Drowning in the Mediterranean this summer? Many happy returns

This month the European Commission approved 23 multiannual national programs “under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF). The total funding for the agreed programs is approximately €2.4 billion, for the period 2014-2020… 22 national programs were already approved in March, and an additional 13 programs will be approved later this year”. Most of that money will be used to keep the prospective immigrants out of the EU. It will be spent under the banner of programs called ‘ISF Borders’ and ‘ISF Police’. Not a word about devoting resources to address the causes of this desperate flight of millions from the Middle East and Africa. As a result, the hecatomb of prospective immigrants who die every summer in the Mediterranean will continue up to 2020. One of the main reasons for this is that the EU has decided to do nothing about the burning realities that caused this ugly procession of souls during the past many years. Even worse, Europe has in many ways caused the destruction of the homelands of millions of people, forcing them to leave. Despite that, Brussels say the EU will spend a lot of money to protect its borders and prop up the police operations against illegal immigration. Utter silence about why Libya, Syria, Iraq, Mali, Sudan, Eritrea and other parts of the sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern populations want to abandon their homes. The West ‘redraws’ the map The West, that is the US and the EU, has methodically destabilized vast geographical areas in the Middle East and Africa during the past twenty years. After the fall of the USSR the field was open for manipulations that led to the destruction of a series of countries and the destabilization of many others. And all that, knowing very well that the fall of dictators like Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad will bring chaos to large geographical areas. Obviously, the target was the control of the mineral wealth in the Middle East and Africa. None of the western ‘re-designers’ cared about what will happen to the tens of millions of people after the complete destruction or the destabilization of their countries. Not to forget that, for example Iraq, had built advanced healthcare and education systems than many European countries would envy at the time. Now the Iraqis, the Libyans, the Afghanis and the Syrians along with millions of Africans want to leave their homes because there is nothing left. Crossing the Mediterranean Unfortunately for all of them they have to cross the Mediterranean in order to reach Europe. In some parts this is not too difficult. The Greek islands are quite close to Turkey and tens of thousands of prospective immigrants are taking this summer the short trip causing chaos to the Eastern Aegean islands of Kos, Lesbos and Chios. It’s not the same however for those who sail from the Libyan coasts to reach Italy. Thousands have drowned already this summer. Even if they manage to avoid it they may get killed when trying to cross the rail tunnel under the English Channel aiming to reach Britain from France. And all that will continue after Brussels decided to spend €2.5bn to keep the immigrants out. Every summer the Mediterranean Sea will continue becoming a source of pleasure for the people in its northern shores, at the same time though it is a deadly trap for the African and Middle Eastern prospective immigrants heading for the promised land of the European Union. This is so because of the despair – in view of the destruction of the immigrants’ home lands – by far exceeds the dangers they know they put themselves into by dearly paying for a place in a death boat. Now Brussels wants to destroy those death boats, asking no questions about why the immigrants are ready to embark on them. And the death litany continues That the EU doesn’t care much about the victims of the unholy summer litany is pretty obvious. Despite the crocodilian tears shed in many European capitals every time a boat capsizes, a large part of the EU citizens demand more violent action against the immigrants. The rise of the xenophobic political parties in the EU stands as a witness of the schizophrenic behavior of the misled European voters. Nevertheless, the phenomenon has deeply influenced the political systems of almost all the EU member states. No wonder then if the EU happily prepares for very many returns of what is happening this summer in the Mediterranean.