IOM EU Regional Director Warns Against Painting Rescue NGOs As Enemy

IOM EU Regional Director Warns Against Painting Rescue NGOs As Enemy

Non-governmental organizations that help rescue migrants at sea should not be equaled to smugglers and treated as enemy, Regional Director of IOM's Regional Office for the EU, Norway and Switzerland said Friday.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st August, 2018) Non-governmental organizations that help rescue migrants at sea should not be equaled to smugglers and treated as enemy, Regional Director of IOM's Regional Office for the EU, Norway and Switzerland said Friday.

Earlier this month, Greek authorities detained three NGO members on suspicion of links to a human trafficking organization.

"It is very worrying that we have reached a point in history where some can say without shame or irony that organizations saving human lives are the enemy, equivalent to smugglers," Eugenio Ambrosi wrote on Twitter.

Last year, Fabrice Leggeri head of European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) said the non-profits rescuing people off Libya shores were only encouraging traffickers.

The European Union has been struggling to tackle illegal migration and accommodate new arrivals. In the past few months, several ships carrying migrants rescued at sea have had difficulty finding a port to disembark. �

Italy, in particular, has been pushing for a change to how rescue is handled, stressing that it could not be the only country to accept migrants.