A Test Of Compassion

The sight of shipwrecked irregular migrants clinging to the floating remains of unseaworthy vessels while rescuers in white overalls fish the bodies of their unfortunate companions out of the sea has become depressingly familiar on European television screens in the past couple of years.
The scale of the drowning incident off the coast of Libya, which cost up to 900 lives 10 days ago, finally forced European politicians to focus on the steady flow of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia who risk their lives to flee conflict, instability or simply abject poverty and reach Europe. Last year, some 3,500 people drowned in the Mediterranean.

At a meeting to discuss the growing crisis, European politicians, caught between the need to prevent more deaths and the strident warnings of right-wing populists who claim Europe is facing an invasion and go as far as describing the migrants as a plague of “cockroaches,” engaged in what appeared to be a damage limitation exercise. By refusing to address the underlying issues and show decisive leadership, they failed the compassion test.

Patrols off the European shores will be increased, but Operation Triton is in the remit of Frontex, the EU border control agency. Its focus is on keeping migrants away from the continent, rather than dealing with a humanitarian crisis of massive scale. As the head of Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, told the Guardian, proactive search and rescue actions are “not in Frontex's mandate, and this is not in the mandate of the European Union.”

Even boosted by additional funding, the operation has a much more limited scope than Mare Nostrum, the program that was terminated in November 2014 amid fears that it acted as a “pull factor.” These concerns proved totally unfounded: In fact, the migrant flow increased by 160 percent in the three months that followed its replacement by Operation Triton.

The EU decision to increase funding, though cautiously welcomed by humanitarian agencies, was viewed as an insufficient response. Even the UN described the EU action plan as minimalist.

A new approach to migration is needed, but it is an unpopular issue that politicians don't want to raise. In spite of the challenges European states face, they could and should do much more. Non-governmental organizations have pointed out that the EU-28, with a combined population of over 500 million, could easily absorb the 150,000 refugees who landed on European shores last year.

In the absence of a proper European resettlement policy that would distribute migrants across the continent and allow them to have a legal and productive existence, those who slip through the net once they reach the continent end up going underground. Their precarious position leaves them vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers, landlords as well as criminals of all stripes.

The NGO Save the Children has underscored the dangers faced by a growing number of unaccompanied children among those making the journey across the Mediterranean. Last year, half of the children who reached Italy -- they accounted for 8.3 percent of total arrivals -- were with their families; this year so far, two-thirds arrived unaccompanied. Some of them are orphans; others are sent by their families in the hope that they'll stand a better chance of making it in Europe. Aside from the malnutrition and deprivation they face on the way, migrants under 18 are also at greater risk of falling prey to predators, while their relatives at home remain in debt to the smugglers.

Improving living conditions in the source countries, through trade, development aid and conflict resolution, is the only sustainable way to stop such tragedies in the long term, but this will no happen overnight. In the meantime, the humanitarian response can be improved. Europe appears too preoccupied by economic and political uncertainty to recognize that it still enjoys a privileged environment and has a responsibility to do more.

Globalization is often said to make us all connected; in reality, the bombardment of news make it easy to forget that the people behind the upsetting headlines are men, women and children born with the same hopes and aspirations that animate us all. Only theirs were cruelly crushed by circumstances.

NICOLE POPE (Cihan/Today's Zaman)