#MigrantLivesMatter.Dontletthemdrown.
A European social movement to stop the demonisation of refugees and asylum seekers.
According to human rights organisation, Amnesty International, a weekly average of 100 migrants perished while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in 2015. This sums up to 1,600 so far this year. The figure, provided by UNHCR (United Nations Human Commissioner for Refugees), also stated that 3,500 migrants died while trying to escape via the same ocean last year. Another intergovernmental organisation, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has come up with a larger number of those who died: 1,750 casualties, 30 times higher compared to the same period last year. These statistics suggest that the current EU approach towards ‘illegal smugglers and their boats’ is failing.
That the appalling death toll is finally making the news should not be a surprise. Rights group as early as last November predicted these disasters when the Italian government ended the Mare Nostrum mission (£7m-a-month) then. It was replaced with the EU-wide effort, Triton which cost €2.9m, a third less than its predecessor. The new operation is however a paltry border patrol ‘ within 30 miles of the Italian coast’ as opposed to the former that has a mandate for active ‘search and rescue across 27,000 square miles of the sea’.
The policy effects have demonstrated that it has not only failed to ‘deter boat crossings’ but also endanger those who make the dangerous trek. The latest and most deadly capsizing of a migrant boat on Sunday (19 April) that killed more than 800 is a case in point.
The IOM believes that based on current projections, the number of deaths could reach as high as 30,000 by the end of the year. Suffice to say, this would make the Mediterranean a ‘mass grave’, a phrase coined by the President of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Loris De Filippi to emphasise the gravity of the situation.
While EU governments gathered for an Emergency European Council meeting to discuss on the matter, the anti-immigrant right has since sought to capitalise on the tragedy.
Down under, Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott advised Europe to adopt ‘strong’ measures that will ‘end the people smuggling trade’. The only way to do so, he quipped, is to ‘stop (i.e. turn back) the boats’.
This ‘tough love’ approach is admired by the UK anti-immigrant and Eurosceptics UKIP. Its leader, Nigel Farage has stated that he is against a common EU approach to tackling the crossings, arguing that this would entice ‘waves of millions’ of Africans to get to the continent. Nevertheless, he is amenable to Christian Syrians given protection in the UK as they have ‘nowhere to go’. This is not his first time making a similar comment. In late 2013, some of his supporters voiced opposition against his recommendation of accepting Christian Syrian refugees, exhorting that Britain is too full to accept more refugees. Farage and his partiality towards Christian Syrian refugees begs more questions than answers. It discriminates muslims and non-Christians who could be escaping from persecution as well. Has he bought into the belief that Christians are more likely to be integrated into the UK because the country is and should remain ‘Christian’? Someone should ask him.
On the more extreme fringe, The Sun’s columnist, Katie Hopkin has voiced a militarist approach dressed up with racist overtones. In an op-ed for the paper, she ‘doesn’t care if migrants die while trying to leave their countries by boat’. Furthermore, the UK should heed Australia’s example when it comes to dealing with the boats i.e. ‘threaten them with violence until they bugger off’. Her piece quickly descends into hate speech:
Make no mistake, these migrants are cockroaches. They might look a bit like ‘Bob Geldof’s Ethiopia circa 1984’ but they are built to survive a nuclear bomb…. Once gunships have driven them back to their shores, boats need to be confiscated and burned on a huge bonfire.
These remarks have since been condemned by TV celebrities and politicians such as Little Britain actor, Matt Lucas; tabloid writer, Piers Morgan; Labour MP, Diane Abbott; and TV/movie star, Russell Brand on Twitter. Even the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has waded into this debate. The Society of Black Lawyers has since filed a complaint to the Metropolitan Police against the writer, her editor, David Dinsmore and the publisher for incitement to racial hatred.
The borrowing and modification of rhetoric from the Australian Liberal Party is especially worrying. Over the years, NGOs and the UN have repeatedly voiced concerns on the conservative government human rights violations against asylum-seekers. Hence, when libertarian right parties such as UKIP and right wing commentators start to emulate the discourse in the Antipodes, it is not far fetch to see the popularisation of dehumanising language against people forced into migration.
Already, the media has slapped the group with an umbrella term ‘illegal immigrants’ , consigning them to a status of criminality. In Australia, those who arrive by boat are derided for ‘queue jumping’ as they are accused of depriving others who await patiently in other developing countries a chance for resettlement. ‘Turn back the boats’ which is touted by the Howard and now Abbott government as a ‘tried and tested’ method to prevent deaths at sea is voiced by the likes of Hopkins though there is no conclusive evidence that it has done so. By bandying these words around in the press, the public is gradually desensitised and mislead into believing that ‘stopping the boats’ will protect Europe’s border from the ‘massive illegal hordes’.
To date, the EU meeting has yet finalised nor announced any concrete measures (beyond sending more ships and perhaps pledging to increase funding for Triton, as of publishing this report). A leaked confidential document shown to The Guardian revealed that only 5,000 resettlement places would be offered to refugees. In 2014, 150,000 who successfully crossed the Mediterranean are expected to be swiftly repatriated under a new ‘rapid-return programme’. This does not include the more than 36,000 who landed in the coasts of Italy, Malta and Greece this year.
Using these numbers as a rough guide and assuming these 5,000 places are reserved only for boat arrivals (by no means ascertained in the article), this would work out to a boat survivor having a mere 2.6% chance of being picked for resettlement. To put it another way, only 3 out of 100 refugees who came by boat would have a chance of starting a new life in the EU. This ‘lottery ticket’ method of determining who gets to stay is cruel, to say the least. Faced with the prospect of death, poverty, hunger and persecution, migrants would likely take their chances even after being expelled.
With the number of boats expected to arrive and increase during the summer, and with the EU incapable of delivering a sustainable humane and collective approach, expect to see street demonstrations for and against refugees and asylum seekers.
Egged on by right-wing tabloids with reports on incoming boats, the anti-immigrant, nationalist, and racist right are likely to ramp up their ugly rhetoric. Expect fear-mongering diatribes against immigrants stealing jobs, cheating welfare or more sensationalised stories. The recent Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) rallies that started in Germany which has spread across Europe is a precursor of things to come.
On the other hand, even liberal groups such as Amnesty International is starting to take creative action. Its two hundred supporters zipped themselves inside body bags on Brighton Beach on Wednesday (22 April). A wreath with a banner and hashtag #DontLetThemDrown was also placed to denounce the preventable deaths.
The day before, several hundreds gathered outside the Harmondsworth and Colnbrook detention centres (21 April, Tuesday) to draw attention to the cruel and inhumane conditions that ‘illegal immigrants’ faced in these prisons.
Another direct action was organised by the London Black Revolutionaries on Friday (24 April) which saw protestors marched from London Eye to Westminster. Upon arrival, an estimated 200 staged a ‘die-in’ outside the parliament claiming that the deaths ‘is a racial issue and ‘black and brown bodies have no sanctity’. In Athens and on the same day, more than 2,000 demonstrated outside the European Commission Offices, demanding the strengthening of search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
On the same day, approximately 7,000 students in Berlin participated in a ‘school strike’ i.e. walk out of their classes to express solidarity with the migrants as well as criticise EU and Germany’s mismanagement of the crisis. [Read a report from Stream Al Jazeera and search hashtags, #SchulStreik (School Strike) and #RefugeesWelcome for more demonstration pictures]
On Saturday (25 April), Movement Against Xenophobia held a rally outside the European Commission office in London with speakers from organisations such as Stop the War Coalition and Asylum Aid. [Search for hashtag #Migrantlivesmatter and #Dontletthemdrown for more pictures of the demo].
