DO NOT LET MIGRANTS’ DREAMS SINK

Another large number of migrants have lost their lives seeking to reach the shores of Europe for a better life and yet the world does not seem to bother much. In the latest incident, a few were rescued on Saturday after their boats foundered off Libya’s western coast, but many others were not lucky. Women and children were among the dead, whose bodies were recovered from the sea.

The plight of migrants never seems to end. On Nov.11, the remains of a man, a girl and a boy were found on a Lesbos beach.

Last week, US television network CNN aired footage of an apparent slave auction in Libya where black men were presented to North African buyers as potential farmhands and sold off for as little as $400.

Young African men bound for Europe are frequently caught in traficking networks and sold for labour in Libya, where many migrants are detained, tortured and even killed.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein recently termed the European Union’s support for Libya’s Coast Guard, which has resulted in thousands of migrants being detained in horriic conditions inside Libya, as inhuman.

Monitors were shocked by what they witnessed: thousands of emaciated and traumatised men, women and children piled on top of one another, locked up in hangars with no access to the most basic necessities, and stripped of their human dignity.

According to Prof. Philippe Fargues of the European University Institute, who authored the report “Four Decades of Cross-Mediterranean Undocumented Migration to Europe,” crossing the Mediterranean to Europe is by far the world’s deadliest journey for migrants.

At least 33,761 are said to have died or gone missing between 2000 and 2017.

The report, released by the International Organisation for Migration, notes the highest number of fatalities, 5,096, was recorded in 2016, when the short and relatively less dangerous route from Turkey to Greece was shut, following the European Union-turkey deal.

Shutting shorter, less dangerous routes open longer and more dangerous routes, increasing the likelihood of dying at sea.

Figures speak volumes about the distress of the victims. Over 2.5 million migrants have crossed the Mediterranean in an unauthorised fashion since the 1970s.

The international community cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants. It should not be forgotten that migrants are also human beings, who deserve support while they look for greener pastures due to valid reasons.