The home secretary is holding a “landmark” summit on Friday aimed at smashing people-smuggling gangs all over the world. I am a Syrian refugee in the UK and I believe this will lead to more people like me becoming slaves in countries such as Libya, or losing our lives in the sea.
In her announcement, Yvette Cooper says that since last spring 410 dinghies destined for Channel crossings have been seized, and 40 in recent weeks. There are 70 live investigations into smuggling activity, a recently announced 50% “uplift” in the number of National Crime Agency officers stationed in Europol – the EU law enforcement agency – and an extra 100 specialist investigators to disrupt people smuggling globally.
With all that, why are the boats still coming? Cooper doesn’t mention that more than 21,000 people have crossed the Channel this year, many of them during the time that they could have been sent from the UK to Rwanda. In the last few days, hundreds have crossed even though 12 people lost their lives on Tuesday after their dinghy broke apart.
Two days before this horrible loss of life, another death was reported – that of Abd al-Rahman Milad, described as a notorious people smuggler operating in Libya, who was assassinated there. It is not clear who killed him. But it is clear that killing smugglers will not stop smuggling.
When the home secretary talks about smashing smuggling gangs in Libya, she means to stop people like me crossing the Mediterranean. If I was in Libya today, and was prevented from crossing, I could not turn back and return home to Syria, where I was imprisoned and tortured for years. Even though many refugees end up as slaves in Libya, I would prefer that to returning.
Libya cannot return all the refugees to Syria or Yemen or Iraq, so many people like me will be stuck, unable to go forward and unable to go back. Many more will die there.
Like the plan to attack smugglers in Libya, seizing dinghies “upstream” in countries like Bulgaria isn’t working either. It is not only that smugglers stuff more people into fewer boats, leading to more deaths in the Channel. Sometimes refugees beg to get on board even when a boat is too full because they are desperate. The government wants to stop refugees moving through Morocco and Spain and Italy and France. It is too late to be talking about these countries. Start in Syria, start in Yemen, start in Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan and Sudan and Eritrea, where the problems originate.
In her announcement, the home secretary is not asking why people are running to Europe from countries like mine. Refugees did not previously come from there. But now these countries have become too dangerous for us to survive. Why did Europe and the US not do more to prevent our countries becoming dangerous before we were forced to run away? Whatever steps the home secretary and others take to stop the smugglers, refugees will try to find a way to escape.
I was in Morocco on my journey and I watched a young refugee who could not pay a smuggler for a place in a dinghy build a craft himself from empty plastic water bottles, to float on the sea to take him to the Spanish enclave of Melilla. He made it. Refugees find a way.
There is not much about refugees in the home secretary’s announcement apart from saying we are victims of smugglers. Smugglers are greedy and ruthless – but imprisoning some of them will not stop this trade. As refugees we have no one else to help us escape.
When smugglers are killed or arrested, more will come. The government talks about dismantling the gangs as if there are just a few big ones they can destroy and then the problem will be solved. But people-smuggling does not work like that. Anyone can be a smuggler. It is not complicated and it does not require a lot of resources. In so many countries and cities and towns there are people who move refugees from one part of their journey to the next part. There is a man from my village, a normal man, who is doing this. Smugglers are everywhere. We can pay for our passage through smugglers’ agents in any city in the world we choose. People crossing the Channel in France can even pay an agent in the UK for this journey.
People like me do not want to be in the UK. I love and miss my country so much and dream of returning. If the militias left Syria and my life was no longer in danger, I would go back tomorrow. Every refugee who makes it to Europe from a country like mine is a survivor. I was shot at by guards on the Turkish border, I was punched in Spain and kicked in the face while I was sleeping in Belgium. In our journey from country to country we had to hide ourselves like thieves. Sometimes this bad treatment makes us forget we are human beings. But we dream of being human beings again. The home secretary needs to understand that every refugee only has two choices – we go forward or we die.
As told to Diane Taylor
The writer is a Syrian refugee living in Britain
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