The president of the MedOr Foundation intervenes before the French Senate and warns: “We have little time”
“Without ‘immediate’ food corridors for wheat from Ukraine, there is a risk of famine in the Maghreb countries”. This is the alarm raised by Marco Minniti, president of the Med-Or Foundation, during a speech this morning in the French Senate on the occasion of the “Conference interparlementaire sur les defis migratoires”. “The war in Ukraine has generated the risk of a global food crisis. For the whole planet, but especially on the other side of the Mediterranean, in Africa”, said Minniti, recalling that “most Maghreb countries depend on wheat. coming from Ukraine and Russia – over 90% for some of them “.
“If we fail to create” immediate “food corridors for wheat from Ukraine, we run the risk of famine in the Maghreb countries. We have little time – warned the former interior minister – This can lead to social crises very large, to ‘bread riots’, just think of what happened in 2011, not already in 2015, but in 2011. Social tensions that can create a humanitarian crisis, not only in Ukraine, but also in Africa. food crisis can then become social crisis. Europe could be held in a humanitarian pincer with a branch in the north-east, in Ukraine, and a branch in the south, in Africa “.
“Do you understand the challenge? – Minniti’s question before the French senators – And if anyone had any doubts, just think that migrations have often been used, with cynicism, as a weapon of political pressure. Do you remember the Białowieza wood? forget it because first there was Białowieza and then the invasion of Ukraine. First they tried to put pressure on the migratory flows and then with the military invasion. Now it could be the opposite: first the military invasion and then the migratory pressure from Africa. This situation must be dealt with in time, and I don’t mean years, but months. We must move quickly “.
According to Minniti, “there must be a double movement, we must have a paradigm in mind: migrations are not an emergency. They are a structural datum of the life of our planet: there have been, are and will be. Always. Migrations they cannot be canceled, they must be governed. Europe in fact must manage migratory flows by promoting legal ones and countering illegal ones. This challenge is not easy to win “.
The president of the MedOr Foundation recalled how in Africa “a crucial game is being played: we must remember that other large countries, China and Russia, have a policy for Africa. Europe too must have one. We therefore need a project. : 100 billion euros have been allocated for Africa, but we must do something now. We cannot wait two years. We must create a specific Migration compact for North Africa today, not in six months, but within a few weeks “.
“We need significant economic help from the EU to allow us to tackle this food crisis and tackle the social tensions that will arise. A very simple pact – continued Minniti, speaking to the French Senate – We help you, we help you to social stability; we help you for economic growth and prosperity, and you are committed to fighting human trafficking. If there is a refugee fleeing war or hunger, he arrives in Europe not brought by traffickers. humanitarian, but with humanitarian corridors, managed by Europe. But if there are territories in North Africa, which are in the hands of human traffickers, we must ‘regain’ them to international law “.
“The idea is therefore very simple: we must change, as has been said, the internal dimension of the Union’s migration policies. The Dublin regulation must be modified. It is clear that the idea of putting all the problems on top countries entry no longer holds up – he concluded – But if we want to change the internal dimension, we must start from the external one. Because if we face the problems in Africa, I say this as a European, it is also easier to negotiate internally. Let me explain: we can redistribute arrivals only if we are able to manage the flows. If we are not able to manage the flows, we are unable to redistribute. Precisely because decisions, still, at the European level are taken unanimously. This is the way, perhaps the only one, to reconcile all our national sensibilities “.
Source-www.adnkronos.com