by B. R. GOWANI
author and journalist Sally Hayden’s investigation discovered:
since 2014, over 27,000 people have died in the Mediterranean Sea
also, the Greek Coast Guards have continued to be notoriously cruel
they use “violence” against people and even “disable” boat engines
most are desperate migrants escaping poverty/injustice/persecution
British-Somali poet Warsan Shire once wrote a poem about refugees
following is an excerpt from the poem titled “Home“
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
so aptly describes so many of these migrant situations ….
things have never been easy for the refugees
but it has never been so harrowingly hard
it’s not just the country they’re escaping from that is the mouth of a shark
every nook & corner, outside their own country, has a mouth of a shark
the callous human traffickers who overload boats for more money
the life-threatening routes taken and the deadly border crossings
the armed border patrols of the country the refugees try to enter …
…
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni once said:
“Repatriate migrants and sink the boats that rescued them.”
Meloni government’s record on refugee issue is indeed dismal
Britain sends its refugees to Rwanda, ruled by West’s man Paul Kgame
on June 14, 2023, a fishing trawler with approximately 750 people capsized
this deadly incident happened off the Greek coast
a Greek coast guard vessel kept on watching while the trawler sank
from the 750 people on board, only about a hundred have survived
over 300 of the victims were of Pakistani origin
Pakistanis were forcefully sent below the deck, others were on the top deck
Europe’s Commissioner for Home Affairs on the tragedy:
the calamity is the “worst tragedy ever” to occur in the Mediterranean Sea
Ursula von der Leyen, the EC president, said she was “deeply saddened”
theirs are just perfunctory statements — not taken seriously
if von der Leyen was really “deeply saddened,” what is she doing about it?
Senior Advocacy Advisor Daniel Gorevan of Save the Children tweeted:
“These deaths are tragically not unexpected. Member States have gone to extraordinary lengths to close off all routes to children and their families seeking safety in Europe. Often their only option is to take dangerous journeys by boat, and tragedies like this sinking are the inevitable, deadly result.”
“The fact that people continue to die in the Mediterranean should be a wakeup call for EU governments and institutions currently negotiating the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which risks doubling down on the approach of deterrence and containment at EU borders, making the Mediterranean the deadliest migration route in the world.”
Western countries amassed wealth by colonizing and looting others
their borders are now closed;
the refugees either die or go to other poor countries
independent migration policy expert, Zoe Gardner noted
“The horrific disaster that we saw last week off the coast of Greece was not the first mass drowning of the summer and this one off the Canary Islands will not be the last.”
and …
“And next summer it will be the same, just as last summer, and this will continue until Europe changes its approach to refugee protection, changes its approach to migration.”
but the Western countries are only selectively heartless as
plenty of compassion was evident when …
Canada, France, the UK and the US
engaged in substantial efforts to find the OceanGate sub
but as fate would have it …
sadly, the sub had imploded; none of the five people survived
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com