Migrant tragedies: How can they be stopped
With the recent tragedies of the capsizing boats with hundreds of migrants seeking to enter Europe through the Mediterranean, the world is divided on how to handle what some call "human trafficking." While rescue operations have been funded to help save lives, it is not only difficult to patrol the whole area where migrant boats travel but many countries have been opposed to providing aid, considering help as encouragement smugglers to continue trafficking.
The number of migrants traveling by sea has increased dramatically in the past two years. Despite the dangers that arise with being smuggled out of a country and into a new one, hundreds of thousands of people put their lives in the hands of smugglers in hopes of escaping conflicts zones with human rights violations, economic chaos, and warfare. According to the UNHCR, a UN refugee agency, more than 120,000 Syrians have arrived in Europe since 2011, and thousands of migrants arrive every year from sub-Saharan Africa. This number is only a small portion of the millions that flee from their countries every year.
- Due to the large amount of migrants in boats, rescue operations are being funded. The Italian Navy launched a rescue force in October of 2013 called the Mare Nostrum, yet with the high running costs of 7.15 million pounds per month to run the operation, it was forced shut down after its request for financial help from other EU countries was denied.
The EU has instead provided an alternative rescue force called the Triton, which operates on only a third of the costs and whose main goal is to patrol the blocs borders. Country officials argued that funding rescue operations only encourage migrants to come to Europe. Considering the recent tragedies, with the number of migrant deaths during their voyage rising up to 1,500 this year, the EU officials have had to rethink their budget distribution to the save task force.
An emergency summit was held in Brussels, where European leaders constructed a plan to fight this crisis. One of their pledges was to triple the budget of the rescue forces.
Prior to the summit, Save the Children, the world's leading independednt organization for children, appealed to the international community to increase the rescue task forces. Its CEO, Jasmine Whitbread stated:
"EU leaders hold the lives of thousands of desperate people in their hands when they meet tomorrow. With every day that they prevaricate and delay restarting search and rescue operations, the risk grows that more people will die as they try to reach Europe."
Increasing rescue forces will only provide a reprive in the short term. EU officials as well as important politicians are therefore calling for battle against smugglers to prevent these tragedies. However, during an interview with the Guardian, a smuggler who works predominantly on illegal crossings in Zuwanda, advised the EU to use their ressources to strengthen Zuwara's local coastguard to create stability in Libya and destroy the smuggler boats.
"When the migrants go out to sea, and the Italian coastguards rescue them, why do they leave the boats intact? That helps us, because all we have to do is go out to sea and tow it back to shore," comented a smuggler who asked to be known as 'Hajj'
Illegal migration is a problem that will only degress if nothing is done. Whether it is to increase rescue forces, or to destroy traficking boats, something must be done for the sake of the thousands more that have been estimated to cross the ocean in the upcoming months.
