Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC Briefing on Migration in the Mediterranean
Mr. President,
We thank the representatives of the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration for the information provided.
We are extremely concerned about the ongoing, worrisome situation regarding migration in the Mediterranean. As we did last year, we had to request today’s meeting after we read the UN Secretary General’s report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2698 from August 2023 to August this year. Despite the fact that at that time we drew attention to the appalling death toll and called for urgent action to save lives, little has changed since then.
The document once again proved the tragic fact that the Mediterranean Sea, particularly the Central Mediterranean route, is the most dangerous migration route with the largest number of deaths. That journey becomes a deadly trap for many desperate people. Over the past period, 1,920 people have perished or gone missing while attempting to reach the shores of the European continent, with the majority of them – 1,302 – taking this central route. Human casualties have also been reported along the eastern and western Mediterranean routes.
We observe a 42% decrease in the number of casualties as compared to the previous year. However, this drop may not appear so substantial if we recall that last year the number of deaths at sea increased by as much as 77%! In the last seven years, more than 24,000 people have died or gone missing at sea. These are migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, including women and children, whose protection is explicitly stipulated in international law.
Mr. President,
It is evident that the EU leadership is rushing to remedy the situation by concluding partnership agreements on migration management with a number of African countries over the past year. However, it will take time for these measures to give any actual impact. They have come far too late. Thousands of lives are irretrievebaly lost. Terrible tragedies, such as those off the coast of Libya on December 16th, 2023, and off the notorious Lampedusa on June 16th this year, continue to occur with distressing regularity.
To prevent them, it is imperative for Europe to fundamentally change its attitude towards this problem. It is obvious that the above-mentioned tragedies would not have happened if those in distress at sea had promptly received the necessary assistance, as required by simple humanity, let alone the principles of international law.
However, in most cases, rescuing people from drowning is not a top priority. EU member states not only fail to take action to rescue sinking vessels, but de facto ban any other ships from assisting those in distress, thus undermining the efforts of the relevant humanitarian NGOs. In short, they are doing everything possible to prevent migrants from reaching their land. Often at the cost of their lives. There has yet been no proper investigation into the European border services’ failure to provide assistance to migrants in distress, and the perpetrators remain unpunished.
Brussels simply ignores the Secretary-General’s repeated recommendations that all those rescued or intercepted at sea be assigned safe ports of landing, again in line with the international maritime law, and that crimes committed against migrants and refugees be investigated.
Mr. President,
The situation is no better when it comes to combating migrant smuggling and human trafficking. As the report shows, most criminals avoid arrest, including through the use of corruption schemes. These criminal activities continue to flourish. It is noteworthy that the European Union always has bombastic utterances about the fight against impunity, as well as cooperation with the International Criminal Court. However, when this court received a complaint against themselves, they were in no rush to bring the perpetrators to justice, and the ICC is in no hurry whatsoever to deal with European civil servants.
Now we have a legitimate question here. Based on this, how can we evaluate the effectiveness of the relevant EU naval operation over the past years? The answer is obvious. The mandate stipulated in Security Council resolution 2240 and its subsequent iterations has not been implemented. The EU structures have all along been using this mandate solely to indulge their harsh suppression of irregular migrant flows, using highfalutin words to mask their undeclared war against migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean. This has become so obvious that Brussels itself has rejected the idea of extending this mandate. Indeed, its prolongation would be an outright mockery of the thousands of migrants and refugees who have died.
We would also like to remind you that providing assistance to migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons is today an important component of efforts to maintaine peace, security and stability.
In this regard, we once again strongly urge Brussels and the EU countries to live up to their own loud statements of humanism and human rights by showing humane attitude towards all migrants and refugees without exception, not just Ukrainian ones.
We urge to bring to an end the shameful practice of vessels from coastal European States pushing boats with migrants beyond their “jurisdiction”, which dooms those people to torturous death. We should also stop the persecution of humanitarian and non-governmental organizations providing assistance to all those people. It is high time for Brussels to assume responsibility for these incidents and to take appropriate measures, rather than to limit itself to grandiose condolences.
Thank you for your attention.
Right of reply by Deputy Permanent Representative Maria Zabolotskaya:
Mr. President,
During the meeting, there was a statement made that the Russian Federation is misleading somebody regarding resolution 2240 and the mandate that existed in line with it and then ceased to exist because there was a decision taken not to extend it. In this regard, we would like to give some explanations.
Resolution 2240 provided a mandate specifically to the EU operation, not to anyone else. This comes not from our statements, but from the statements by the European countries themselves at the meeting where the resolution was adopted. Allow me to give you a couple of quotes.
The first statement was made by the UK representative: “All EU member States contributing to the operation now have the authority to interdict them and their boats on the high seas. Any migrants encountered in the course of the operation will be taken to Europe as part of established procedures”. Thus, that was the UK’s understanding when the document was adopted. Precisely according to the last sentence, the migrants would be taken to Europe. I guess they were not taken there.
The second statement was that of France, which said the following: “The resolution aims to give the member States of the European Union the necessary legal guarantees to enable them to successfully conduct the operations provided for within the framework of phase 2-A of the European Union military operation in the southern Central Mediterranean, Operation Sophia, which has been in place since 7 October and provides for inspection and, where necessary, stop and search on the high seas of vessels and boats used in the trafficking of migrants”. From that we can see that the mandate was given to the EU operation. That mandate has now ended. Therefore, starting from today, if any operations related to migrants are to be conducted there, they must fully be in line with international maritime law and other established norms.
There are no additional mandates that would, for example, authorize stopping of any vessels in the high seas. There are other points related to that as well.
This is an important point. We would like to ensure that that goes down in the record of this meeting.
Thank you for your attention.
