More on the horror show for refugees in the Mediterranean
This is a very good English-language report on the mass drowning of refugees that occurred this past week off the Greek course.1
It includes migration expert Gerald Knaus, head of the European Stability Initiative (ESI) NGO who knows this subject as well as anyone. Knaus was a key player in negotiating the deal Angela Merkel made with Turkey in 2016 on behalf of the EU which provided an interim solution to the much-discussed refugee "crisis" of 2015-16. Knaus always stressed it was an *interim* solution, but the EU unfortunately let the agreement stagnate with no replacement.
In the year after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the EU has been hosting over five million Ukrainian refugees, more than five times the number of refugees in the "crisis" year of 2015-16. There are no mobs of homeless Ukrainians living on the streets, no local governments are going bankrupt, and even the political groups for whom xenophobia is their main issue aren't making a big stink (so far) about Ukrainian refugees. So the only real "crisis" in 2015-16 was how irresponsibly EU politicians reacted to the refugees then.
If it seems kind of schizophrenic that the EU can handle over five million Ukrainian refugees with no freakouts but still insists on a refugee policy that results in thousands of people drowning in the Mediterranean every year - that's because it is. It's a reflection of how drastically the political rhetoric even from senior EU leaders is divorced from what the practical realities of the refugee situation are.
The correspondent Dave Keating in the last third of the segment gives a summary of a recent EU policy change that basically regurgitates the official spin. As Knaus explains, the policy is actually a classic EU pretend-to-do-something-without-actually-doing-anything move.
Arwa Mahdawi comments grimly on the media priorities she’s observed on reporting the drowning of hundreds of refugees with the coverage of the handful of wealthy submarine tourists who also tragically died to see the wreck of the Titanic up close:
While it’s only natural to be glued to the Titan [tourist submarine] story, it’s far from the only recent maritime tragedy in recent weeks. And yet it’s absorbing a disproportionate amount of the world’s attention, empathy and resources. Last Wednesday, one of the worst tragedies that has ever occurred on the Mediterranean Sea took place: a fishing boat carrying about 750 people, mainly Pakistani and Afghan migrants, capsized on its way to Italy. There were 100 children below deck in that ship. One hundred children. The exact number of fatalities is unclear: so far we know that 78 people have been confirmed dead and as many as 500 are missing. Those are heartbreaking numbers and yet hundreds of dead and missing migrants have failed to garner anywhere near the amount of attention from the US media as five rich adventurers.
I’m not saying there hasn’t been any coverage of the Greek shipwreck. Of course there has. But it pales in comparison to the attention that’s been given to the Titan’s disappearance. The rescue efforts also couldn’t be more different: a frantic rush to save five wealthy people versus a shoulder shrug at the idea of 100 children dead at the bottom of the sea.2 [my emphasis]
And the behavior of the Greek government in making excuses for their lack of action - which could have been literally criminally negligent or even actively malicious - hasn’t been inspiring a lot of confidence in anyone who is not actually celebrating the mass drowning as a victory for EU refugee policy.
The BBC has obtained a computer animation of tracking data provided by MarineTraffic, a maritime analytics platform.
Their data shows hours of activity focused on a small, specific area where the migrant boat later sank, casting doubt on the official claim it had no problems with its navigation.
The fishing boat had no tracker so is not shown on the map. Neither are coastguard and military vessels which do not have to share their location.3
On June 21, over 30 more “migrants” (a word often used by both government officials and the press to make refugees sound like casual tourists) drowned trying to reach Spain.4
Volker Heins and Frank Wolff remind citizens of the EU that the current brutal policy and callous cynicism toward refugees officially promoted by far too many EU political leaders has become a major threat to the preservation of democracy and the rule of law in the EU itself:
Once again, a debate has flared up in Europe and especially in Germany about the control of migration through the construction of fortified borders. [German] FDP [Free Democratic Party] chairman Christian Lindner is pushing for the "physical protection of the external border" by fence. [German] Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser [SPD, Sociual Democratic Party] even claims to have perceived a "momentum" to examine possible asylum claims only at the external borders of an ever more isolated European Union. What is usually overlooked is that the new walls around Europe are creeping and inconspicuously damaging democratic society. They create a situation where liberal democracy is breaking its own rules. And they are accustoming the population to images of distressed, injured or dead migrants at Europe's borders – borders that supposedly serve to protect the citizens of this continent.5 [my emphasis]
Tragedy in the Mediterranean: Was the migrant boat disaster avoidable? FRANCE 24 English YouTube channel 06/15/2023. (Accessed: 2023-23-06).
Mahdawi, Arwa (2023): The Greek shipwreck was a horrific tragedy. Yet it didn’t get the attention of the Titanic story. The Guardian 06/22/2023. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/22/the-greek-shipwreck-was-a-horrific-tragedy-yet-it-didnt-get-the-attention-of-the-titanic-story> (Accessed: 2023-23-06).
Beake, Nick & Kallergis, Kostas (2023): Greece boat disaster: BBC investigation casts doubt on coastguard's claims. BBC News 06/19/2023. <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65942426> (Accessed: 2023-23-06).
Jones, Sam & Smith, Helena (2023): At least 35 people feared dead after dinghy sinks en route to Canary Islands. The Guardian 06/21/2023. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/21/deaths-dinghy-sinks-canary-islands-spain> (Accessed: 2023-23-06).
Volker M. Heins, Volker &Frank Wolf (2023): »Festung Europa« oder: Was die Mauern mit uns machen. Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 7:23, 62-70. Translation from German is mine.