Refuge Crisis, Tunisia/Greece Boat Incident and More!!
Can’t this just stop?
On 9th August 2023, history repeated itself. A boat overloaded with people that set off from the port of Sfax in Tunisia was off to Italy, with its people in the high hopes of greener pastures. Inadvertently, the metal boat, which was overloaded, capsized in the Mediterranean Sea near the Italian island of Lampedusa.
With around 41 people dead and four fortunate survivors(including a boy, a woman and two men. Rescued by Maltese-flagged bulk carrier Rimona in the straits of Sicily and then transferred to the boat of Italian coastguards: they were brought to Sicily.
A similar incident occurred on 14th June near Pylos(Messenia) in Greece where a boat carrying 400–750 migrants capsized. It had set off from Tobruk(Libya). At least 82 were dead and 104 survived. Each individual had paid a whopping $8000 for this escape.
Quite sad, but I have to say that the media also did not cover this crisis in depth. I just saw this news for a day only. Whilst, in comparison when the Oceangate went missing the media didn’t talk of anything else.
Schade!!
How To Act?
Now, with these incidents becoming as common as ever in the past few months, we need to be on our toes, in an attempt to avoid any further tragedy. In the EU, although they have an easy asylum policy but, the member countries usually reject asylum seekers. Such a case happened in 2019 when Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic rejected all the asylum seekers. In a state of helplessness, these poor people approach these first-world states with a lot of hope; only to be met with disdain.
In this case, the illegal arrivals continue, upon which Tunisian President Kais Saied said, “They won’t act as border guards”, and let the people escape when the EU put pressure on him.
Why They Leave?
Do these Westerners ever think about why the migrants come to their countries, leaving behind everything? And I mean literally everything! Who would want to leave their homeland, and move to a new land? There are certain factors which, coercion them to flee and seek a better life, with Europe being the most likely destination.
These migrants always belong to Africa(Ivory Costa, Nigeria) or South Asia( Pakistan, Afghanistan) and are fed up with the abysmal lives in their land. Spending their lives, struggling to make ends meet, they consider illegal migration to Europe as the most feasible solution for better years ahead. With unrest, injustice, and inflation, they never escape the perpetual cycle of poverty. Living a peaceful and cherishable life is just a dream. The cooperation of every state is needed.
Ever heard about a European taking refuge in Africa or South Asia? Nope, right? So, this makes enough sense to explain why people always move to Europe.
