The refugee ship disaster near Greece
The refugee ship disaster near Greece
This is what the actual EU refugee policy produces
Reuters reports on the horrific refugee-drowning disaster in the Mediterranean near Greece1:
As of this writing, estimates by officials and news services range from in the 70s (based on the number bodies actually recovered) to over 600. Many of the passengers on board the ship operated by people smugglers/human traffickers were reported locked below deck. Whether the ship itself can be found or inspected is not yet known. It was reportedly in a particularly deep part of the Mediterranean when it sank. “The boat is never expected to be raised. As of Friday, the search for survivors was called off.”2
This disaster sent me back to listen again to this Nanci Griffith piece, a lover’s-quarrel song repurposed visually in this video as a political protest song, "Hell No (I'm Not Alright)." The sentiment fits the moment.
The details around the sinking of the ship need to be clarified by a serious official investigation. Greece has been accused of engaging in illegal “pushbacks” of ships carrying asylum-seekers recently. And there have been reports that several of the survivors described the Greek Coast Guard tying ropes to the ship and tipping it over. If true and done deliberately, that would amount to a grotesque case of mass murder.
I wrote here recently about Andreas Babler, the new leader of the Austrian Social Democratic Party, who is willing among other things to call out xenophobic immigrations and refugee policies for what they are. Following is my translation from German of a Twitter thread he posted.3 He accompanies it with this image and the text, “We must leave no one behind. Over 500 people in flight were drowned in the Mediterranean. Europe's asylum policy must respect human rights.”
Over 500 people were capsized and drowned in a boat near Pylos off the coast of Greece on Wednesday - including over 100 children. The boat set sail from Libya with around 700 people on board who risked their lives in search of protection and safety. 1/7
A tragedy to which we should not close our eyes in 2023. Along with every innocent child who drowns in the Mediterranean, our European values and achievements perish. Humanitarian values for which we have fought hard and must defend every day. 2/7
What we have seen in recent years is a degeneration in the discourse to the point of inhumanity. Whether we should rescue people from drowning or just watch it happen should not be what we as Europeans must still be discussing. 3/7
Social Democracy means to have the civil courage to think big. We help people on all levels. Those are the values we live out in our private lives in our family and which we want to pass to our children on the way. 4/7
[The following tweet alludes to an anti-immigrant slogan being used by Herbert Kickl, head of the Austria’s far-right FPÖ party called for a “Fortress Austria.”]
That we help each other, that we reach out our hands to people rather than hold back, that we build bridges instead of barbed wire fences. Because historically the only thing that remains behind of fortresses is nothing but ruins. 5/7
This tragedy is not an isolated case and not a result of bad luck that broke out over us like a natural catastrophe. As long as there are no secure routes for flight [for refugees], criminal traffickers will keep making profits from human lives in the most brutal way. 6/7
So long as debates over asylum are misused for political power plays, we will be playing with the lives of people. States have to assume responsibility. Europe’s asylum policy must respect human rights. We should leave no one behind. 7/7
European politicians have cowered to xenophobic rhetoric for years and enacted policies that haven’t eased the (non-Ukrainian) refugees at whom they are aimed.
And in the poisoned political language that has developed to justify the policies that have made the EU border the deadliest in the world, and EU politician who responds to this disaster by emphasizing that what they need to do is to “take stronger measures against the human smugglers” translates to: the current deadly policy is working exactly the way it’s supposed to and we intend to continue it.
The EU leaders have known for years what a reasonable refugee policy that recognizes current realities would be. It would allow for much easier family unification for people already settled legally in the EU; set up safe options for both refugees and foreign workers to enter the EU; establish a fair burden-sharing arrangement for all EU countries for accepting refugees; make effective agreements consistent with international law with countries to take back their citizens who are rejected for EU asylum; start observing the rule of law with refugees which includes following the international refugee convention which is legally binding on the EU and each of its member countries.
Papadimas, Lefteris and Prousalis, Stamos (2023): Greece scours shipwreck site; hundreds feared drowned in boat's hold. Reuters 06/16/2023. <https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/greece-hunts-survivors-migrant-shipwreck-least-78-dead-2023-06-15/> (Accessed: 2023-17-06).
Eine Katastrophe ohne Verantwortliche? Wiener Zeitung 16.06.2023 <https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/politik/europa/2192583-Eine-Katastrophe-ohne-Verantwortliche.html> (Accessed: 2023-17-06). My translation from German.
Babler, Andreas (2023): Twitter 16.06.2023. <https://twitter.com/AndiBabler/status/1669734668487344136?s=20> (Accessed: 2023-17-06).