The Greek authorities have acted swiftly to bring nine suspected people smugglers court today following a mass drowning last week off the country’s coast. They stand accused of piloting a fishing trawler that sank off the Greek coast last week, leaving hundreds missing and presumed dead in one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters. All have pleaded not guilty.
When a mass drowning such as this one hits the headlines, governments squirm as their own culpability is probed. Just weeks ago, the Greek government was accused in the New York Times of involvement with pushbacks of migrant boats, and many questions have been raised about the Greek coastguard’s actions in this latest disaster.
In response, ministers follow a well-trodden path and try to divert blame towards “evil people smugglers”. It’s what Priti Patel, the former UK home secretary, did after mass drownings in the Channel in November 2021. No matter that kingpins of smuggling operations generally don’t pilot overloaded leaky boats across dangerous expanses of water. Sometimes, however, impoverished migrants do, in exchange for free or reduced passage.
The organisation Alarm Phone – which monitors migrant boats in distress and alerts coastguards to boats in peril, providing GPS locations and other vital information – said in a statement that it had emailed the Greek authorities and Frontex, the European border agency, alerting them to the fact that 750 people were on board an overcrowded boat that was in distress near Kalamata. According to a Twitter post, “nobody intervened and the boat capsized”. The organisation appealed to the authorities to “stop blaming people on the move for their own death”. (Greek authorities have claimed that those on the boat repeatedly refused assistance.)
While many smugglers may be greedy and ruthless, they are responding to human demand with a form of supply, albeit one that is high-risk and overpriced. Smugglers are not the cause of the mass migration of people searching for survival and safety. Contrary to government adverts, people do not decide to uproot from their families, homes and communities based on a smuggler’s slick TikTok post. In fact the decision to escape is made first and the smuggler is sought second – often using personal recommendations from within communities rather than social media enticements.
The gap between the anti-migrant rhetoric of many heads of government and the rising numbers of people migrating is growing. Rishi Sunak boasted that plans being rolled out to prevent people crossing the Channel in small boats were working, with a 20% reduction in crossings so far this year – just days before more than 2,000 people crossed in the space of a week. According to the latest data released by the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project, in 2022 nearly 3,800 people died on migration routes within and from the Middle East and north Africa – the highest number since 2017, when 4,255 deaths were recorded. The figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true number of lives lost during irregular migration journeys.
Clearly the deterrent mechanisms are not working. The UK sees deporting people who arrive on small boats to Rwanda as the jewel in its deterrent crown. Yet asylum seekers threatened with being sent there say the plan will actually increase people smuggling, as anyone who is sent there will beg or borrow money to pay smugglers a second time to get out of the east African country.
Irregular migration undoubtedly poses complex challenges for governments, but achievable pragmatism rather than unachievable rhetoric is required. Can conditions in people’s home countries be improved to prevent some from leaving? Can those who arrive here have their protection claims processed swiftly so they are not forced into expensive, taxpayer-funded limbo while their claims are processed?
The scale of the presumed loss of life from this boat is difficult to comprehend. No doubt many people were fearful from the moment they squeezed onboard, but also hopeful that the precarious vessel would take them to a safer place. The yearning to survive is engrained in human DNA irrespective of global postcode. That should be the starting point for government policies to tackle the migration challenge.
Diane Taylor writes on human rights, racism and civil liberties
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