The leaders of the European Union met last week to weep for about 1,000 migrants who had drowned in the Mediterranean within a week, wrote Taoufik Bouachrine in the Morocco-based daily Akhbar Al Youm.
But they uttered just a few “honeyed words” for the record on the migrants’ tragedy. When it was time to work out solutions, they “wiped away their crocodile tears and came up with one effective measure to stem the influx of migrants: to destroy the migrant boats before they even set out loaded with human lives”.
Instead of devising a more humane approach, which takes into account the migrants’ suffering, Europe settled for a military solution, the writer said. The leaders did not decide to, say, spend billions of dollars to support the migrants’ home countries. Or to ease visa rules for Arabs and Africans wanting to make it to the other side of the Mediterranean. Or to agree to intervene to stop wars that force people to flee their homelands.
Acting only on the advice of policemen and coastguards, they decided to strike the people-smuggling boats at their points of departure. That way, migrants would not perish in their waters, no pressure would be exerted on decision-makers, and European public opinion would be contained.
Bouachrine said that this solution was similar to the misguided notion conveyed in a racist French joke that suggests the best solution to racism: deport all foreigners to their home countries so that extreme right-wingers would find no excuse to be racist about them.
After trying selective immigration, barbed wire and deportation, the European Union is now headed towards shooting at migrant boats, the writer said. He said that this latest move was a green light to use military force against would-be migrants.
According to Bouachrine, Europe is incapable of tackling the migrant boat disasters that have claimed the lives of thousands of people trying to flee wars, hunger, chaos and poverty. But, he said: “If we live in one village; if we sing every day about international solidarity, human coexistence and common responsibilities; and if all countries are signatories to the United Nations Charter … then everyone should pay a part of the bill for preserving people’s lives and dignity. The powerful and the rich must set an example of civilised behaviour and lend a helping hand.”
Immigration is as old the hills, and Europe, which is now surrounding itself with an iron fence, is the very continent that has most benefited from immigration. Two hundred and fifty years ago, thousands of Europeans moved to the US. And more than 11 million people migrated to other countries between the two world wars, Bouachrine remarked.
Writing for the pan-Arab paper Al Quds Al Arabi, Algerian novelist Waciny Laredj observed that the number of migrant victims on boats had grown to such frightening proportions that the collective human conscience could no longer accept it.
The drownings prompted UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to sound the alarm bells and urge Europe to act promptly to prevent the Mediterranean becoming a watery grave for more migrants.
Laredj said it was worth noting that, although the casualties could mostly from North Africa, the Maghreb, Syria and other Arab countries, there had been no response from the Arab League nor from the Organisation of African Unity.
Equally striking is the reaction of the EU, which came up with a military solution to a humanitarian question. True, Italy faces waves of migrants who target the country either for transit or settlement. But this does not justify resorting to military solutions, the writer said.
Instead, he suggested that Europe boost humanitarian aid in a bid to bring what amounts to mass suicide to a halt. Europe cannot avoid the question: Why has Libya turned into a hotbed of chaos and death?
The writer said that the recent EU meeting in Brussels evoked the era of colonisation, especially in the decision to destroy boats on the Libyan coast before they depart.
This means killing would-be illegal migrants in their homelands, plain and simple, Waciny said. Military action is pointless because these migrants have lost all fear of death. What is going to work instead, he wrote, is another Marshall Plan to help the northern African nations. Europe simply cannot solve its problems in isolation, he concluded.
*Translated by Abdelhafid Ezzouitni
AEzzouitni@thenational.ae
