New migration routes to Europe are opening up in the Mediterranean Sea, adding to the EU’s border woes as it battles the crisis in Belarus.
EU border guards said crossings in the central Mediterranean, the sea route to Italy, almost trebled last month compared with pre-pandemic levels.
While boats taking that route typically set off from North Africa, border agency Frontex said a “significant development” this autumn was the number of people making the longer journey from Turkey to Italy.
Smugglers are evading sea patrols by using luxury vessels to transport migrants, it is feared. Police are investigating links to Turkish and Italian gangs and have arrested several Ukrainian ship captains.
The sailboats used by smugglers are thought to carry up to 100 migrants below deck before being abandoned on the Italian coast.
The shorter hop from Turkey to Greece has declined in popularity, said Frontex, with crossings in the eastern Mediterranean down 76 per cent this year compared with 2019.
But the 6,240 crossings reported on the route to Italy last month were up 186 per cent from October 2019, the agency said.
In another development, Egyptians became one of the largest groups of people travelling to Italy, mainly by setting off from Libya.
Tunisians and Bangladeshis were the other main nationalities making the dangerous crossing.
The developments in the Mediterranean add to the EU's problems as another previously quiet route, the eastern border with Belarus, is now a political flashpoint.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is suspected of masterminding the rush to enter Poland. Thousands of migrants are stranded at the border, many of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The EU sought to shut the route down on Tuesday by threatening to blacklist airlines involved in smuggling people to Europe.
Airlines could be banned from the EU’s airspace and denied the right to refuel in Europe if they are believed to be involved in trafficking.
“The viable route to Europe is through a legally paved pathway, not an irregular forest trail,” said EU home affairs chief Ylva Johansson.
About 8,000 people have tried to enter the EU from Belarus this year, Frontex said, compared with only a few hundred in 2020.
Other migrants have tried to enter via the Western Balkans, a term for non-EU members including Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia.
About 40 per cent of illegal crossings in October occurred on this route, with most of the migrants coming from Syria, Afghanistan and Morocco.
The decline in eastern Mediterranean crossings was partly offset by an increase in arrivals to Cyprus.
In the west, journeys from North Africa to Spain were up from 2020, but down on pre-pandemic levels.
Elsewhere, the number of journeys to Spain’s Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, was far higher than in 2019.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Chelsea 4
Jorginho (4 pen, 71 pen), Azpilicueta (63), James (74)
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Abraham (2 og), Promes (20). Kepa (35 og), van de Beek (55)
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A list of the animal rescue organisations in the UAE
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
MATCH INFO
Juventus 1 (Dybala 45')
Lazio 3 (Alberto 16', Lulic 73', Cataldi 90 4')
Red card: Rodrigo Bentancur (Juventus)
