A report into the deaths of Africans in the Mediterranean highlights a reluctance to help those fleeing danger
The Council of Europe's damning report into the horrific deaths of 61 people in the Mediterranean last year is a wake-up call to European states – people fleeing atrocities are putting their lives at risk to reach safety on the continent.
Details of the unnecessary suffering of those who died are extremely distressing. The majority, including two babies, died from thirst and starvation over a two-week period. It is a disgrace that Europe and Nato's failure to act meant "many opportunities for saving the lives of the persons on board the boat were lost".
We don't know the personal circumstances of all of these people, but we know about the atrocities taking place in Libya at the time, that forced many people to flee their homes. We know some were refugees from sub-Saharan African countries, such as Eritrea and Ethiopia, where we know human rights abuses, including torture and sexual violence, consistently take place. Some of the nine survivors on the boat have since been recognised as refugees by the UN, suggesting many on board were fleeing individual persecution. Whatever they were fleeing from, they were desperate to reach a place of safety, but instead were left to die by the people they thought would help them.
The questions need to be asked: why were they abandoned by the same Nato forces acting to save the lives of people on the ground in Libya? Why did the European coastguard and military vessels ignore their calls for help? The comparison in the report with the Costa Concordia disaster is stark – particularly the speed of the search and rescue mission. This raises some serious concerns for us: the people fleeing Libya were clearly not seen as a priority, nor as the responsibility of European or Nato forces.
It should be noted this was not a unique event. The UN estimated that at least 1,500 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2011 and this tragedy has echoes of the Christmas Island disaster, when 30 asylum seekers, including small children, drowned off the Australian coast in December 2010.
It seems that people taking desperate measures to reach safety in Europe, and elsewhere in the west, are seen as a threat, rather than people we have an obligation to protect. Even when atrocities and conflict are being widely reported, panic seems to be the default setting when people begin arriving on our shores. This was evident by reactions at the time of the Arab spring – France and Italy called for passport-free travel to be suspended to prevent "an influx" of people travelling through Europe.
The UK continues to tighten its borders today. We were appalled a fortnight ago, when in the same week that the foreign secretary, William Hague, called for the violence in Syria to stop, the home secretary, Theresa May, announced a change in transit visa rules for people from Syria and Libya, meaning that those passing through UK airports must obtain a visa before travelling. We know that people fleeing conflict often have to leave at very short notice, and with embassies closing in Syria, it will be almost impossible for people to arrange to get a visa. Human Rights Watch has also reported that Syrian forces have planted landmines at the borders refugees are fleeing over. So Syrian people are trapped, and the UK is closing off one way for them to reach safety.
We spent last year celebrating our proud tradition of protecting refugees on the 60th anniversary of the UN convention for refugees, which has saved millions of lives, and which the UK and all European countries have signed. So rather than wasting time debating border arrangements, the UK government must work in solidarity with other EU member states to ensure our doors are open to people fleeing human rights violations and persecution. When people are in need of our help, we must live up to our international obligations and offer it. Only then can we be sure we are doing all we can to prevent more unnecessary deaths.
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