This month alone there have been ten other cases of boats in distress that have resulted in the deaths for some of those onboard.
LAST WEEK’S SHIPWRECK off the coast of Greece, in which hundreds of people are thought to have died, has brought the plight of those attempting to reach safety in Europe to the forefront of public consciousness once again.
According to NGO workers in the Mediterranean and a number of Irish politicians, EU policies are directly contributing to making the situation more hazardous for those attempting to make the journey to Europe. “And then, not wanting to sound cynical, I’m afraid I’ve been doing this too long to not also be afraid that this will all blow over again,” she added.
“The scale of this disaster was very big, which it is why gaining more media traction. But that’s also because it happened close to European shores, and many of the drownings happen closer to Libya or Tunisia.” ‘Very chaotic’ While the number of refugees on the island may have come down from its peak in 2015, conditions for those who arrive by boat or are rescued nearby are not much better now, according to Nihal Osman, a project coordinator with MSF on Lesbos.
“So they’re not providing any more food or basic services to people who were denied international protection and the ones who were granted refugee status. MSF provides medical assistance to those in the camps and to new arrivals, but the presence of what appear to be anti-refugee vigilantes is complicating their efforts.
Safe pathways For Willemen, tragedies such as the one which occurred last week are avoidable. However, until the EU’s approach to asylum seekers and other migrants changes, she believes that they will continue to happen. “We hear on a relatively regular basis that people tell us they would have preferred to die at sea than go back to Libya, which says quite a lot about the situation there,” Willemen says.
“There are now almost no safe and legal paths for people from countries like Sudan and Afghanistan to make it to Europe without significant funds and connections,” she told The Journal. EU countries used to conduct their own search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, particularly back in 2015 at the height of that decade’s so-called ‘migrant crisis’, but that is no longer the case.
The body conducts a small number of rescue operations in the Mediterranean but mostly alerts coast guards authorities in north Africa and Europe of boats in distress via their planes. “We are out at sea quite often. For sure it raises questions about why we are never asked by Frontex to assist a distress case.”
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