Every week, The WorldPost asks an expert to shed light on a topic driving headlines around the world. Today, we speak with Leonard Doyle of the International Organization for Migration about the tragic deaths of migrants in the Mediterranean.
Four small boats set out from the Libyan coast this weekend carrying hundreds of migrants and refugees desperate to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe. On Wednesday, the UN’s refugee agency said that up to 300 people aboard the ships were missing and feared drowned in the freezing waters.
UNHCR’s announcement on Wednesday came just two days after Italy reported that 29 migrants had died of hypothermia aboard coast guard ships. The 29 had been found by Italian authorities alongside more than 70 others at sea without food or water. Reuters reports that the migrants spent 18 hours in freezing temperatures on the decks of the boats taking them to the Italian island of Lampedusa. It was unclear whether they were aboard one of the four ships that left Libya over the weekend.
According to the International Organization for Migration, Italian authorities detected more than 112,000 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe in the first eight months of 2014, almost three times as many as in all of 2013. The organization estimates that 3,072 migrants have died while trying to reach Europe by sea in 2014, a dramatic rise since 2013, when 700 were estimated to have perished. The organization warns that the true number may be significantly higher.
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Is there one main aspect of the crisis that readers need to understand?
People need to focus on the humanity of these migrants. At the end of the day they’re no different than the people who left Ireland to build America, or the Chinese who built the railroads in America. These are hardworking migrants. The idea that they are being left in the hands of smugglers to be extorted, robbed and murdered in some cases is a scandal. The money that’s being made from this trade is on a par with the money that’s being made by slave traders. The fact that they don’t have a strong country to defend them shouldn’t mean they are defenseless.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
