How absolutely terrible this is
Published:
February 9, 2015 at 8:59pm
One hundred and five migrants were picked up off Libya by two small coastguard vessels from Italy. They were in inflatable rafts and buffeted by eight-metre waves in cold of just a few degrees above zero.
On the way to Lampedusa, a journey that took 18 hours in the dreadful weather conditions, they were exposed on deck because of the nature of the boats, and 29 of them died of hypothermia. More may die from the effects of exposure.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150209/world/updated-migrants-die-of-hypothermia-after-rescue-off-libya.555471
The traffickers are endangering the lives of those poor souls looking for a better life in the west as well as the lives of the army personnel sent to rescue them.
Vice News ran this on the boats trying to reach Greece from Turkey last week, including an bit with an AFM sailor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aBCsCWEWYY
Note, there are some graphic images in the second part of the video (not the one linked).
It’s my understanding that they are working on something similar on the central Mediterranean route including Malta.
What a sad tragedy of desperate people. May they rest in peace.
Blood is on our hands for accepting them and for enabling human traffickers to take advantage of their misery.
They were picked up by Italian boats.
By ‘our’, I mean Europe. If Malta on its own stopped picking up migrants, it wouldn’t be make much of a difference.
Everyone needs to stop picking them up to discourage further journeys, not Malta only.
@il-ginger
Your argument is baseless. People don’t get into boats to be picked up. They get into boats because of what they want to leave behind.
This is what happens when people in distress at sea aren’t rescued:
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2013/12/blood-on-their-hands-270-people-including-many-children-died-because-joseph-muscat-and-manuel-mallia-put-image-before-humanity/
“Everyone needs to stop picking them up to discourage further journeys, not Malta only”.
So basically, we should let them drown to discourage further journeys by others.
Doesn’t sound so good now, does it.
So what do you suggest? Not picking them up to give them a “lesson”? Wouldn’t the end result be the same? More deaths.
Do not pick boatloads of immigrants once, twice, three times and push back the rest.
End result will be far fewer deaths at sea and the human traffickers will be put out of business.
I don’t know. It is ironic that the older I grow, the less answers I have.
I don’t have a solution to everything, but all I know is that the current solution is only working to the benefit of those who do evil in this world.
No one is happy, only the traffickers, and by accepting them we are complicit, a partner in crime.
My answer to you is that I don’t want to kill 100 innocent people, but if I had to change those train tracks to avoid the death of 1000 innocent, I would, but according to Jozef that would be ‘daft’.
All these years gone by and I still can’t get rid of my far-right way of thought.
I don’t know I guess, personally I would pick them up, but as a nation I would not, because I would looking at the bigger picture.
@ChrisM
The real reason is racism, isn’t it?
Il-Ginger, picking people on boats is not a political matter.
Looking the other way as the African continent is pillaged and its people displaced is. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover who coordinates the trafficking, even because the left had drummed incessantly how we need their labour.
Solidarity became an opportunity for cheap competitive manpower, how’s that for cold calculation.
The discordant note that European states choose to remain passive given historic dilemmas and commercial expediencies isn’t of the far right.
@Not Sandy:P
The real reason is most definitely NOT racism. The real reasons are:
Lack of space & resources
Lack of jobs (So many of them are begging for work)
These two problems above create a situation of social exclusion which results in the forming of ghettos.
Even immigrants who have a diploma and a decent education are complaining about not finding employment let alone the ones with no education what so ever.
How are these people supposed to sustain themselves ? By living of OUR taxes ? Stealing ? Working illegally ?
If the UNHCR, NGO’s and various commissions in the EU really care about these people they should show it by helping (really helping) them sort out their countries problems.
@ChrisM
You’d be a whole lot more credible if you denounced racists instead of hanging out with them on FB. For your sake, I hope it really is only on FB.
Cut the bullshit, ChrisM. We’re not idiotic racists here. We can see through your type in an instant.
Don’t be daft.
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/ii506/gahanmalti/InviteIEFinal_zps7fd58e1e.jpg
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/ii506/gahanmalti/Adriano_zpseba2d2e9.jpg
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/ii506/gahanmalti/Walter_zps1ac1f976.jpg
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/ii506/gahanmalti/AG_zpsfa68c1a9.jpg
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/ii506/gahanmalti/NL_zpsadd53941.jpg
http://i1257.photobucket.com/albums/ii506/gahanmalti/NL2_zpsa8b20376.jpg
Viva Malta, viva c-Caqnu.
Blood is on our hands, indeed, for not being able to recognise the plight of these people, and what it is that they are running away from.
Blood is on our hands for adopting such a racist attitude towards people who had a very different life story to our cushy-comfy one.
Blood is on our hands for adopting such an intolerant approach because of our ignorance.
YES, blood is on our hands for not reaching out to fellow human beings and for treating these people worse than we would treat animals!
Another tragedy a few miles offshore.
Possibly 200 dead of hypothermia.
http://m.repubblica.it/mobile/r/locali/palermo/cronaca/2015/02/09/news/strage_al_largo_di_lampedusa_7_migranti_morti_di_freddo_e_altri_15_gravissimi-106892354/?ref=m%7Chome%7Ccentro%7Cpos_1
http://www.lastampa.it/2015/02/09/italia/cronache/strage-nel-canale-di-sicilia-ventinove-migranti-morti-di-freddo-JzR2qZOL6zAcPAldLGc7UM/pagina.html
Totally unacceptable. How cheap human life has become. A thermal survival foil blanket would have done the job and saved the lives of these 29 immigrants.
It contains the body heat and protects the person from rain and sea. It is cheap and found in every emergency department.
Rescue boats are usually equipped with such thermal blankets. This news is shocking and a total disgrace.
Very soon Africa will be “the empty place ready to exploit further” which is what corporations and governments like the Chinese have been dreaming of for decades. And, no, it’s not a conspiracy theory – people just need to go to Africa and see who’s practically running it.
Agreed.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2012/07-2/China%20In%20Africa.jpg
Traffickers have no soul; they are better off if their victims perish as ‘dead men tell no tales’. On the other hand, whoever is taking the risk to cross in this weather is admittedly desperate, but should not be taking such an impossible gamble with their lives and often with their childrens’ lives.
The media needs to get news like this out to all potential illegal immigrants BEFORE they embark on such a risky journey.
Seeing stuff like that shall surely make them think about the grave danger they would be putting themselves in.
[Daphne – Chris, the reason they are trying to escape is because they’re in grave danger already. “Is the sea rough? Oh too bad, we’ll stay in Libya and get shot and tortured instead. Or go back to Syria and get arrested and murdered.” These escapes are the equivalent of jumping off a four-storey building that’s on fire.]
I’m sure life in Libya or Syria for that matter is nowhere near ideal for them but saying that their situation is the equivalent of jumping off a four storey building that’s on fire is a bit of an exaggeration.
Not all countries in Africa and the ME are at war or are in poverty or ruled by tyrants. Some countries are quite prosperous and peaceful and the immigrants would not have to risk their lives to such an extent to get to these places.
Honestly I think that the human traffickers, the despicable and evil creatures that they are, are fooling the immigrants into thinking that there is very little danger in these boat trips and that it is far easier to reach their destination than it is in reality.
Entire tribes of black people have been wiped out in Libya as Libyans assume them to have sided with Qaddafi.
Let’s have a whip round for ChrisM and have him parachuted into Libya to see for himself.
@ChrisM
Funny how you despise blacks and Arabs but have no trouble hanging out with racist freaks on FB.
@Not Sandy:P
I have nothing against anyone including Arabs and black people.
You don’t know me so don’t insinuate that I have anything to do with racists. I can find the odd racist joke funny just as much as any other joke, even jokes about Maltese but I think racism is disgusting and the actions of racists like what happened to that woman at Fexserve in Bugibba is sick.
What I am against is all this immigration. It is not sustainable, we dont have space for them, we dont have the jobs or resources to accommodate them. Its a fact.
Chris so from 400,000 resident and on average 5,000 daily tourists its the 2,000 immigrants that bother you. We don’t have the resources or jobs to accommodate them. Are you sure? Have we tried that by not being so intolerant?
@ChrisM
If you really meant that, post in that nasty group you share with your FB cronies. You know which group I mean, so there’s really no need to explain.
Then send us a scrreenshot of your reaction.
@Not Sandy:P
Apparently you know who I am. Not a problem. It’s not like I try to be anonymous here though I don’t know who you are, not by your name here anyway.
Since you know who I am you may also know that I don’t even participate on certain FB groups or very rarely do and if I do its on posts against immigration and not specifically racist posts.
I have friends who are Muslim on my friends list and the last thing I would do is post or comment on stuff which is directly pointed against them or their fellow Muslims.
This is tragic. These people are so misunderstood, so many Maltese see them as a threat.
They are victims who need our help not our condemnation.
Surely we can do more to help them. They are escaping from imminent danger yet many see them as dangerous.
Anyone who genuinely believes that it is possible for a country to discourage desperate men and women from attempting to save or better their and their children’s lives, by sending out warnings of rejection in one form or another are clearly unaware of the level of desperation to which these human beings have fallen.
People have escaped war, hunger, poverty and even simple lack of opportunity for centuries and will continue to do so for as long as inequality, injustice and political and racial strife continue to prevail in certain parts of the world.
There are no easy civilised solutions to this global phenomenon and, as much as we would certainly all be happier if this problem never rose its head in the first place, we just cannot turn our backs to the terrible suffering of those who fail to make it to the other side of the safety divide.
This is not about Christian compassion in a supposedly Christian country. It’s about basic human decency.
Another 200 dead.
http://maltarightnow.com/news/2015/02/11/tragedja-ohra-fil-mediterran-3/
This tragedy is even worse than previously thought.
Chris M and il-Ginger, do you just let these people die of exposure or drown?
Your tactics are inhumane, and ineffective.You cannot just avoid rescuing people in distress when out at sea in such terrible conditions.
The deterrent factor is nullified by the critical situations these persons are leaving behind
http://www.lastampa.it/2015/02/11/italia/cronache/strage-di-migranti-a-lampedusa-i-superstiti-oltre-morti-Ny3BwuS47u1cDmgKjT7E3O/pagina.html
Watch Dr Katrine Camilleri:
http://youtu.be/Z4egsIzkwBQ
Hi Daphne,
You might want to check the comments on the MaltaToday Facebook page about this news and the one about the 200 that unfortunately drowned… someone said “Thanks God”, another one “Let them drown” and yet another one “Less problems”. Please expose them.
Somehow, the comments on Times of Malta (and The Malta Independent) Facebook pages were surprisingly (?) more contained.
They are moderated.