Migration and Humanitarian Crisis in Mediterranean
SESAY: Well, the White House has delayed the decision on withdrawing from the Paris Climate Change Agreement again. Meanwhile in Italy, global warming was front and center for former U.S. president Barack Obama. He made a rare public appearance to talk about the effects of climate change on food at a conference in Milan. Life after the presidency appears to suit Mr. Obama, he left his tie at home and looked relaxed as he talked about escaping some of the demands of being commander-in-chief.</s>BARRACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: So you don't have the freedom of movement to be able to just take a walk or to sit at a cafe because there's always the security concern around you. I don't miss that. Yes. Now I am only captive to selfies so --</s>OBAMA: Which is almost as bad. I can walk anywhere as long as I'm willing to take a selfie every two steps.</s>SESAY: Well, Tuesday's speech was Obama's first overseas since leaving office in January. More than 6,000 migrants were rescued after attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa into Europe. U.N. officials say up to 245 people remained missing and many are feared dead in two shipwrecks. For more on this, Lisa Daftari joins me now from New York. She is a Middle East expert and editor-in-chief on the Foreign Desk. Lisa, always good to see you. According to the U.N. Refugee Agency there's been a spike in the number of migrants and refugees attempting to make the dangerous crossing from Libya to Europe. Here's some alarming statistics. More than 1300 people are believed to have died or disappeared while trying to cross from North Africa to Italy since the beginning of the year. Over 43,000 migrants and asylum seekers have used the central Mediterranean route to reach Italy this year. Lisa, what do we know about what is fuelling this spike at this point in time?</s>LISA DAFTARI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE FOREIGN DESK: What I can tell you from covering this region and this crisis for a very long time is that this has been ongoing. The reason they're calling it a spike is that there's been more of a reporting on what's going on, meaning the U.N. or these NGOs are more keen to report what's going on versus before this was silently going on because there were so many refugees pouring out of these countries. Now the question really should be at this point today, why does it become a concern only when we have video footage, when we have photos? When they're already drowned in the ocean? When they're already out one of our airports? Why don't we look at this other humanitarian crisis at the root of the problem? Why are they leaving their countries? What can we do for them at that point? A lot of these -- many, many of the people I interview, they want to stay in their countries. If they can be provided with an opportunity to live safely. We're concerned about our own national security, Europe is concerned about their national security. If they can't absorb the sheer numbers of migrants coming through in terms of economy, in terms of job creation, the point is that we should be looking at this much more seriously at the root of the problem.</s>SESAY: Yes, but instead what we have is in February the E.U. leaders completing a deal to hand Libya's fragile government hundreds of millions of dollars for them to stop migrant boats in their territorial waters. What if anything is the Libyan government doing to halt these dangerous journeys?</s>DAFTARI: Now unfortunately there is so many individuals who are taking advantage of this crisis, meaning whether they're NGOs or the government or individuals who are smugglers, there's human trafficking, there's sex trafficking. Unfortunately these poor, poor families are at the mercy of these other individuals and again what we're seeing is an outpouring and at the very best an economic migrants. At the very worst you have people who are not going to be participating -- or individuals who want to be active members of society. So at this point we can give money to Libya. They can take advantage of that. Everybody here has an agenda and unfortunately it's not what's best for the migrants that's talked about.</s>SESAY: Yes, and that being said, there is a question to be asked. Are E.U. leaders doing enough to prevent unnecessary deaths at sea? Are they prioritizing search and rescue operations?</s>DAFTARI: No, it doesn't seem that way. What seems like -- they're triaging when it's already at the point of the crisis, of finding them at shore. Very unfortunately. If the E.U. is serious about truly stopping this hemorrhaging, they would take more of an initiative to create those safe zones, to join the U.S. and arming the Kurds who can help in the battle against a lot of these insurgencies that are creating this chaos. It's spreading throughout the region. These migrants aren't just coming from Syria and Iraq. They're coming from Tunisia, they're coming from Libya, they're coming from all sorts of countries where people are just picking up and leaving. And again, the point is, there is much that can be done before we can find them on the shore. Before they can either be rescued or unfortunately not be rescued at that point. But I think the serious talk would be to be helping these people in their native countries.</s>SESAY: Yes, there's no doubt about that. The prime minister of Malta has in recent months floated this idea of migration pacts with North African countries saying that -- and blasting other E.U. leaders for a lack of action, a lack of consensus when it comes to dealing with this problem. Is something like, you know, migration pacts, is that a viable idea? Are there any serious ideas on the table right now?</s>DAFTARI: There aren't any. Unfortunately with the E.U. you would see them doing a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking and talking about what could be done and what should be done. But instead, we see the problem is getting worse day by day. And again thousands of thousands every year and already the numbers are startling in the year 2017 so far as to how many have perished this way.</s>SESAY: It is -- it's a desperate situation to think we have been talking about it year after year after year and nothing really changes. The only constant in all of this is death. Sadly. Lisa Daftari, we appreciate it. Thank you so much.</s>DAFTARI: Of course.</s>SESAY: Well, coming up later today, it was a horrific attack that shocked the world. CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward exclusive and very disturbing video of the aftermath of last month's chemical attack inside Syria. See her report coming up at 1:00 this afternoon in London, 8:00 tonight if you are in Hong Kong, and there we must leave it. Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay. "WORLD SPORTS" is up next. You're watching CNN.