The seemingly-plausible suspicion that the presence of NGO rescue boats are a 'pull-factor' for migrants to cross the Mediterranean has been repeatedly debunked.
Last year, the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell himself rejected the idea.
He said pull-factors were not supported by evidence, when the EU's operation Sophia was brought to an end over similar claims. "Every person interprets the world according to their own ideas. Me, I prefer to look at the figures," Borrell tol...
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Already a member? Login hereNikolaj Nielsen, an EUobserver journalist, is embedded on the Ocean Viking for the coming weeks, reporting exclusively from the boat on the Mediterranean migration route.
Nikolaj Nielsen, an EUobserver journalist, is embedded on the Ocean Viking for the coming weeks, reporting exclusively from the boat on the Mediterranean migration route.