At least 41 people are believed to have died after a boat capsized off of Italy this month.
It’s a tragedy, no doubt about it.
From my understanding, the problem has several layers. Unrest in Africa is (obviously) the main driver for the migration, but these tragedies keep happening because there is not a consensus on how to deal with it in Europe.
According to the article, Italy, Greece and Poland seem to get the brunt of migrants. Poland is curious to me because it doesn’t border the Mediterranean. Maybe someone else could elaborate on that?
However, Italy and Greece do and therefore are tasked with preventing these migrant vessels from sinking. Greece looks like it has decided to forego these responsibilities.
But, I think having Greece and Italy use their navy’s to deal with the problem is only a bandaid solution, if it could be considered a solution at all. People are dying, and the real problem is that crossing the Mediterranean is the only viable path to asylum for many people and its very dangerous.
I am not sure if the EU could orchestrate a more viable path to asylum, or if there is even the political will to do such a thing.