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STORY: LIBYA / MIGRANTS
TRT: 2.31
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: 31 MARCH 2009, GENEVA / FILE
RECENT, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, UNHCR headquarters
31 MARCH 2009, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“It’s a human tragedy, no one can be indifferent to it. We are seeing more and more people around the world trying to move desperately. Some are economic migrants some are refugees, asylum seekers, women and children victims of trafficking everybody needs to see their human rights protected.”
FILE – UNHCR SEPTEMBER 2005, OFF THE PORT OF LAMPEDUSA, ITALY
3. Various shots, aerial view of a crowded smuggler’s boat at sea, escorted by Italian Coast Guard
31 MARCH 2009, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“I think we are witnessing a combination of factors, poverty is increasing in today's world with the economic crisis. Security is far from being guaranteed in many parts of the world - at the same we have climate change, accelerating environmental degradation, we have conflicts and these things are becoming more and more inter related and so more and more people are forced to move.”
FILE – UNHCR SEPTEMBER 2005, OFF THE PORT OF LAMPEDUSA, ITALY
5. Various shots, on board the Italian Coast Guard ship bringing in survivors
31 MARCH 2009, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations:
“Unfortunately in today’s world we live in a globalized way but not everything is globalized in the same manner. Money moves freely, goods face some obstacles but the trend to move more freely even in the Doha round of negotiations was not successful as we know- but people are facing tremendous obstacles when they move. And because of that they tend to move irregularly. Smugglers and traffickers are creating a huge global business. And it is more and more difficult to grant protection to those in need of protection in these dramatic circumstances.”
FILE – UNHCR – SEPTEMBER 2005, LAMPEDUSA PORT, ITALY
7. Various shots, Port of Lampedusa, refugees and migrants are helped off the Coast Guard boat at night
The United Nations refugee agency reported today that hundreds of people are missing off the Libyan coast as they sought new lives in Europe, just as the smuggling season gets under way in the Mediterranean.
A spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said
that although details are sketchy, it has been reported that a number of vessels transporting several hundred people set sail for Italy in recent days, with one or more boats having gone down.
Egyptian authorities said that the incident occurred some 30 kilometers off the Libyan coast, with some Egyptian nationals having been rescued and bodies recovered. They also noted that those on board included people from North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
According to UNHCR in Rome, two boats have arrived in Italy this week: one carrying 244 people in Sicily and one with 219 in the southern island of Lampedusa.
Last year, 36,000 people arrived by sea to the country from North Africa, with 75 percent of them applying for asylum and roughly half receiving refugee status or protection on other humanitarian grounds.
