7 minute read
THE MORALITY OF OUR SHORES
by Eurovisie
The Mediterranean’s Money Wall and European Apathy Órlaith Roe
Within the deepest and darkest environment of human suffering lies a familiarity, a devastating pain that is unknown to those of us privileged enough to escape the confines of unspeakable tragedy. It is a movable tragedy, one that washes up on our European shores with sinister frequency, one often ignored. In recent times, it seems as though many of us have placed the European refugee crisis within the parameters of 2015, tucked within those twelve months and revisited via news reels and photography documenting the unspeakable events that ravaged human life.
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The crisis of migration in our modern era cannot be restricted to a twelve-month timeframe. Approximately 1.3 million refugees claimed asylum in Europe throughout 2015, the highest number since World War II, but the grave problems surrounding migration and displacement are only growing, and they have stretched themselves into this new decade. The Covid-19 pandemic, naturally, shifted and narrowed the world’s focus regarding societal crises and the so-called ‘hierarchy’ of issues to address.
“The past two years have offered a new form of refugee crisis, one with added suffering, increased human rights abuses, and an even blinder eye turned by European powers.’’
In April of 2020, over the Easter week, the Mediterranean Sea lay claim yet again to tragedy of the highest magnitude, of which was barely spoken of or addressed at the time. 10 Eritreans and 2 Ethiopians died in circumstances that can credibly be attributed to the negligence and malice of European and Italian authorities, while the surviving 51 refugees were forcibly taken to Libya to be imprisoned in the Tarek al Sika detention centre, one of the most infamous camps in Tripoli. Statewatch documents the events as follows: east of Tripoli, heading north. The next day it isin difficulty and launches requests for help. Volunteer Alarm Phone operators intercept the messages and immediately warn the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres (MRCCs) in Malta and Rome. The dinghy was also sighted, together with four others roughly in the same stretch of sea, by a reconnaissance plane of the European agency Frontex, which in turn reports its presence both in Valletta and Rome, for the interventions of the competent authorities, it being clear - as the agency itself will later specify - that the task of organizing any rescue operations is not up to Frontex but to the competent maritime authorities, duly notified.
The position of the dinghy - from which the requests for help are multiplying - is known from the beginning: it entered the Maltese SAR zone but it is much closer to Lampedusa than to Malta. Hours and days pass but no intervention is recorded to reach it and rescue the shipwrecked.”
A combination of exhaustion, hypothermia, drowning, and desperation contributed to the death of twelve refugees, with negligence and slow intervention by the competent authorities being the overall cause of death. With the entirety of these events taking place less than thirty miles from Lampedusa, the endorsement of the abandonment of the shipwrecked refugees for five days at sea is evident through the silence and inaction of Italian maritime authorities, who were duly notified of the boat’s status, and their complicity in the senseless loss of life of twelve migrants.
The events over the Easter week of 2020 in the Mediterranean Sea were nothing the region had not experienced before, no surprises or one-offs, and they were far from the final time. But the arguably guilt-free mindset of the relevant European authorities, comfortably excusing themselves from responsibility, is harrowing. But perhaps what is more pertinent than the questionable morals of maritime affairs and ‘crisis-mode’ decision making, is the money wall harnessed by the European Union in order to pay their way out of inevitable problems. Moreover, a money-wall that is creating temporary solutions to a longer-term issue that should be of growing concerns to the entirety of Europe.
The New York Times published a report in September of 2019 detailing the various forms in which the EU has effectively paid-off other countries to deal with refugees and potential asylum seekers along with the stark lack of consideration for the most basic of human rights afforded to such people. The EU has paid billions to Turkey in order to prevent the country from allowing refugees to cross the border into Greece and has funded the Libyan coastguard to guard Mediterranean waters and detain migrant boats, forcing them back to North Africa. Moreover, the Union has also reached further afield and has established detention centres in Niger in order to process asylum seekers; while these centres are labelled as positive EU and UNHCR funded ‘safe havens’ for vulnera- ble refugees, they are cruel and rotten places with scarce resources, opportunities, or rights for those it detains, with its decision makers a continent away.
After the 2008 Friendship Treaty between Italy and Libya was renewed in 2018, Italy’s ability to block Libyan migrants was reactivated after being suspended during the overthrow of former Libyan leader Gaddafi in 2011. As outlined by The Migrant Project, Libya was promised 4.2 billion euros of Italian investment as compensation for colonization and in exchange for stopping migrants from embarking for Europe from its shores. In what many commentators have lauded as a reparation-led treaty, Italy have simply utilised the pact to achieve controversial and highly questionable goals pertaining to anti-migrant policies and shrouded their moves in friendship.
When the EU originally began to funnel money into Libya in order to lessen the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, there was hope and positivity in the Union’s promises to improve the deplorable and notorious detention centres in the region infamous for abuse, and to curb the flow of human trafficking. On the contrary, little progression has been made in the region and the plight of migrants in Libya has steadily worsened in recent years with the establishment of various EU funded businesses enabled by the United Nations. According to a report by the Associated Press in December of 2019, the EU has sent more than 327.9 million euros to Libya, with an additional 41 million approved in early December, largely channelled through U.N. agencies. As indicated by the outlet, “The AP found that in a country without a functioning government, huge sums of European money have been diverted to intertwined networks of militiamen, traffickers and coast guard members who exploit migrants. In some cases, U.N. officials knew militia networks were getting the money, according to internal emails.”
The AP investigation further exposed the brutality of life within EU established camps; relentless torture at the hands of the militias, extortion and abuse toward migrants is commonplace. “The militias involved in abuse and trafficking also skim off European funds given through the U.N. to feed and otherwise help migrants, who go hungry.”
With migrants at the forefront of public consciousness yet again with recent events in Afghanistan, Europe’s inability to handle its migrant policy humanely and effectively is growing into a larger problem that is bound to spiral out of the Union’s control if it does not act with swift effica of vulnerable Afghan refugees, and the Union’s lack of consensus only serves to blur the EU’s collective response. cy. The EU’s tense relations with Belarus seem to be only worsening with recent threatening actions on behalf of Lukashenko and his manipulation.
For years the Mediterranean Sea has laid claim to human life, vibrant potential, and new hope. While many tragedies that took place at the water’s shores were accidental and unavoidable, too great a number of stolen lives were due to European apathy and selfishness.
The EU’s money wall and the shaking-off of responsibility is not sustainable – and its crumbling is imminent. Institutions such as the Union and the United Nations, priding themselves on humane policies and equality, are failing at their most fundamental foundations, protecting vulnerable human life. More than that, they are actively funding the abuse and neglect of those they vow to protect. As a born optimist, I deeply hope we find ourselves on the most humane side of history’s refugee journey, and protecting the lives of those traversing our shores.
