Mediterranean Sea
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The lack of a truly European asylum and migration policy is now turning the Mediterranean into a graveyard. Our immediate priority must be to save lives at sea. When people are dying right in front of our eyes, human decency demands that we hold out our hand to save them."--Martin Schulz, 2015 |
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The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely separate body of water.
21st century and migrations
In 2013, the Maltese president described the Mediterranean Sea as a "cemetery" due to the large number of migrants who drowned there after their boats capsized. European Parliament president Martin Schulz said in 2014 that Europe's migration policy "turned the Mediterranean into a graveyard", referring to the number of drowned refugees in the region as a direct result of the policies. An Azerbaijani official described the sea as "a burial ground ... where people die".
Following the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck, the Italian government decided to strengthen the national system for the patrolling of the Mediterranean Sea by authorising "Operation Mare Nostrum", a military and humanitarian mission in order to rescue the migrants and arrest the traffickers of immigrants. In 2015, more than one million migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.
Italy was particularly affected by the European migrant crisis. Since 2013, over 700,000 migrants have landed in Italy, mainly sub-Saharan Africans.
See also
- Mediterranean Basin
- Mediterranean climate
- Mediterranean diet
- Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub
- Mediterranean Games
- Mediterranean race
- Mediterranean sea (oceanography)
- Mediterranean Union
- Familial Mediterranean fever
- History of the Mediterranean region
- Holy League (Mediterranean)
- Inland Sea, which is sometimes named the Japanese Mediterranean Sea
- List of islands in the Mediterranean
- List of Mediterranean countries
- Suez Canal
- Babelmed, the site of the Mediterranean cultures
- Piri Reis, early Mediterranean maps
- Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly
