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On the Lampedusa tragedy
Oct. 17th, 2013 02:34 pmThis is a sad time for Europe, as it puts a mirror right before its face and forces it to look. And the sight it is seeing is not pretty at all.
The saddest thing is that the media and the public keep addressing the wrong side of the problem. Having listened to the media in the last few days, I could not help noticing how almost everyone is again pointing the finger at smugglers, calling for doubling the efforts to fight them, as if that would somehow tackle the problem in its roots and magically stop the loss of life at sea.
Until people realise that not the smugglers are the reason why people are boarding unseaworthy vessels desperately trying to reach the shores of Europe to do menial work for subsistence pay, these tragedies will continue.
The saddest thing is that the media and the public keep addressing the wrong side of the problem. Having listened to the media in the last few days, I could not help noticing how almost everyone is again pointing the finger at smugglers, calling for doubling the efforts to fight them, as if that would somehow tackle the problem in its roots and magically stop the loss of life at sea.
Until people realise that not the smugglers are the reason why people are boarding unseaworthy vessels desperately trying to reach the shores of Europe to do menial work for subsistence pay, these tragedies will continue.
