EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Thursday urged member states to “take more responsibility” and ensure the bloc’s migrant rescue operation continues to fight human trafficking in the Mediterranean.
Rome plans to ask the European Union to modify the rules of the Sophia mission — currently commanded by Italy — and rotate the ports where migrants rescued at sea can disembark, with France and Spain expected to top the list.
Currently all the ships dock in Italy but Rome’s new right-wing, nationalist government says it should not have to carry the burden on its own and it is time other EU states do their fair share by taking in more of the migrants.
In comments before informal talks by EU defense ministers, Mogherini called on them to show a “constructive attitude” to work to continue the mission.
“So far consensus has not been found... We can definitely not afford to leave an EU operation without clarity on the rules it has to follow,” she said ahead of the meeting in Vienna.
“It would be good if member states take more responsibility,” she added. “The important thing is that we manage to keep the operation going... This has been a remarkable achievement for all of the European Union.”
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Sophia’s mandate was until year end — when she expected EU leaders to solve the question of how asylum seekers coming to Europe whose claims are recognized should be distributed among member states and how those rejected should be returned home.
“That is the question that is anyhow right on top of the agenda of EU leaders... and so I expect this question to be solved in the autumn,” she said.
EU leaders will meet in the Austrian city of Salzburg in September to discuss the migrant crisis. Austria currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
Sophia was launched in June 2015 following a series of deadly shipwrecks and has since picked up thousands of migrants floundering in the Mediterranean.
According to La Stampa newspaper, Italy’s idea is to rotate landings between Mediterranean ports, with a particular emphasis on France and Spain, and with Greece and Malta also sharing the load.
Italian Defense Minister Elisabetta Trenta said late Wednesday that the ball was in the EU camp.
“By accepting our proposal it (the EU) will have the opportunity to show it is a real community of values and intentions; by refusing it will deny its own fundamental principles,” she said.
Italy has been turning away ships with migrants rescued at sea in a campaign to make EU countries take their share.
Last week, it threatened to stop billions of euros of EU funding over the issue, accusing Europe of turning its back as Italy grapples with seemingly endless migrant arrivals.
Mogherini urges EU to take ‘more responsibility’ on migrant mission
Mogherini urges EU to take ‘more responsibility’ on migrant mission
- EU leaders will meet in the Austrian city of Salzburg in September to discuss the migrant crisis
Hundreds of thousands of Catholics join Black Nazarene procession in Manila
- Around 80 percent of Philippines’ 110 million population are Roman Catholics
- The annual 6km procession began at 4 a.m. on Friday
MANILA: Hundreds of thousands of Catholics took part in a barefoot procession in Manila on Friday, carrying the Black Nazarene, a centuries-old ebony statue of Jesus Christ believed by devotees to have miraculous powers.
Around 80 percent of the Philippines’ 110 million population identify as Roman Catholic, a legacy of more than 300 years of Spanish colonization.
After a midnight mass joined by tens of thousands of worshippers, the procession began at the Quirino Grandstand at 4 a.m., with the statue of Jesus placed on a cross carried by a four-wheel carriage, which then slowly traveled through Manila’s roads, thronged by massive crowds, for around 6 kilometers.
The procession — which is known as the Traslacion (“transfer”) or as the Feast of the Black Nazarene — commemorates the 1787 relocation of the Black Nazarene from a church inside the colonial Spanish capital of Intramuros in Manila’s center to its present location in Quiapo Church.
For many Filipino Catholics, the annual procession and the festivities surrounding it are deeply personal — a way of expressing deep faith and spiritual devotion, and conveying their personal prayers.
“As early as Jan. 8, you will already see a long queue of devotees near the Quirino Grandstand. Many of them are there to get the chance to wipe a towel on the image of the Nazarene. That’s their devotion,” Jomel Bermudez told Arab News.
Many devotees believe the statue is miraculous, and that touching it, or the ropes attached to its float, can heal illness or help provide good health, jobs and a better life. This belief is partly because the statue has survived multiple earthquakes, fires, floods, and even the bombing of Manila in the Second World War.
“We wipe (the towels) on our bodies, especially on sick people,” Bermudez continued. “My father, for example, was diagnosed with leukemia and now he is already recovered. He was one of my prayers last year. He is 56, and he survived.”
On Friday, many devotees were clad in maroon and yellow as they flooded the streets to swarm the statue, jostling for a chance to pull its thick rope.
Bermudez, who first participated in the procession in 2014, said he was inspired to do so by seeing the effect it had had on friends who had taken part.
“I saw friends whose lives really changed. That encouraged me to change too,” he said, adding that this year he is one of a group on the sidelines helping to keep the procession moving.
“My prayers before were already answered. This time, I’m praying for my children’s success in life,” he said.
Jersey Banez, a 23-year-old devotee, was among those who arrived as early as 2 a.m. to take part in the procession.
“I do this every year. I’m just grateful for a happy life,” he told Arab News. “My prayer is still the same: to have a happy family and a happy life, and that everyone and everything that needs to change will change.”
