The Central Mediterranean route has become tragically known as ‘the deadliest route in the world’. The ongoing large movement of peoples seeking refuge in Europe has been met with varying responses from receiving countries, different Union bodies, and local communities.  Alongside infrastructural issues at local levels, come political and media narratives of demonisation that fuel an environment of hate and hostility towards those arriving.

IHRC organizes routine meetings with MEPs in the EU Parliament and with ARDI Intergroup with the aim of advocating migrants’ rights from their crossing in the Mediterranean Sea to their integration paths in the countries of arrival, and the upheaval of the EU Dublin system.

IHRC is also the signatory of the Palermo Manifesto on Migration along with more than 60 others among NGOS, associations and foundations, has already engaged with the rescues in the Mediterranean, and is a member of the informal Network of the Anti-racist Forum.

The document strives for:

• the establishment of safe, structured, widespread and stable humanitarian corridors for all persons who intend to apply for asylum and protection;
• the immediate cessation of the campaign of criminalization of solidarity and the instrumental attacks – judicial, political and narrational, that foments hatred, racism and xenophobia – against the NGOs
• an immediate end to violence and violations against people on the move that are taking place across the EU, from the Balkan route to the Aegean Sea, the Central Mediterranean, up to the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and the sea routes to Spain
• a radical rewriting of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum that continues to advance policies of exclusion, the externalization of borders into countries of origin and transit and follow the unlawful practice of pushbacks, which function to prevent people from setting foot in Europe