Britain has to shed its ‘nasty’ reputation

In Victorian Britain the wealthy flocked to the South of France and the Mediterranean waters to escape the chill back home. Today it is a destination for hundreds of thousands of ordinary fun-seekers who view the azure blue seas as their own playground. With seaside destinations punctuated across France and further to Spain, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey and Egypt, it offers a cornucopia of climates, picturesque fishing villages and all-inclusive package holidays for families wanting a treasure chest of lifetime memories.

However, European holidaymakers aren’t the only ones spending their hard-earned cash to reach the Mediterranean; this month, more than 1,200 desperate people perished as they made their own “once in a lifetime” journey from war-torn countries destabilised largely through Western meddling. Last year the figure of those who drowned making the trip reached 3,500.

Each life wasted represented a personal human tragedy; a story of courage in adversity; of fear and hope; and of abandonment. However, most European politicians looked the other way because, to put it bluntly, there’s no political kudos or votes to be gained by standing up for refugees.

Before anyone starts to protest at this ghastly accusation let’s examine Britain’s lead on this issue, courtesy of Baroness Anelay of St John’s, a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who announced in October last year: “We do not support planned search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean. We believe that they create an unintended ‘pull factor’, encouraging more migrants to attempt the dangerous sea crossing and thereby leading to more tragic and unnecessary deaths.”

Her shameful statement in the House of Lords merely confirmed Britain’s pole position as the “nasty country” within the European Union. As a result, the UK stopped trying to save people from drowning, and so they drowned. Others in the EU followed Britain’s lead because, clearly, dead would-be immigrants don’t carry political influence.

Six days before the FCO minister’s speech, Home Secretary Theresa May played a key role in pushing Europe to withdraw support for large-scale search-and-rescue operations estimated to have saved the lives of 150,000 migrants in the Mediterranean last year. At a meeting of Europe’s interior ministers in Luxembourg on 9 October 2014, May used her influence as the longest serving minister in the group to persuade others to agree not to replace the Italian Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue operation in favour of cheaper options.

Britain’s racist, xenophobic mainstream media, aided and abetted by politicians like May and Anelay, has contributed to the narrative that immigration is code for foreigners coming to Britain — begging bowls in hand — to sponge off the state. It is a view which is rarely challenged by Westminster politicians in Britain’s main political parties or the more odious right-wing fringe parties.

So who is responsible for all of these wasted lives? The traffickers and people smugglers? I would suggest that we in the West have this blood on our hands thanks to our imperialistic wars and ambitions, not forgetting the unconditional support given to despots and dictators throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Millions of people living in those regions have been displaced because of Western foreign policies which have turned their countries into war zones, rogue states or high-risk areas. It’s no coincidence that a high proportion of those who drowned this month were from Afghanistan and Iraq, two countries which have been destabilised by disastrous western wars. The big question now is just how many migrants will have to drown before Britain and the rest of Europe snaps out of this malignancy of thought and accept their part-responsibility for this mess.

To put the migrants’ issue in context in terms of the number of desperate souls who attempt to make the perilous journey to Europe, it is worth remembering that seven million are displaced within Syria and four million Syrian refugees live in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Pakistan, meanwhile, still hosts around 1.5 million refugees from Afghanistan after facilitating the return of 3.8 million since 2002; another 950,000 Afghans live in neighbouring Iran.

The problem is not going to go away anytime soon; some of the refugees from Syria include Palestinians who were first made refugees in the Nakba of 1948. Five million Palestinians, including the descendants of those forced to leave their homes because of the creation of the State of Israel — with western backing — now live in refugee camps in and around Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Turkey. In UN parlance some are now double and even treble refugees, having being displaced several times already. There is no solution in sight which would facilitate their legitimate right to return to their land and thus the end of the Palestinian refugee crisis, due to the West’s support for Israel’s brutal military occupation.

According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), so far in 2015 more than 35,000 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived by boat in southern Europe; in 2014 that figure was around 219,000 people. In terms of the total number of refugees, those who try to cross the Mediterranean are a relatively very small minority.

Europe is home to some of the richest countries in the world who can, surely, afford to be more charitable and compassionate to those in need. Given that we have played a role in creating the desperate situation from which the refugees are fleeing, if nothing else we have a moral responsibility to help. If Britain wants to lose its “nasty” reputation, it would do better by building rather than bombing other nations so that their citizens neither want nor feel the need to flee. Given that our imperialist wars have often been launched in the name of justice and peace, it’s the least we can do.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.