global post: BRUSSELS, Belgium — More than 15,000 people have died in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea since the late 1990s after fleeing poverty, war and oppression in Africa, Asia and the Middle East for a better life in Europe.
Now routine, the deaths rarely make international headlines.
Campaigners complain Europeans preoccupied with their economic crisis, and fearful of migrants competing for ever-scarcer job opportunities and social security handouts, have become indifferent, even hostile, to the migrants’ plight.
The scale of Thursday’s tragedy off the Italian island of Lampedusa could change that.
Pope Francis denounced as a “disgrace” the death of up to 300 Africans after their boat caught fire and sank. Italy‘s Deputy Prime Minister Angelino Alfano, who spoke of a “European tragedy,” has appealed for assistance. Newspaper headlines across the continent are demanding action.
“The tragedy of Lampedusa’s refugees shames Europe,” said Spain‘s El Pais. “Lampedusa: the guilt of Europe’s indifference,” headlined the front page of Le Monde in France.
The Italian government was quick to repeat demands for greater support from the rest of Europe to help it cope the flow of refuges. Estimates of the numbers making the perilous sea journey from North Africa toward Italy so far this year vary between 12,000 to 30,000.
Lampedusa, a tiny island just 70 miles from the coast of Tunisia, has borne the brunt of the influx.
“The sea is full of bodies, it’s a horror without end,” said the island’s Mayor Giusi Nicolini in tears as victims were brought to quayside. “How much longer can this go on? This had to stop,” she told Italian TV.
It is not only a European tragedy, but also a Muslim tragedy and an African tragedy. Some Muslim nations have a lot of cash available to fund development projects in African countries, so that these migrants can help develop their countries at home. Not simple, not easy, but IT CAN BE DONE!!!
I don’t think so it is an European tragedy at all.