Europe's symphony of sympathy does little to stop migrant drownings

Sympathy symphony

Officials of leading international organisations, one after the other, released sympathetic statements, urging that steps be taken to prevent such tragedies in the future.

European Council President Charles Michel said that he is deeply saddened by the tragic shipwreck and that EU leaders will address the issue at the European Council in June.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres called on Europe "to find a solution to this European problem and define an effective migration policy so that these tragedies do not happen again".

On his part, Greece's caretaker prime minister, Ioannis Sarmas, declared three days of national mourning and blamed "the ruthless smugglers who exploit human unhappiness".

These statements which we have heard thousands of times before do little to solve the problem.

While the smugglers must be prosecuted for their role, they are not the cause of the problem. They are merely people who are out to profit from other people's miseries. The smugglers are believed to have made three million Euros out of the 700 hundred migrant passengers.

New EU migration and asylum policy

The EU has recently reached an agreement on a new migration and asylum policy. Its two main pillars are to manage the arrival of asylum seekers and to streamline border procedures.

Hungary and Poland voted against the agreement while some others, including Bulgaria and Malta, abstained.

The agreement requires member countries either to accept a number of asylum-seekers and pay for the return of rejected applicants to their country or contribute to the financing of operations.

The EU has also attempted to stop people at their point of departure by reaching agreements with relevant countries and giving them financial support.

A deal that the EU reached with Turkey in 2016 was a concrete achievement but is no longer active. Most recently, it has reached a deal with Tunisia, offering it 100 million Euros in aid to patrol its coastline, prevent smuggling and search, rescue and return migrants at sea.  If things work out satisfactorily, there will be another one billion Euro to follow.

The EU also allocated 80 million Euros to Egypt for border management and anti-smuggling operations amid an uptick in Egyptian migrants following the country's worsening economic situation.

Illegal crossings into Europe up 66% percent

According to official EU statistics, in 2022 there were 331,400 irregular border crossings (sea and land) which represented a 66% increase compared to 2021.

Building walls may decrease illegal crossings but does not end the problem, as has been the case with Turkey building a wall on the Iranian border in 2017. Afghans and others keep coming in.

At sea, things are even more difficult.

In 2022, there were 148,000 sea crossings which represented a 29% increase compared to 2021. The increase was the highest in the Central Mediterranean and Eastern Mediterranean, respectively 56% and 134%.

Crossings in the Western Mediterranean, including the Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands, decreased by 25% compared to the previous year. 

According to very recent data published by the International Organization for Migration, only in 2022, around  3,800 people died on Middle East and North Africa (Mena) migration routes.

The Frontex news has reported 54,000 irregular border crossings in the first three months of 2023, with the Central Mediterranean route accounting for more than half of all irregular border crossings into the EU.

For desperate people — a Syrian from Dara'a, a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, a Pakistani from Gujarat, a man from Cote d'Ivoire or an Afghan of Herat — the possibility of death is not a deterrent. Their lives are so miserable that they are willing to gamble it for a chance to live a better life.

Read more: Desperate Syrians will continue to risk their lives at sea

International institutions have failed to address this growing problem, that has humanitarian, legal, political, economic and social dimensions.

The famous rule in shopping "if you break it, you own it", has turned into "if you help them, they are yours" in the case of illegal migration. This leaves little room for humanity.

There is no perfect solution, but as always, to solve it, the root causes of the problem need to be addressed. But until then, the issue cannot be solved by making it someone else's problem. Nations stand a much better chance if they cooperate and take joint action.

It may be stating the obvious, but bringing the crisis to an end in the countries where people are fleeing from and creating job opportunities there, as well as other steps and measures to that effect, would greatly help the effort.