As 400 migrants – including children – are feared to have died after a boat capsized off Libya, two days ago, I propose to examine the desperate journeys migrants are taking to reach Europe.
The boat, carrying about 550 migrants in total, overturned 24 hours after leaving the Libyan coast, according to some of the 150 survivors who were rescued. The survivors were mostly sub-Saharan Africans.
Officials say there has been a marked rise in the number of people trying to sail from the north African coast to Europe, with 8,500 rescued from the sea since Friday say the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
With summer approaching, and the Mediterranean Sea warmer , over 500,000 people are waiting to set out from Libya, according to EU statistics. However, migrants are also using other sea routes to get to their destinations.
CENTRAL MEDITERRANEAN ROUTE
This is the name of the migratory flow coming from northern Africa towards Italy and Malta through the Mediterranean Sea. For years, this route has been an important entry point for illegal migrants to the EU, and in 2008, nearly 40,000 of them were detected.
These were mainly nationals from Tunisia, Nigeria, Somalia and Eritrea. In 2009 the Italian government signed an agreement with Gaddafi’s Libya, pledging to patrol the coastline, thus preventing this influx.
This changed in 2011/12 when the eruption of civil unrest in Tunisia and Libya in 2011 created a massive increase in the number of migrants along this route.
In 2014, more than 170,000 migrants arrived in Italy alone. Many migrants have come from Libya, where the lack of rule of law and basic law enforcement allow smuggling networks to thrive.
Syrians and Eritreans were the top two nationalities to have travelled to Italy by sea, but numerous Africans coming from Sub-Saharan regions also use this route.
The increasing number of migrants departing from northern Africa also led to an increase in the number of people who perished at sea.
PUGLIA AND CALABBRIA ROUTE
This route refers to illegal migration coming from Turkey and Egypt and also includes the migratory movements between Greece and Italy. The types of the vessels detected in the Ionian Sea are different from the ones used on other maritime borders – the smugglers tend to use yachts rather than fishing boats.
The smugglers on board the sailing boats are the only people visible while navigating and are sometimes accompanied by women in order to avoid attracting the attention of the patrolling authorities. All migrants tend to be hidden below deck in overcrowded conditions with insufficient ventilation.
WHY SO MANY?
The Middle East is in turmoil. People are escaping the atrocities of ISIS. The so-called Arab Spring has collapsed and previous despots have been replaced with chaos. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have added to the instability of the whole region. Many people, blighted by poverty, are simply seeking a better life. From a humanitarian point of view who can blame them?
WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS?
First, the deaths resulting from these perilous journeys constitute a human tragedy of Biblical proportions. Viewed from any perspective, we cannot conclude otherwise.
Second, Italy alone is on the front line of this mass movement of people. The tiny island of Lampedusa ( population 2,000 people cannot “process” these would- be immigrants to Europe, and neither can the larger island of Sicily. Italian ships patrolling the area have been responsible for saving many thousands from perishing at sea, yet have been unable to prevent innumerable deaths.
Third, the dream of this “better life” is seldom fulfilled. Far from being welcome, these immigrants usually find themselves employed in the most desperate of conditions, such as living in in plastic greenhouses joined to the vast areas of Southern Spain growing vegetables destined for the supermarkets of Northern Europe. EU regulations regarding pay and living conditions are completely ignored.
Europe is overcrowded. Europe cannot solve the ills of the world. Europe cannot finance medical aid, food or shelter for this vast number of people. Inability to fulfil the expectations of these people seeking a better life often leads to resentment, marginalisation and even radicalisation.
What is seldom addressed is another issue: what of the countries able young men abandon? Bereft of the very people who are needed to rebuild, a poor country quickly descends into further poverty and turmoil, and the vicious circle is never broken.
SOLUTION? I don’t have all the answers. However, this myth of a “better life” MUST be shattered. In order to address the real issues, we must first stem the flow of migration to Europe. The toothless EU has been dithering over this issue for years, and yet we have no unified policy. If it means ships must patrol the Mediterranean, rescue and return people to their place of origin, so be it.
Then we must rigorously pursue those who trade in human misery. Finally we must make restitution to those countries we have defiled, attacked or neglected. Only then will this “better life” become a possibility.
31 comments
Thank you for bringing attention to this problem I had no idea the numbers of fleeing migrants were so high.
Dylan, thankYOU for showing an interest in something other than Amanda Knox! We have a massive humanitarian crisis with these people, but the Southern Mediterranean countries alone cannot cope with influx. EU money for Italian patrol boats has been withdrawn and the tiny island ( Italian) of Lampedusa is struggling. To me, it’s a global issue. Migration partially originates from failed states, or countries run by despots. And we all need to work for peace in the M East- ISIS is seizing territory at an alarming rate, forcing people ( Muslims like themselves) to flee. The map shows you the route of these pitiful migrants.
I agree, Danielle, that this is a massive humanitarian crisis. It really is not productive at this point to simply lay blame – which must go back to 2011 or much earlier really – but is now a time to try to stem the carnage insofar as possible.
I would make note that among those fleeing are not merely Muslims but also Christians – some from at least as far away as Nigeria and maybe farther. I admit a certain ignorance of these populations – are the Nigerians perhaps workers in the Libyan oil industry? At any rate, substantial sectarian savagery against Christians has been reported as well as the ISIS savagery against any group that does not follow their own preferred sectarian codes. This is all sounding rather like something predicted 1900+ years ago. A VERY sad state of affairs especially for those caught up in it without means of escape.
Yes, the root cause is even much earlier than you mention. In a short article I cannot examine all the causes. That the whole of the Middle East is a powder keg at present is indisputable, and in my second article, which in a way supersedes the first one, I emphasise that the immediate imperative is to save as many lives as possible.
Read it. Very good, thanks.
Thankyou !
Yes, I agree. As the old saying goes, when you are up to your derriere in alligators, that is not time to plan how to drain the swamp. But this really all goes back maybe 4,000 years in some sense – to very old grievances – some real and some made up. Examined from that perspective, it all seems much less a mystery.
Yes, there is no doubt that even recently the West helped create the chaos in Libya when Gaddafi was deposed. There is blood on our hands from the Afghan and Iraq wars. This had the effect of destabilising the area. Most of these immigrants are coming from Syria which of course is “ruled” by ISIS.
Self flagellation is not the order of the day now; the imperative is to save human lives, although I heard there are only 28 survivors out of 800 in the capsized boat.
To me, the only way to REALLY help these poor people is to stabilise Libya, and dare I say it, destroy ISIS before it takes more territory and lives.
There is little appetite in Europe for boots on the ground, and we are approaching a General Election in UK. This would not be a popular policy, but it may have to come to just that in the end.
If you are interested in Islamist issues, radicalisation, and how we are all in peril, please follow my articles and comment. It is my ultimate aim to produce some pieces about Islamic fundamentalism.
For the Iraq war I wholly agree: it was the wrong war for the wrong reason, and it created a huge power vacuum that had to be filled – unfortunately by all the wrong parties.
For Afghanistan we had a very clear threat: bin Laden and al Qaeda. We needed to take steps to neutralize that. Pres. Bill Clinton attempted to deal with this threat “surgically” on 20 Aug 1998 by sending 75 cruise missiles into al Qaeda’s Afghan training camps. Unfortunately, someone leaked the matter, and bin Laden and his top lieutenants receive warning by satellite phone just minutes before the missiles hit their mark. Reports were that bin Laden and his crew watched the missiles destroy their beds in the rear-view mirrors of their vehicles as they sped away in the night. Had the attack not been leaked to the bin Laden family (probably by a “family friend”) it is likely that 9/11 and even the bombing of the USS Cole might have been averted.
Afghanistan also had the widely-publicized insanity of weekly “wife-shooting day” in the football stadium – presaging ISIS beheadings really. This also was a huge humanitarian problem brought on by the Afghan Taliban – which in turn was created (along with bin Laden and al Qaeda) by western (including U.S.) intervention during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan – as well as by Iranian support of terror organizations.
Truth is, there is just all sorts of blame there to spread around.
In Libya, there was an internal faction working to overthrow Gaddafi, and just who was most involved in supporting that effort initially I am not wholly certain. At the time I had the impression that certain European entities had provided support and then asked for U.S. support when their resources began to run out – but my recollection is based on news accounts that may or may not have been terribly accurate. Maybe you have a better understanding of the specific dynamics over time.
The next big threat I tend to expect will involve some effort by Putin (or perhaps a successor) to organize and control terror movements and organizations including AQ, AQAP, ISIS, ISIS/AQ Libya, ISIS/AQ Sudan, some remnant groups perhaps from old Bosnia, and Iran. It will probably appear very subtly at first, but the target will become very clear.
Yes, Afghanistan was necessary, with a clear goal, as you said. The hunt for Bin Laden was necessary. However, the putative Clinton intervention was reported differently here, so I cannot offer an opinion.
That the Western democracies encouraged the Arab Spring is indisputable. Democracy is obviously a worthy goal, but these countries have been ruled by dictatorship for years and the people have only a vague concept of what it entails, namely, you have to make concessions and can’t have it all your own way.
I do not mean to sound patronising, but some people recently released from tyranny are quite likely to be tyrannical themselves. That we had no plan to stabilise Iraq post Sadam, and the consequences of that, should teach us lessons.
I am mainly worried by ISIS, though, which is off the scale in terms of barbarity.
Afghanistan was necessary and there was a clear goal. Unfortunately, Bush 2 did not see this as his primary goal. After his “election” in late 2000, G.W. Bush made two “predictions” that almost nobody seems to remember: that the U.S. – then in a budget surplus and paying down debt – would go into a recession; and that we would be having a war with Iraq: Saddam had dared try to have daddy Bush killed. That turned out to be more important than bin Laden. Recall also that in the hours after 9/11 – with all American aviation in a Ground Stop – flights were allowed to leave carrying members of the extended bin Laden family. The Bush family and the bin Laden family (Osama’s brothers primarily) were long-time friends and former business associates. This seems to have another possible connection.
Back in Aug 1998 when Pres. Clinton sent cruise missiles to kill Osama bin Laden, he was also under siege and threat of removal over the dirty blue dress – Republicans leading the charge in retaliation for Nixon 24 years earlier. Before launching the missile strike, Clinton was obligated to inform a key committee of Congress – controlled by Republicans. The plan also went into the daily classified intelligence briefing. At that time (and I think still) former presidents were granted a retirement perq of optionally receiving the daily intelligence briefings. Only one former President that I know of actually availed himself of this privilege: George H.W. Bush (i.e. “Sr.”) And as I stated, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. are close friends and former business associates of the extended bin Laden family.
Somebody called somebody, and Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone rang in the middle of an Afghan night – and as Osama’s entourage was speeding away in the night, missiles turned the beds they had been sleeping in into empty funerary pyres.
So we had the Cole bombing and 9/11, and it was ultimately left the Barack Obama and SEAL Team 6 to deal with Osama bin Laden.
The two-party system is at once a major strength of America and a huge weakness. Strength because the electoral system here makes it relatively difficult for one party or even a coalition of parties to control the Presidency and both houses of Congress at the same time – and also creates immense stability most of the time. Weakness because the two parties (and especially one in particular) become so focused on defeating the other party that they often fail to apprehend the damage they are doing to the nation as a whole and indeed even the Earth as a whole.
Now, on the “Arab Spring”, I don’t mean to be patronizing either, but our first President – that great former English soldier, officer and statesman George Washington – once made a pretty astounding observation: he stated that democracy is inherently unstable and unworkable except within a context of predominantly shared Christian faith and tradition. I cannot independently state whether that is really true or not – and I would tend to say Judeo-Christian anyway – but I do note that although democracy seems first to have arisen in Greece, it did not survive Alexander – and in Rome it did not survive Julius. And I “think” the longest-surviving and farthest-reaching democracies in history must certainly be English Parliamentarianism and American Constitutionalism. Ireland and Israel and several States of the EU may be trying very hard to catch up there. But democracy and Sharia do not seem terribly compatible IMHO. And I do agree about the barbarity of ISIS.
Hi there! Your excellent comment deserves a proper response, and I will reply to you tomorrow. You might like to read my new articlehttps://snn.bz/?p=36613, which touches on some of the points you raise here. Will definitely reply tomorrow.
Thankyou for explaining the Bush/ Bin Laden connection. I was not aware of this. The story re Clinton which predominated here, is that he was given the chance to get Bin Laden, but that he acted indecisively. The fact that he was embroiled in scandal might have affected the way other significant events were reported.
As for the Electoral System, I am aware of how the US works. the two party system here was the order of the day until quite recently, but for the past 5 years we have had a Coalition Government because no party had an overall majority. The last few years has seen the rise of some minority parties both on the right and the left, and these may well influence the outcome of our impending elections in May, which is why I have pointed to the lack of political will to become embroiled in yet another conflict in the Middle East.
Geographically, we are potentially at much greater peril from ISIS than the US. We have young men and women who have been ‘groomed’ and go to fight for what they perceive to be a truly Islamic State. They often return disillusioned, but radicalised.
I think we can all unite behind the assertion that ISIS is built on a perversion of Islam. But again I agree that Islam even in its moderate form is not conducive to democracy. This religion is completely weighted in favour of men, and the women are used as agents of social control and are made responsible for the misdeeds of men. Given this overt deep divide, I fail to see how an Islamic State can be democratic, especially if full Sharia Law is applied.
This is a particular interest of mine, and I intend to write articles in the near future about the rise and effects of radical Islam.
I do have a new article online, about the recent tragedy which also examines the underlying causes for this exodus of people.
Thankyou for taking the time to write to me.
Danielle
Thank you for your kind response. I cannot really imagine living under a coalition government, frankly, but I suppose it cannot be entirely different or certainly worse than living with one party in the White House and the opposition in control of Congress and dragging both feet (and every other appendage as well) out of “hatred” for the President!
Well, truth is, I am not terribly interested in debating the relative merits of the U.S. and U.K. systems of government. North of her 110 mi, where highway I-5 meets the 49th parallel, there stands a large and symbolic gateway arch connected to no wall. Inside, large wrought iron gates without functional hinges hang against walls emblazoned “May these gates never be closed”. On the north-facing pediment frieze, the words “Brethren living together in unity”, and on the south-facing frieze, “Children of a common mother”.
We must never forget Who is Mother.
We share a common history and a common body of law and jurisprudence. We even share to a large degree a common culture. And without desiring to invoke national or cultural elitism, this still likely has some bearing on why – on that other topic we were debating – I have found it so easy to switch from defense of two wrongly-accused and persecuted college students to defense of the right of a horribly and tragically aggrieved family to know and understand the truth of the unspeakable loss they have suffered so that they may heal at last to whatever degree yet possible.
Back to the matter at hand, we have seen very similar and tragic migrations in the past: the Vietnamese “Boat People” of the late 1970’s; the Cuba “boat” migrations since the early 1960’s, and from which we saw the tragedy of Elián González and his mother in late 1999; the ongoing efforts of people from Central and South America to enter the United States via our southern border – often resulting in great tragedy; heroic but often tragic efforts to escape E. Europe prior to 9 Nov 1989; the voyage of the MS St. Louis (cf. Voyage of the Damned) in 1939 — only to name but a few. (It is curious coincidence that I have Jewish relatives who left Germany between 1936 and 1939 – the children first to boarding schools in England – and who finally settled in… St. Louis, Missouri!)
Most of these migrations and the socio-economic-political upheavals that drove them have been rooted in various forms of economic or political stress and have only masqueraded at times as religious issues. But what we are seeing now with al Qaeda and ISIS is really quite different: I think it really is a religious conflict and one with incredible roots in history and having literally global proportion: it is literally a battle for hearts and souls.
Okay, confession here: since 3 Sep 1978 I have been what you would call a born-again evangelical and Pentecostal Christian. It is really a decision that started at least two years earlier, and which has ties back to Sept 1968 and further to at least the summer of 1962 or earlier: a whole series of “coincidences” that are simply too strange and clearly connected to dismiss as mere coincidence. Once I was saved, as we say, I became enfolded in the oldest Pentecostal church in Seattle, and took classes in the church’s highly-respected bible school – including several taught by a Messianic Orthodox Jewish woman as well as some under a linguist and Hebrew scholar. And from this I developed an understanding that Judaism and true Christianity are really just two faces of the same thing – a concept that my Jewish relatives and especially my aunt, who lost so many of her childhood playmates to the gas chambers and ovens, have a very difficult time with. Nevertheless – and despite that “Christianity” has so often been practiced in gross violation of its own scripture through the centuries – I see that true Christianity has always been but a dissident sect of Judaism. In some very real sense the relationship between Christianity and Judaism might be said to parallel that between the U.S. and the U.K. / British Commonwealth.
(Recall also that of the 66 books of the Protestant Christian scripture canon – and despite my bible teachers’ jokes about the Italian prophet ‘Malacci’ – precisely 66 were written by Jews. And Jesus is a Jew.)
Islam is something entirely different, and it is actually antithetical to both Christian and Jewish faith – in some sense far more antithetical than Hindu or Buddhism or the Grecco-Roman pantheon. All of this makes much more sense if one studies the origins of Islam, compares both scripture, and realizes that despite all the rhetoric about “People of the Book”, Islam was born in Arabia literally in angry rebellion against the Christian and especially Jewish communities there and their values and practices.
And yet despite that it is inherently a goal in Islamic eschatology that it should supersede both Christianity and Christ and physically eradicate the Jewish People, it remains that we who are Christians (and Jews as well) cannot simply seek to do the same to Islam: we must tolerate its presence and respect its people while condemning the inhumane acts committed “in its name”.
I will turn away from the Meredith Kercher case, because we are not going to agree there.
Although I have no religious apartenance, and would call myself a humanist, I must declare myself anti- Islamic. You are correct re Christianity and Judaism. The first Christians were in fact Jews.
But to return to Islam: I cannot support a religion which was born out of anger and which explicitly asserts its superiority over other religions. Islam and Sharia law are not compatible in any way with democracy. Democracy is based on the recognition of equality and compromise, and these qualities are not endemic in Islam.
There is the overt suppression of women; the desire to insist on conformity to an image of passivity and obedience, when in reality we are NOT naturally passive and submissive, nor are we in any way responsible for the misdeeds of our menfolk. That Islamic women ‘choose’ this way of life is disconcerting and puzzling.
While the rest of the world largely embraces emancipation, education, and equality, Islam is still locked in Medieval systems of belief and therefore cannot progress into democracy.
This would be of less concern were it not for the fact that this belief system has an effect on the lives of others who are not Muslim, and as you rightly say, have a different belief system which has, by its own definition the obligation to tolerate the intolerable.
I need to tell you something else about myself here. I am male and yes, 1950 does refer to my DOB. In the early 1970s, we attempted to pass a Constitutional Amendment stating in part, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” That amendment fell short of actual ratification by just three states out of the required 38 – although legislation such as Title IX implemented many of its provisions anyway. But Washington State was one of the 35 which did ratify the amendment, and moreover, Washington State overwhelmingly passed as State Constitutional Amendment having essentially equivalent provision.
I worked on both the state and national ratification campaigns – and I still care deeply about this issue.
I am not inclined to call strict Islam medieval: it think it goes much farther back than that: even medieval Christian Europe did not treat women as we have seen. Going back to the New Testament, consider women such as Lydia who were independently wealthy and were the founders of churches. Going further back, consider in the Book of Judges, ch. 4, and Deborah and Jael. Then later consider Naomi, Ruth, Esther, and the unnamed Shunamite in 2 Kings 4 and 7. Judeo-Christian tradition did not really treat women as a subjugated class at all. But it was common in some other cultures – including some on the Arabian peninsula.
But there is something much deeper going on here – in a sense, barbarity for the very sake of barbarity.
Will save for later.
I think we are singing from the same proverbial hymn sheet here. When I used the word ‘medieval’ I was referring to acceptance of killing, violence as part of life, not just to the treatment of women.
But stay with me because I shall be returning to ISIS again very shortly.
Indeed so, and if you read my latest article you will see I have tried to expand a little, without detracting from the human crisis.
These vast, sad migrations are the result of failed US foreign policy. So sad to see the leading US presidential candidates have no solution except advocate more war, which is the cause in the first place.
How is the failure of the despotic Libyan “government” of Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi in a civil war all but sponsored by the nations of the EU somehow the fault of US foreign policy?
The horrible 3, Hillary Clinton, Samantha Powers, and Susan Rice are primarily responsible for the horrible debacle of Libya and US foreign policy failure. And the US is quite happy with Arab despots until they threaten to sell oil for Euros or otherwise undermine the dollar as an international currency.
I suggest you read Justin Raimondo of http://www.antiwar.com or Eric Margolis at http://www.ericmargolis.com if you want information in more depth. Sharmine Narwani is a great journalistic source as well.
You talk like a neocon Republican “pundit”… eh?
Just because Americans believe in this conservative-liberal divide doesn’t mean I am one or the other. You talk like a numpty BTW.
I don’t think it’s just failed US policy. Tony Blair, our PM at the time, prosecuted an illegal war on Iraq, based on claims of WMD to be used imminently. He lied to the British people and he lied to Parliament in order to get his motions passed. He hung on the coat tails of Bush, and together we are responsible for the deaths of tens and thousands of Iraqis, not to mention the deaths of the soldiers sent to fight there. And is Iraq more stable than under Saddam?
I really don’t have to answer that one!
I have an answer: Iraq is by no means as “stable” as it was under Saddam. That does not make Saddam a hero, but it certainly does not ipso facto justify toppling him and leaving chaos.
I absolutely agree with you. There are people in Iraq who would return to the rule of Saddam in the blink of an eye. Cruel as he was, despotic as he was, the chaos which has ensued in the wake of his demise has never materialised into a better life for the Iraqi people.
Libya, like Iraq, was one of the most stable Arab countries, with widespread education and free medical services. Until the American and NATO led Vandals showed up.
The Americans were quite happy to do business with Gadhafi once upon a time (the country’s finance minister used to complain how much he had to pay over to Dick Cheney’s Halliburton for shakedown money, er, infrastructure contracts).
One interesting word to consider: Lockerbie.
Libya had nothing to do with Lockerbie, too bad Americans believe your Gulf of Tonkin made up stories. And you haven’t rebutted any thing I said, not that I think you’re capable, with all due respect.
The UK and France were complicit also. We both bombed Libya, and encouraged the people to rebel.
I agree with you- there is mass hypocrisy here, and I am guilty of it in my first article, by speaking of a way to end the flow of mass migration, when we, along with the US and France, ( with the implicit consent of Western powers) precipitated the overthrow of Gaddafi.
The UK previously had sold arms to Libya, and even returned the wrongly incarcerated (IMO) Lockerbie bomber to Libya.
But the human catastrophe, which WILL continue, is the priority now.