Borders Kill

Stricter migration policies and measures at the borders — including illegal pushbacks and violent detentions— have been justified as working for the greater good: that of preventing people from attempting dangerous journeys to seek safety in other countries.

This has been proven to simply not be the case. As to the why, that’s a simple answer: while the root causes of displacement stay in place and, rather, continue to worsen, there will be no end to people seeking safety.

Just this week, 3 more bodies were found at the Polish-Belarusian border. One week earlier, a Yemeni man called Ibrahim was laid to rest in a Muslim cemetery in Bohoniki. This is the same cemetery where Imam Alexander Bazarewicz performed the first series of funerals for those who had perished since the crisis started in September 2021.

A 19-year old Ahmad Al Hasan from Syria and an unborn child whose Iraqi family couldn’t attend the farewell ceremony were some of the first known casualties. Today, there are 37 confirmed deaths in total.

The situation is no better in other borders and migration routes across Europe. These are just a fraction of the casualties within the last week

“It is with great pain that we confirm the death of seventy people after two shipwrecks on the Canary Islands route. Among the victims, there were twelve youngsters that didn’t exceed eight years of age.”

These numbers are beyond appalling already— however, they do not reflect the total count of victims of the prolonged and demonised “refugee crisis.” The lost at sea, those forgotten in abandoned vehicles, and the unsearch for might never be added to any lists.

Sources

https://www.facebook.com/podlaskieOPH

https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/16/families-mourn-young-migrants-who-died-at-belarus-poland-border