Almost a thousand dead in a week – this is what life in the Mediterranean Sea looks like. The death toll of the global migrant crisis continues to increase as the world responds with growing xenophobia. The sheer horror of migrants dying at sea is compounded by the realisation that no one wants to do anything. With last week’s shipwrecks, the number of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea have gone up to over 2,500. The situation in the conflict areas showing no signs of changing, the number of dead this could easily top last year’s figure of 3,700. Many of those who died were unaccompanied children – showing the desperate desire of people to make sure their children flee the violence in their home countries.
Europe’s response to the refugee crisis has been to sign a deal with Turkey to reduce the flow of migrants through Greece. The closing of the Greek route has shifted focus to the more dangerous route from Libya to Italy. The sinking ships in the Mediterranean are no accident. They are the consequence of deliberate policies. This year, around 41,000 refugees have been rescued from the sea. With more and more people travelling through the route, the response to the sinking ships remains as disorganised as ever. Despite the thousands dead, Europe has not even managed to mobilise a multi-country rescue force for those stranded at sea. Instead, the spectre of the refugee-immigrant has only increased anti-immigrant backlash across Europe as far-right parties have made gains across the continent. The reality is grim. The world has no solution to the wars in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. The world has no solution to the hunger, disease and conflict that plague sub-Saharan Africa. It has no hope to offer to the millions stranded in conflicts they had nothing to do with. The charity, Save the Children, has called the migrant deaths a ‘massacre’. This massacre is taking place on our watch.
