
 
What the reports do not describe is the horror that universally precedes their desperate journeys.  Indeed, for the large number of refugees among them, this suffering comes only after already fleeing persecution or death in their own country.  And whether they are refugees or migrants moving for other reasons, for almost all in these crossings, whether from Africa or in Asia and the Americas, what happens on the high seas and in detention only follows a trail of repeated extortion and brutalisation endured along the way to the crossing—that is, again and again, even before stepping onto the boats.
 
A commission of the Catholic bishops worldwide, ICMC is working with the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organisation for Migration, Red Cross-Red Crescent societies, and a network of Church organisations and non-government partners to establish humanitarian standards of protection and assistance for migrants and refugees suffering violence and trauma on these crossings.  While ICMC members and many of these groups have long responded to the needs of those who arrive in such difficulty, the response is too often ad hoc, inconsistent and under-resourced.   In that context:
 
ICMC applauds the recent commitment of the Council of Europe to develop specific regional guidance for the consistent provision of first aid, recovery and referral services to all who need it after crossing the seas to Europe. 
ICMC further emphasises the call of Catholic bishops to focus not only on addressing the urgent needs and rights of migrants and refugees after they arrive, but on protecting their rights and dignity along the way and even before the journey begins.  As the American bishops recently urged the new US president Obama, this requires addressing the root causes of migration, among other things, “so migrants and their families can remain in their countries of origin and work and live in dignity.”
 
 
 
 
For further information please contact Mr. Marc Aellen, Head of Communications, + 41 22 919 10 20 - [2] aellen@icmc.net

ICMC-International Catholic Migration Commission
1, Rue de Varembé
P.O. Box 96
CH-1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
TEL: +41 (0) 22 919 10 20
FAX: +41 (0) 22 919 10 48
[3] http://www.icmc.net