Black Lives Matters
And yet, there are more than 20.000 black bodies, somewhere on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Lives not worth saving.
So far, 0,005% of the world population died due to Corona. After more than 9 years of fighting, the death toll of the Syrian war is 2-2,8%. World War II took the lives of 3% of the world population. People who get on a boat to travel irregularly from North Africa to Europe have a death risk of 4.78%.
It is the deadliest border crossing in the world.
And Europe does whatever it can to make it more dangerous, with success. There used to be an Italian mission (Mare Nostrum), rescuing boats in distress. It was cancelled because politicians were more afraid to be accused of facilitating migration than being guilty of thousands of deaths. NGOs jumped in the vacuum to take over the duty of rescuing humans at risk of drowning. Although it's a crime not to help a boat in distress, their work has been made increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Rescue workers are criminally charged, boats are locked into harbours and thus hindered from rescue, boats full of saved people are forbidden to return to Italy or Malta.
Usually, saving lives is heroic. But when you save a black migrant, you're a criminal.
Europe pays Libya, a country fighting a cruel civil war and famous for the enslavement, torture and rape of migrants, to stop migrant boats and push them back. Europe will do whatever it takes to avoid a boat full of Africans arriving safely in Europe.
While people across Europe mourn the death of George Floyd and protest the excessive, racist police violence that plagues the USA, we hope this rage also extends to our own policies. There may be no videos of African migrants being pushed down and choked by European police, but their deaths are just as real, their lives just as lost, their families just as devastated.
If a leaky boat full of white people would be in distress, letting them drown would not be an option, ever. We have to ask ourselves why the standards for black people are so goddam different.
EU, stop killing black migrants. Stop using death as a deterrence strategy. #blacklivesmatter #migrantsmatter
So far, 0,005% of the world population died due to Corona. After more than 9 years of fighting, the death toll of the Syrian war is 2-2,8%. World War II took the lives of 3% of the world population. People who get on a boat to travel irregularly from North Africa to Europe have a death risk of 4.78%.
It is the deadliest border crossing in the world.
And Europe does whatever it can to make it more dangerous, with success. There used to be an Italian mission (Mare Nostrum), rescuing boats in distress. It was cancelled because politicians were more afraid to be accused of facilitating migration than being guilty of thousands of deaths. NGOs jumped in the vacuum to take over the duty of rescuing humans at risk of drowning. Although it's a crime not to help a boat in distress, their work has been made increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Rescue workers are criminally charged, boats are locked into harbours and thus hindered from rescue, boats full of saved people are forbidden to return to Italy or Malta.
Usually, saving lives is heroic. But when you save a black migrant, you're a criminal.
Europe pays Libya, a country fighting a cruel civil war and famous for the enslavement, torture and rape of migrants, to stop migrant boats and push them back. Europe will do whatever it takes to avoid a boat full of Africans arriving safely in Europe.
While people across Europe mourn the death of George Floyd and protest the excessive, racist police violence that plagues the USA, we hope this rage also extends to our own policies. There may be no videos of African migrants being pushed down and choked by European police, but their deaths are just as real, their lives just as lost, their families just as devastated.
If a leaky boat full of white people would be in distress, letting them drown would not be an option, ever. We have to ask ourselves why the standards for black people are so goddam different.
EU, stop killing black migrants. Stop using death as a deterrence strategy. #blacklivesmatter #migrantsmatter