'A ship carrying about 250 people has capsized off the coast of Sicily, Italian news agency ANSA reported Friday.Very sad indeed but I'm intrigued by the use of the word 'migrants'. Were these 'migrants' on their way to Italy as invited by the Italian government? Were they hoping to land in Italy and claim asylum or just disappear into the Italian countryside before moving onto the rest of Europe to claim benefits?
The ship is believed to have been carrying migrants.
Authorities responded to a mayday from the ship, which was about 60 miles offshore, Maj. Leonardo Ricci told CNN.
Earlier this week, another boat carrying more than 500 African migrants sank off the coast of Lampedusa'
Since the early 2000s, Lampedusa has become a prime transit point for illegal immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia wanting to enter Europe. In 2004, the Libyan and Italian governments reached a secret agreement that obliged Libya to accept those deported from Italian territories. This resulted in the mass return of many people from Lampedusa to Libya between 2004 and 2005 without the endorsement of European Parliament.[2]
By 2006 many immigrants were paying people smugglers in Libya to help get them to Lampedusa by boat.[3] On arrival, most were then transferred by the Italian government to reception centres in mainland Italy. Many were then released because their deportation orders were not enforced.[4]
In 2009, the overcrowded conditions at the island's temporary immigrant reception centre came under criticism by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The unit, which was originally built for a maximum capacity of 850 people, was reported to be housing nearly 2,000 boat people. A significant number of people were sleeping outdoors under plastic sheeting.[5] A fire started during an inmate riot destroyed a large portion of the holding facility on 19 February 2009. Most of the immigrants were from Ghana, Mali and Nigeria and were working illegally as seasonal farm workers.[6]
In 2011 many more immigrants came to Lampedusa during the rebellions in Tunisia and Libya.[7] By May 2011, more than 35,000 immigrants had arrived on the island from Tunisia and Libya.[8] By the end of August, 48,000 had arrived.[9] Most were young males in their 20s and 30s.[10] The situation has caused division within the EU, the French government regarding most of the arrivals as economic migrants rather than refugees in fear of persecution.[11] The Libyan ambassador to Italy stated that Gaddafi controlled illegal immigration to meet his goals- "he wanted to turn Lampedusa black with Africans".[9]
'... courtesy of ECB generosity, Italian debt continues to be "cash good collateral" with the ECB, and as a result Italian banks can't wait to pledge and repo it with Mario Draghi in exchange for virtually full cash allottment. In other words, the more debt the Italian Tesoro issues, the more fungiblecash the Italian banks have to spend on such things as padding up their cap ratios and making their balance sheets appear like medieval (any refernce to Feudal Europe is purely accidental) fortresses.'
'It appears, given news from Italy today, that European depositors are increasingly coming to therealization that deposits in their local bank are not 'safe' places to put their spare cash, but are in fact loans to extremely leveraged businesses. In a somewhat wishy-washy, 'hide-the-truth'-like statement on Monte dei Paschi's website, the CEO admits to, "the withdrawal of several billion in deposits." Of course, the reasons why these depositors withdrew their capital from the oldest bank in the world will never be known though of course he blames it on "reputational damage" from their derivative cheating scandal.First Cyprus, now Italy, next?
Apparently the fact that this happened to come about six week after said scandal and the bank's third bailout, and that the prior two bailouts did not result in such an outflow of unsecured liabilities (at least not to the public's knowledge), was lost on the senior management, as was lost that a far greater catalyst may have been the slightly more troubling events in Cyprus in the second half of March. Unsurprisingly, as Reuters notes, the CEO declined to give a forecast on the level of deposits at the end of the first quarter of 2013; no wonder given the bank just doubled its expectations for bad loans and the 'Cypriot Solution' dangling over uninsured depositor hordes.
Customers' deposits at Italian bank Monte dei Paschi fell by "a few billion euros" ... the bank said in a document posted on its web site on Saturday.'
'‘Financial difficulties’ force Bank Network Investments SpA (BNI) to begin a Bank Of Italy authorized freeze on all customer accounts.I'm off to withdraw some money from each of my bank accounts now!
On May 31st Bank Network Investments discretely posted an announcement on their website that they would be freezing all of their customers accounts for 1 month freeze on citing financial difficulties.
The announcement was posted and the bank gave customers 7 days to act before the Bank of Italy approved freeze went into effect.
The bank’s customers are saying they were completely unaware of the notice being posted and are just now finding out about it when they go to the bank or the ATM for the first time.
The media certainly hasn’t reported on it and news of the freeze is only now starting to make its way around the internet after a complaint was posted on the popular Italian consumer rights website Adiconsum along with a photo of a shutdown ATM.
The freezing of the customer’s deposits, in a nation that apparently doesn’t have a mechanism like the FDIC to insure customer deposits against losses, has sent a shockwaves of terror across Italy raising fears that other customers will lose their deposits entirely.
In turn speculation is growing that other banks in Italy and across Europe may soon suffer the same fate as Europe officials announce they are planning ATM and Bank withdrawal restrictions to deal with a Greece exits from the Euro.''
'Think Italy is going to have a torrid time in the markets this week...'No shit, Sherlock!
'The only reason we are still able to roll over our sovereign liabilities is because, for the most part, the true extent of the fiscal risks we face hasn't yet been priced in to yields on global markets. What's happening on the eurozone's periphery, even if the current crisis is averted, is just the beginning.'There's plenty more in Liam's Telegraph article but I warn you it is not a cheerful read.
'In my view, a sudden and massive re-pricing of Western sovereign risk will happen much sooner than is widely expected. For now, global investors are in denial, assessing that default risks in many of the big emerging markets are much greater than in the West.Who is Liam Halligan. He is chief economist at Prosperity Capital Management. Greece, Ireland, now Italy the EuroZone is not in a good state and most people are in denial.What should we do, how do we survive the coming financial apocalypse? I don't think any but the super-rich can or will.
This is nonsense – particularly when you consider that the governments of the "advanced" countries are tacitly reliant on debasing and depreciating their currencies in order to lower their liabilities, so imposing on their creditors a form of "soft default".
At some point soon, and it brings me no pleasure to write this, private sector Western investors, together with our emerging market creditors, will drastically cut their exposure to Western sovereign debt. This will come as a rude awakening to the US and the big European sovereigns, who for years now have abused their "risk-free" status.'
'One hundred riot police have been drafted from St Laurent du Var, next to Nice, to reinforce the border between Menton and Ventimiglia. They will join the Border Patrol to prevent illegal immigrants entering France.The good news just keeps on rolling in doesn't it? And amongst the 'refugees' how many Islamist terrorists will be hiding?
The uprisings in North Africa, in places such as Tunisia and Algeria, has seen tens of thousands of immigrants fleeing their home countries. Italy has borne much of the brunt in Europe for the influx of immigrants, overwhelming some areas and turning them effectively into refugee camps.
The Italian Prime Minister has vowed to repatriate as many as possible, but it takes time to process refugee applicants, to determine if they are economic refugees or whether they are in actual danger if returned to their home country. Many are trying to skip from Italy to neighbouring countries before their application is denied and they are returned.
Thousands fled to Ventimiglia, on the border to the French Riviera, and are trying to escape through to France. The local Border Patrol at Menton found itself overwhelmed and reinforcements were quickly sent. Christian Estrosi, leader of the UMP in Nice, will be aware of the Front National breathing politically over his shoulder as they made large gains in the previous local elections on the anti-immigration ticket. We can expect a strong stance on border controls by Mr Estrosi as he seeks to allay immigration fears in Nice and bordering cities.
A local lawyer has told us of prosecutions of people that have given lifts to people ‘hitchhiking’ from Italy to France, for aiding and abetting illegal immigration. It may be wise to check for a legitimate EU passport before being the good Samaritan, as there is a high chance of all the passengers in your vehicle being asked for ID when crossing the border, and you are responsible for the passengers in your car.'
'Silvio Berlusconi faces a growing backlash from Italian women, with a group planning to throw pairs of knickers at his mansion in protest at his attitude towards women and his involvement in an alleged prostitution ring.'I am not sure this will phase Silvio Berlusconi that much; he would appear to have seen more knickers than most men.
'Credit default swaps (CDS) measuring risk on German, French and Dutch bonds have surged over recent days, rising significantly above the levels of non-EMU states in Scandinavia.Read the whole piece and ask yourselves how on earth do we all get out of this mess? I really don't see a way, it looks like doom and disaster all the way to me.
"Germany cannot keep paying for bail-outs without going bankrupt itself," said Professor Wilhelm Hankel, of Frankfurt University. "This is frightening people. You cannot find a bank safe deposit box in Germany because every single one has already been taken and stuffed with gold and silver. It is like an underground Switzerland within our borders. People have terrible memories of 1948 and 1923 when they lost their savings."
The refrain was picked up this week by German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. "We're not swimming in money, we're drowning in debts," he told the Bundestag.
While Germany's public and private debt is not extreme, it is very high for a country on the cusp of an acute ageing crisis. Adjusted for demographics, Germany is already one of the most indebted nations in the world.
Reports that EU officials are hatching plans to double the size of EU's €440bn (£373bn) rescue mechanism have inevitably caused outrage in Germany. Brussels has denied the claims, but the story has refused to die precisely because markets know the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) cannot cope with the all too possible event of a triple bail-out for Ireland, Portugal and Spain. '
'Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi says the EU should pay Libya at least 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.3bn) a year to stop illegal African immigration and avoid a "black Europe".Blackmail?
Speaking on a visit to Italy, Col Gaddafi said Europe "could turn into Africa" as "there are millions of Africans who want to come in".'
"Police reinforcements were urgently sent to southern Italy after African migrant workers armed with rocks and metal poles fought pitch battles with locals in a protest over appalling living conditions and alleged racism. "I can find nothing on the BBC about this subject although there is an Italian news story featuring in the headlines "Italy is to open one of the world's first prisons for the exclusive use of transgender inmates.".
