According to survivors, the fishing boat carrying mainly Afghan and Pakistani migrants towards Italy capsized almost instantaneously on Wednesday. At least 78 people are known to have died, but the true number may be much higher. Hundreds of people were packed into the inadequate vessel, which foundered 50 miles from the Greek coastal town of Pylos.
In Greece, political parties suspended pre-election campaigning, and three days of mourning have been declared. But there is a reason why the doomed boat was travelling on the open sea, in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean. Migrant boats are taking bigger risks and making longer journeys to avoid the patrols and illegal pushbacks documented in Greece. During his campaign to be re-elected prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis made political hay by channelling Trumpian motifs and promising to extend a border wall with Turkey.
As this week’s tragedy illustrates, draconian deterrence measures do not stop irregular migration; they force desperate people to contemplate still more dangerous actions. But it is not only Greece that should take stock. Throughout Europe, governments are disingenuously claiming that the erection of high walls and barbed-wire fences, and the palming off of responsibility for asylum seekers to third-party countries, can be construed as a moral act. “Breaking the people smugglers’ business model” has become the justification for a Fortress Europe strategy to insulate some of the world’s richest societies from the consequences of global crises.
Drivers of forced displacement – conflict, the climate emergency, attacks on human rights and economic insecurity – have become features of the 21st-century geopolitical landscape. But the new Europe, increasingly influenced by the radical right, is busily outsourcing its conscience via dubious deals. On Sunday, the EU outlined a potential agreement with Tunisia’s authoritarian leader, Kais Saied, in which the north African country will receive economic aid in return for ramping up border control and facilitating repatriations from Italy.
Mr Saied recently promoted a conspiracy theory that black African migrants are being deployed as a threat to Tunisia’s Arab-Muslim culture – leading to violent attacks on sub-Saharan refugees. Neither this, nor the appalling abuse of migrants held in neighbouring Libyan detention camps funded by Italy, appears to have given the EU pause for thought. In fact – in accordance with the wish of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni – the rules on “safe” non-EU destinations for applicants denied asylum were watered down last week. Britain, of course, still plans to summarily dispatch irregular migrants to Rwanda, in contravention of international law.
This week, the UNHCR reported a record 19.1m rise in forced displacements year on year. Europe, to its lasting discredit, is largely leaving the world’s poorer countries to cope with the fallout. But without more safe and legal routes to European countries, a very small proportion of these people will try to reach the continent somehow. And as was the case this week, some will die in the attempt. A change of approach and a change of heart is needed.
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