By IMOGEN FOULKES | Monday, October 7
2013 at
09:21
The latest tragedy in the Mediterranean has, not before
time, human rights groups say, put the spotlight on the situations which
drive people to make the perilous boat journey to Europe, and the many
dangers they face along the way.
It is believed most of the dead came from Eritrea
and Somalia, so all must have taken not only the risky sea crossing, but
a long and hazardous journey across the Sahara desert as well.
"I still can't believe it when I think about the Sahara," said Samson Kidane, an Eritrean who is now a refugee in Switzerland.
"It was so difficult to cross. We were more than
30 people in a small automobile, and later we were in a container, more
than 120 people for 24 hours."
Mr Kidane, like many young Eritreans, fled his
country's forced, indefinite military conscription, a system which
requires all citizens to serve in the army for an unlimited amount of
time.
Human rights groups have condemned the practice as
akin to slavery, claiming that a lack of freedom of press and
expression, and widespread arbitrary detention and torture, mean that
the only real way to avoid conscription is to flee the country.
Until June of this year, Switzerland accepted
avoidance of Eritrea's military service as a valid reason for claiming
asylum, and the country now has one of Europe's biggest communities of
Eritrean refugees.
But Switzerland, like many European countries, no
longer allows applications for asylum to be made at its embassies
abroad, meaning that anyone wanting to make a claim must make their way,
somehow, to Switzerland.
Human rights groups suggest Europe's asylum
policies are a contributory factor to the regular boat tragedies in the
Mediterranean.
53 hours at sea
Daniela Enzler, an asylum adviser with Amnesty
International and the Swiss charity Caritas, said she was not surprised
by this week's loss of life.
"Almost every week boats sink in the
Mediterranean," she said. "It's a tragedy that people can't apply for
asylum in embassies anymore. If they could, they would not have to risk
this journey… Lives could be saved."
When Mr Kidane was finally granted refugee status
by the Swiss, it was the end of a journey which could easily have cost
him his life.
A Rose is displayed on a coffin in an
hangar of Lampedusa airport on October 5, 2013 after a boat with
migrants sank killing more than hundred people. AFP
After crossing the Sahara, which cost each man
more than $1,000 (£621; 735 euros), he and his friends had to find what
he calls a "businessman" to get them across the Mediterranean.
"If you pay the money for the journey, the businessman sometimes disappears with the money," he said.
In the end his trafficker took another $1,200 from
each member of the group, and organised five small boats, each carrying
around 30 people.
After 53 hours at sea, Mr Kidane arrived in Italy.
But only two boats arrived. Three had sunk, one of them carrying his
best friend.
Both human rights groups like Amnesty
International and the UN refugee agency have expressed concern that
national coastguards and Europe's joint border patrol Frontex are more
interested in pushing migrants and asylum seekers back than they are in
rescuing those in distress.
Distress calls
"Nearly every asylum seeker I have met who made
the Mediterranean crossing told me they had seen boats pass by, even
helicopters flying overhead," said Daniela Enzler, "but distress calls
were ignored."
That allegation is borne out by the experience of
Bemnet Aron, who fled Eritrea aged just 17. An exhausting journey across
the Sahara was followed by three months working in Libya, while he
tried to earn the money for the sea crossing.
Eventually he got a place in a boat, with around 80 other people.
"The boat was overloaded, too heavy," he remembered, "and after three days we ran out of fuel."
As time went on food and then water ran out too.
"We started to drink our own urine," he said, "but some people couldn't
bring themselves to do that."
One by one, people began to die. "We saw other
boats going by, one very close, and we all jumped up and waved and
shouted, but it just kept on going."
Mr Aron drifted in the Mediterranean for days.
When he and his colleagues were finally rescued, just five were left
alive - 75 had died, of thirst, hunger, and exposure.
Perilous
Now 21, he is also a refugee in Switzerland, but his traumatic experiences continue to affect his ability to lead a normal life.
"There is something fundamentally wrong in a world
where people in need of protection have to resort to these perilous
journeys," he said.
And the refugee agency's Director of Protection,
Volker Turk, believes Europe must now engage in a political debate and
find solutions to prevent further deaths.
"What happened should go high up on the political
agenda of governments, not just in the Mediterranean, but in all parts
of the world where lives are lost every day in the most cruel
circumstances because people flee out of despair, and try to cross the
sea in rickety boats," he said.
But with unemployment high in many countries, and
opinion polls consistently suggesting that immigration and asylum worry
voters, Europe is unlikely to relax its polices.
And as conflict, poverty and repression continue
to affect parts of Africa and the Middle East, people like Mr Kidane and
Mr Aron will go on risking their lives in the hope of a better future.
SOURCE: REVIEW AFRICA
SOURCE: REVIEW AFRICA
