Migrant Crisis in the Mediterranean; Imagine a World.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight: live from the very windy island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean off Italy, just 70 miles from the North African coast, an exclusive report on the desperate plight of migrants, who are risking everything to cross the Mediterranean to safety. We go on board an Italian naval vessel and witness an extraordinary rescue. And over 4,000 miles away, Southeast Asia faces a similar crisis; thousands of Muslim Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees stranded at sea but finally maybe getting a temporary port to call home. The Indonesian foreign minister joins me later.</s>AMANPOUR: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to a special edition of our program from Lampedusa, Italy. I'm Christiane Amanpour. And we are reporting here on this crisis of migration that has focused the world's attention. And indeed, Italy has shouldered the lion's share of this. Over the last two months alone 29,000 refugees have been rescued and brought to shore. And today, in fact this week, the Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said he was going to raise the ship that sank in April with some 800 bodies on board to prove to the world what was going on here. He said people cannot just look away. And it was that sinking that focused the world that caused the E.U. now to seek a U.N. resolution for a beefed-up military campaign also to try to get European countries to abide by a quota system to take migrants in on a fair basis. But those countries are wrangling over that very notion. In the meantime, the thousands keep coming; we were out for 24 hours on an Italian naval vessel, a total of 900 refugees were rescued and brought ashore. We witnessed the rescue of 300 of them.</s>AMANPOUR (voice-over): It's a sunny day. So the pilots of this navy helicopter expect it to be a busy day in the Central Mediterranean not far from the Libyan coast. And barely 30 minutes into our flight the pilots tell us they've spotted a boat, possibly full of migrants. And there it is, miles away, steaming towards Italy, they hope. The warship Spinks takes off to rescue them. Now they've all been given those distinctive orange life vests. We return to the task force frigate Virginio Fasan and join the crews there preparing to assist the seaborne rescue underway. The crews are dressed in masks and hazard suits in case of infectious disease. It is incredible to see with your own eyes a boat like that, not big; it's been crammed with 290 people and of them 21 are children. Now the Italian navy has offloaded them all and now the last batch that's been unloaded by the Italian navy is ready to get on one of these warships and safety. But this human drama also includes one death and three very sick migrants are transported to be choppered to hospital on land. The very lucky ones make it up the stairs. They're all sat in rows on the top deck under the broiling sun. Most are from Eritrea, East Africa, escaping a dictatorial regime and military service that doesn't pay a penny. Almost no one speaks English. But this man tells me they all fled what amounts to slavery back home.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know a lot of times cannot all people they are tied in the Mediterranean Sea. We know that.</s>AMANPOUR: And yet you take the risk, even though you know a lot of people died?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: Why?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have pretty word because I tell you, but by myself, I came from Eritrea.</s>AMANPOUR: What do you think of the Italians who saved you?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is very good we are in a nice country. We know that before we knew we are coming, we know that.</s>AMANPOUR (voice-over): And then we walk over to the other side, where women and children were separated, seeking shade and sleep where they could. Twenty-five-year-old Juri fetches water for her travel companions and their kids. She says they all spent a long time waiting for this in cruel conditions in Libya.</s>AMANPOUR: Are you afraid on the sea?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I really am. We are afraid but we</s>AMANPOUR: So God came in the form of the Italian navy?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, yes. Like yes. I'm happy.</s>AMANPOUR (voice-over): Back on the busy bridge of the Fasan, Commander Marco Bagni directs this and other operations and every rescue takes hours to accomplish, even on calm waters. There are up to 1,000 crew at sea all the time. Task Force Commander Admiral Ribuffo has one special mission, aside from saving lives, stopping these merchants of death by keeping empty fishing boats out of the traffickers' hands.</s>AMANPOUR: You have called these boats weapons of mass destruction. What do you mean -- ?</s>ADMIRAL PIERPAOLO RIBUFFO, DEPUTY COMMANDER OF ITALIAN NAVY: They are because of course it's quite provocative, but in terms of human losses, they have been causing, just one journey is extremely fruitful for a criminal organization. We're talking about 1 million euro per journey.</s>AMANPOUR: Really?</s>RIBUFFO: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR: One million euros per journey?</s>RIBUFFO: Yes.</s>AMANPOUR (voice-over): Indeed, heavily armed security forces and Marines take off at top speed, soaking us but making sure no trafficker was coming back for this wooden boat. And while they all await further orders under a new E.U. military mission, the human toll on young crews and even experienced naval commanders is immense.</s>RIBUFFO: I think that Italy and Europe in the next future will do the right thing. So I'm proud of that.</s>AMANPOUR: I can see it makes you emotional.</s>RIBUFFO: I would say yes, because confronting yourself with people is quite heartbreaking sometimes.</s>AMANPOUR (voice-over): And rewarding at times, too, after all, on just this mission they have saved 289 lives. These migrants are safe and they are free at last. But still they sail on into an uncertain future -- Christiane Amanpour, CNN, aboard the Virginio Fasan in the Mediterranean Sea.</s>AMANPOUR: And it just so happens that this afternoon those very migrants were offloaded in Sicily and they were at a reception center and they were watched and witnessed by representatives of the UNHCR, the U.N.'s refugee agency, and joining me now is Laurens Jolles, who is the head of the refugee agency for this area of Southern Europe. It just goes to show, doesn't it, I mean, today there were no crossings because of this dreadful weather; yesterday it was fantastic; 900 people came over. But that's just the first part of the battle for them. What happens when they get here?</s>LAURENS JOLLES, UNHCR SOUTHERN EUROPE: Well, it's the first part of the battle. That's absolutely true. But when they arrive here, you see the people on board, most of them are refugees. Most of them are people who flee from persecution or wars or absolutely terrible situations. They come here; they have the right to apply for asylum. Those that do arrive usually do, either in Italy or in other countries. And that's the beginning of a new life, in fact. But it's fraught with obstacles, of course. It's not easy. People are coming with traumas and having lost everything. And they have to build up a new life.</s>AMANPOUR: But not only that, there is the resistance. Look at what's happening in Europe, the politics, the right-wing anti-immigration parties and now Europeans, even not wanting to go along with this idea of taking in quotas. What do you think will happen if a beefed-up E.U. mission goes into effect and they try to stop the smugglers by destroying the boats? What will that mean?</s>JOLLES: Well, that's just one part of a much larger plan. Now the European Commission has come up with an agenda for migration that in fact if one reads it is quite good. Very positive about that because it gives a lot of elements that should all complement each other. What you were talking about, the destruction of boats and stopping the smuggling is just one element. That should not be the element that people concentrate on because there are other things, of course. One has to build legal avenues to come to Europe that are different from having to cross --</s>AMANPOUR: OK. So some have talked about having processing camps, let's say, in Tunisia or other parts of North Africa, where it's possible. Is that viable, according to the UNHCR?</s>JOLLES: That could be possible. It's not only that. We're looking now at indeed resettlement from some countries, relocations so people who are already coming, who are already here, who can go to other countries, we're talking about family reunification, facilitated family reunification, sponsorship schemes, labor migration schemes, development in some of the countries where people are having to flee from or in the countries of transit. So it's a combination of things that all go together. One cannot look just at one or the other.</s>AMANPOUR: And what about the times that we live in? We report on refugees and wars, endlessly. And I think according to the U.N., this is the most refugees around the world since World War</s>II. JOLLES: Yes, absolutely. We're talking about more than 50 million people who have been displaced, who are either internally displaced or refugees, a huge, huge number. And I think the international community as the high commissioner has often said is not capable of stopping the crises that are in the world. So I think it's more important now than it ever was before to keep borders open, to look at tolerance, no restrictive policies and be able to recognize the need to be liberal and have the possibility of people coming. And that's unfortunately not the case.</s>AMANPOUR: Well, it's not. I mean, it's almost the opposite. So what do you tell a country like Italy which is doing what it's doing on the high seas, as I said, taking the lion's share of it, then bringing all these migrants basically here?</s>JOLLES: Well, Italy, first of all, is doing a wonderful job as we have seen. It's not only Italy; others are helping at the moment. But with Mare Nostrum --</s>AMANPOUR: And there's a U.K. ship, there's a French ship, there's some German ships, yes.</s>JOLLES: -- private ships also. But Italy has definitely taken the lion's share. And you saw in the film that you -- the report that you made how proud the commander was. And they are. They have something to be proud of. And he was also quite emotional about that. So they're giving a very, very good example. It is not happening elsewhere in the world at the moment. But this is a very good example of how rescue is important, how it's absolutely essential that human lives come first. Then of course you have the other thing. Once people come to Europe, then what do you do? And then there have to be other mechanisms, solidarity mechanisms, burden sharing, a common responsibility. And they're going towards that. Now it is true that there is resistance. I hope that the resistance will be overcome. We're going to be looking at what's going to happen in the next few weeks.</s>AMANPOUR: All right. Stand by, because some of the other places where it's happening are in fact as I said 4,000 miles away, where we have all these Rohingyas and Bangladeshis stranded at sea. When we come back, my interview with the Indonesian foreign minister, just back from a meeting of other foreign ministers in that region. They have decided to give a temporary space in their countries to these migrants; first, of course, we leave you with images of past parallels of today's desperation, when it was the migrants of Haiti and Cuba turning to the ocean for a better life.