The dark incentives that led to a refugee tragedy
Hundreds People may have died in the Mediterranean last week, after a boat full of migrants, many of them children, capsized and sank. It was one of the deadliest migrant disasters in years.
Please take a moment to read This article by my Times colleagues Christina Goldbaum and Zia Ur-Rehman, who traveled to Bandli, a small village in Pakistan near the border with India, often shot at during the fighting over disputed territory in Kashmir, and the birthplace of 28 of the passengers on the doomed ship. When hundreds of people die, it can be difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the loss, but the article poignantly describes the lives of two young cousins who drowned, and their family’s deep grief after their loss.
The smugglers who crammed hundreds of people onto the ship were apparently trying to reach Italy, most likely because Greece has hardened its borders in an effort to deter migrants from reaching shores and seeking asylum. (Sometimes it has gone even further, violating international law, Greek law and European Union law by expelling people who had already reached Greek territory: in April, the Times published published a video show how Greek authorities force a van full of migrants, including children and a 6-month-old baby, onto an inflatable raft and tow it into the middle of the Aegean Sea, then abandon it.)
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2019 until the first round of the country’s elections last month and is expected to secure a renewed majority in the second round this weekend, has claimed that his harsh treatment of migrants built up good will with the European Union. Indeed, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said Greek border enforcement was Europe’s “shield” because its tough tactics prevent migrants from reaching EU territory. “This border is not only a Greek border, it is also a European border,” she said said after Greece used tear gas to repel hundreds of people trying to cross from Turkey.
The European Union has gone to great lengths to deter migrants. Frontex, the EU’s border agency, has used surveillance from the air to assist the Libyan Coast Guard in intercepting migrant boats, even though there is extensive evidence that Libya has systematically abused and tortured the captured migrants. Frontex has claimed that the surveillance has saved lives, but a Human Rights Watch report discovered that it was done in the service of the Libyan intercepts, rather than rescues by other boats in the area.