Just Let Them Die?
More than 130,000 migrants and asylum seekers are estimated to have arrived in Europe by sea so far this year, compared with 80,000 last year. More than 1,800 people have died in the Mediterranean so far this year that we’ve learned of. Yes, 1,800. And the ocean can swallow people faster than can be traced.
The United Kingdom this past week announced that it will not support any future search and rescue operations from Gibraltar to prevent migrants and refugees drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, stating that, “such operations can encourage more people to attempt the dangerous crossing to enter Europe.”
A UN Spokesman: “To bank on the rise in the number of dead migrants to act as deterrence for future migrants and asylum seekers is appalling… It’s like saying, let them die because this is a good deterrence.”
Meanwhile, in the good old USA, the Liberty Alliance and Conservativebyte.com folks are lamenting the Border Patrol erecting new rescue beacons in the desert near Tucson, bringing the number to 83. The beacons are part of the Blue Light of Life campaign designed to warn illegal immigrants of the danger to life of crossing desert stretches and to give them aid if they try and do so. Since 1999, 2,600 people have been found dead along that stretch of the border. Since the beacons went up, the rate has dropped by 44%. But the rate of traffic through more dangerous terrain, the desert mountains, has increased and the overall death rate has not changed. Why? Because the Border Patrol thought making the dangerous mountains a more ominous deterrent would work. Nope, it just killed more people there.
These migrants aren’t trying to break the law. They don’t need deterrents. They need sanctuary, compassion, and – if we really want to solve the problem – solutions back in their homelands. The absence of regulated open migration channels for migrants drives migration further underground, increases their risks, and entrenches smuggling mafias and crooked employers, resulting in more deaths at sea, in the deserts, and more human rights’ violations.
The UN spokesman: “…governments that do not support search and rescue efforts have reduced themselves to the same level as the smugglers. They are preying on the precariousness of the migrants and asylum seekers, robbing them of their dignity and playing with their lives.”
