A newly released British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary on the plight of African immigrants hoping to enter Greece paints a grim picture of their treatment in the hands of officials of the southeast European country. According to the documentary entitled “Dead Calm: Killing in the Med?”, over a three-year period, the Greek coastguard caused the deaths of dozens of migrants in the Mediterranean, including nine who were deliberately thrown into the water. Said the BBC report: “We showed footage of 12 people being loaded into a Greek coastguard boat, and then abandoned on a dinghy, to a former senior Greek coastguard officer. When he got up from his chair, and with his mic still on, he said it was ‘obviously illegal’ and ‘an international crime.’ The Greek government has long been accused of forced returns – pushing people back towards Turkey, where they have crossed from, which is illegal under international law. But this is the first time the BBC has calculated the number of incidents which allege that fatalities occurred as a result of the Greek coastguard’s actions.”
Although Greek authorities have denied the claims, it is important to note that the BBC documentary relies on several firsthand accounts, including reports by Turkish NGOs and amateur video recordings by prospective immigrants in direct encounters with officials of the Greek coastguard. All in all, more than 40 people are believed to have died as a result of being forced out of Greek territorial waters and moved along in the general direction of neighboring Turkey, or taken back out to sea after reaching Greek islands. In the documentary, some of the immigrants from African countries like Cameroon and Somalia relayed how they were callously thrown into the sea by the coastguard.
Many observers have rightly lamented the actions of the Greek coastguard as both outright wicked and, perhaps more significantly, a clear departure from the humane values that Greece and other European countries have come to be associated with. Part of why the BBC documentary has caught the attention of observers and human rights activists across the world is precisely because the actions that the Greek coastguard has been accused of are unbecoming of a European country. Trying to prevent immigrants from entering your country is one thing, positively putting them in harm’s way is a different thing entirely, and it goes without saying that the officials responsible for these dastardly actions must be brought to justice, and speedily too.
Yet, while we support throwing the book at the Greek coastguard, we would be remiss in our responsibility to our readers if we did not also point the accusing finger in the direction in which it must be pointed, and that is African leaders who, through omission and commission, have conspired to make life miserable for their citizenry. Over the past couple of decades, tens of thousands of young Africans have fled their countries in a desperate quest for the educational, employment, and other opportunities that are not available in their countries of birth.
While it is necessary to hold European countries who mistreat African immigrants accountable, we think that it is even more important that Africans direct their ire at African leaders who treat their own people like garbage, fostering an atmosphere of hopelessness and chronic despair that makes many young people feel that the risk of emigrating to Europe along dangerous and uncharted territories and in the hands of unscrupulous human traffickers is justified.
The loss to the continent of resourceful and determined young people turning their backs on it cannot be overestimated. African leaders should get their act together in order to stop the bleeding.
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