RNA - "Europe condemns people to drown," warned Médecins Sans Frontières - also known as MSF or Doctors Without Borders - which operated the ship, Aquarius, with its partner SOS MEDITERRANEE. With just this vessel, the groups have rescued an estimated 30,000 people since February of 2016.
Citing data from the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM), "more than 2,000 people have died or gone missing making crossings this year, compared to more than 3,000 last year." Despite such tragedies, the world's richest nations have turned their backs on those fleeing crises in their homelands.
Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States have all responded to the increase in mass migration - intensified if not directly caused by climate stresses and wars - with brutal force, ranging from de facto "let them drown" policy to President Donald Trump's increasingly real war on an unarmed caravan from Central America. Let there be no mistake: this barbarism is the way Western governments plan to adapt to the Western-made refugee crisis. But there is a simple way out of this shameful policy: End all US-led wars in the Middle East and North Africa.
For that to happen, the United Nations General Assembly needs to adopt a new resolution that condemns US-led wars and occupations in these volatile regions first and foremost – just as it adopted last Thursday overwhelmingly a resolution calling for an end to the Israeli occupation, including East Jerusalem Al-Quds, and withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces to the 1967 borders, after the body rejected a US resolution condemning Hamas. The world body needs to adopt similar resolutions calling for an end to the US-led military campaigns, violence, and terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Syria – the epicentres of the current global migration crisis.
Civilian casualties are an ongoing problem throughout the US-led wars and occupations, and the UN has just called for all parties to the Yemeni conflict to “do more to protect civilians during the fighting.” And yet anyone who has been paying attention at all would not fail to note that the Saudis and their allies are still inflicting the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties – all because the UN is looking the other way. Civilian casualties from attacks themselves are also dwarfed by the number of civilians starved to death or otherwise killed by the Saudi naval blockade.
Little wonder, millions of people are heading towards the European Continent. Without US-led military interventions, economic exploitation and political meddling, the current refugee crisis - at least one of this magnitude - wouldn't exist in the first place. The Syria war has resulted in a massive influx of refugees as well, most of whom are hosted by neighbouring countries, but many have sailed the sea – and died in the sea - to seek safety in Europe.
Europe is facing the most significant refugee crisis since World War II. All attempts at resolving the issue have failed, mostly because they have ignored the root causes of the problem. While the cruelty of refusing entry to a boat laden with desperate refugees is obvious, it has to be viewed within a larger narrative pertaining to the rapidly changing political landscape in Europe and the crises under way in the Middle East and North Africa. If European politicians continue to ignore the root causes of the problem - America’s never-ending wars and occupations - the refugee crisis will only get worse.
The disturbing truth is that just like the United States, Europe is also accountable for much of the mayhem under way in the Middle East. These facts will not simply disappear when ignored or when refugees are condemned to drown in the Mediterranean Sea. European politicians should honestly address this problem and fashion equally honest and humane solutions.
According to Fars News Agancy, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East will only lead to the exodus of millions more refugees in the coming months and years. All of Europe has a responsibility to stop this crisis. It is partly due to their military adventures and complicity in US-Saudi-Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in Muslim heartlands that people have had to leave their homes.
If European nations are serious about supporting refugees, they need to be serious about ending the wars that created them. Specifically, that means advocating for an immediate end to the US-led military adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya, demanding that Western military spending be used instead on social services and reconstruction needs in the war-torn countries, and supporting UN resolutions that support refugees and immigrants, and call for changes in Washington’s unilateralism and one-man foreign policy.
The governments in Europe can be doing much more to manage the refugee crisis stemming from their endless wars. Building more and better camps. Providing more and better food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. Establishing more and better security for camps and other refugee communities. Simply ending their support for various terrorist proxy groups, occupations and blockades, and admitting more refugees.
These and other steps, including an immediate end to their protracted wars and occupations as well as arms sales and diplomatic support to repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia and Israel, would do much to alleviate the plight of so many fleeing the horrors of US-led military campaigns and atrocities throughout the Middle East and beyond.
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