Gwynne Dyer: EU navies uphold traditions of the sea, refuse to abandon refugees
Late last year, the governments of the European Union, having refused to share the cost of a very successful operation called Mare Nostrum in which the Italian Navy rescued tens of thousands of refugees from sinking boats in the Mediterranean, replaced it with a much smaller operation called Operation Triton.
Its purpose (though they didn’t put it exactly that way) was not to rescue the refugees, because then they ended up in the European Union.
Triton was a “coastguard” operation, with a third of the budget of Mare Nostrum and orders only to patrol Italian and Maltese coastal waters. They could save any boatloads of refugees that made it that far, but they were not to do “search and rescue” operations off the Libyan coast, which is where most of the overloaded boats actually founder.
Inevitably, the death toll from drownings in the first five months of this year was 30 times higher than in the same period last year: at least 1,750 human beings. The losses were so shocking that an emergency EU meeting in late April boosted Triton’s budget back up to the level of Mare Nostrum—but they didn’t change its “mission”. It was still only supposed to operate in EU coastal waters.
But then something odd happened. Last weekend, ships from the Italian, British, German, and Irish navies rescued more than 4,000 people in two days—the vast majority of them just off the Libyan coast. The EU has not condemned the operation, but it wasn’t really the EU’s plan.
What drove it was the sheer reluctance of the navies to stand by and let people drown.
The European politicians face a huge demand from their electorates to stop the seemingly endless flow of “migrants” (the preferred term for refugees, since it elicits less sympathy) across the Mediterranean. 170,000 people made it across last year, and it could be double that number this year unless lots and lots of them drown.
But the voters (or most of them) don’t want to hear about that, and most of the politicians are not very brave.
So the politicians did what the voters wanted. At some level they must have understood the consequences of stopping the search-and-rescue operation, but they found ways of lying to themselves. First of all they said that all these life-saving operations were just encouraging more people to risk the crossing. Stop saving them, and they won’t come.
Ridiculous: these are desperate people who have already faced many big risks to get as far as Libya. They kept coming, and the horrendous death-toll this spring got the media so excited that the politicians had to do something—but not, of course, anything that would actually result in more people arriving in Europe. So they gave more money to Operation Triton, but they still didn’t give it a life-saving role.
Instead, they came up with some nonsense about saving the refugees from drowning by destroying the people-smugglers’ boats on the shores of Libya before they went to sea. It’s the “new slave trade”, and we’re just saving the refugees from themselves. Of course, the EU hasn’t actually destroyed any boats (which would be an act of war against Libya).
What they didn’t reckon with was their own navies, who come at this from a very different angle. The sailors don’t have to worry about the voters, and on the whole they are not terribly fond of the politicians, but they certainly do know about the sea. And one of the oldest traditions of the sea is that you do not leave people to drown.
Everybody who has spent much time at sea knows that it is an intrinsically hostile environment. Alone and unsupported by technology (including flotation gear), you will survive in the water for a matter of minutes, or at most, if you are very fit and lucky, for an hour or two. So when you see somebody in the water, you do everything you can to save them—because another time, it could be you.
When I was in the navy we were once first on the scene of a collision in which a tanker had exploded in flames. There was little chance of survivors, as oil had spilled and the sea was on fire around the stricken ship, but we searched all night and into the next day anyway. Nobody questioned why we were doing it, nobody even discussed it. There is no higher priority in a peacetime navy.
I was not on the warships attached to Operation Triton to overhear the conversations of the people on the bridge, but I am sure that they were outraged by their orders. So they gradually pushed out beyond the appointed bounds of Operation Triton to the places where the people were actually dying, and none of the politicians dared to expose themselves as heartless bastards by telling them to come back.
Eventually it has become the new de facto policy of the European Union—just like the old Mare Nostrum policy, before the European governments got at it.
Comments
13 Comments
P.Peto
Jun 1, 2015 at 1:05pm
Bravo Gwynne Dyer!
@ GergG: You have to wonder at the psychology of Thumbers as in your last post. I tend to frown upon the practice because it is a crude carry over from the time of Roman Circuses when the Plebeians were vicariously given the power of life and death over gladiatorial contestants. Supposedly if the Loser put up a good fight he could be spared to fight another day even if he was just outclassed by the Winner he might not be given his life. The power of life or death was a cynical gift to the otherwise powerless Plebs by the powerful Patricians. Plebians could gleefully indulge in their primal instincts.
So too, by analogy, the plebs among Dyer's readership can indulge themselves in the power of judgment over the merit of your comments while in all likelihood are themselves incapable of formulating a thoughtful comment. Those that do comment, do so mostly in the negative. You may also note that the thumbing falls off the further down the comment list you go, as most of Dyer's readers lose interest and don't much care to read all the comments.
While it might be gratifying to receive a “Thumbs up” ,whatever that might signify, it is perhaps best to ignore the down thumbers because you give them more credit and power than they deserve. After all they are just using the powers given to them, however capriciously.
Surprise Surprise
Jun 1, 2015 at 4:32pm
@Greg G. and P. Peto
I often read the comments and on occasion give thumbs up and rarely thumbs down. An incoherent rant or a highly negative post will earn a down.
I personally count all ups and downs as a positive. Based on the idea that agree or disagree, I hope you thought about the choice you made.
Enjoy life, ignore the trolls and above all
Think for Yourself.....
Like Hell
Jun 1, 2015 at 7:38pm
Conclusive proof that the alleged “migrant crisis” is in actuality a crisis of White European pathological altruism: from the Times Of Malta
“Maltese patrol boats have not been picking up migrants at sea because the migrants themselves refuse to be rescued by Maltese boats, the commander of the AFM’s maritime unit, Lt Col Andrew Mallia has been quoted as saying by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
He said that whenever Maltese patrol boats intercepted migrants’ boats the migrants invariably refused help.
He explained that the migrants did not want to come to Malta because that would make it difficult for them to proceed to Northern Europe.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150504/local/migrants-refusi...
How can there even be any further questions after this? “Refugee” crisis? My ass.
Wiederman
Jun 1, 2015 at 10:31pm
How is it that Dyer still insists upon calling these people “refugees” when even most MSM outlets are finally owning up to the truth and calling them for what they are—economic migrants? Why is it that every time you see pictures of these “refugees” they all happen to be young men from sub-Saharan Africa?
It has to be in the discussion, so we are all clear that we are allowing hundreds of thousands of people into Europe simply because they are poor and want free things. If people decide that is okay, then there is nothing to be done. But we must at least be honest about what is happening.
Anonymous
Jun 2, 2015 at 1:05am
P. Peto and Surprise Surprise, thank you for the good advice. It still blows me away that people would down-vote someone for asking a simple question as it didn't even contain a hint of expression of an opinion about anything, but your points are well taken.
Free things
Jun 2, 2015 at 5:42am
@Wiederman. Poor people fleeing harsh conditions for free things is what made North America what it is today. I find it ironic that the same Europe that provided countless refugees to the Americas over the centuries would like to turn it's back. People have always migrated from one place to another. "Germanic" tribes spread from Scandinavia across the crumbling Roman empire across all of Europe, Goths into Spain and North Africa, Turks into Anatolia, Europeans into North and South America. Countries are nothing but lines on a map and no one people really has any claim to their geography.
Wiederman
Jun 2, 2015 at 12:33pm
@Free
By far the most ridiculous comparison ever.
There was no free stuff or first world civilization and welfare system waiting for the SETTLERS from Europe. They built it from the ground up. These "refugees" (who all happen to be young men from sub Sahara Africa) are moving to Europe to take advantage and to take what they can from White civilization.
Bruce
Jun 2, 2015 at 4:31pm
@Wiederman
You don't deserve a respectful answer, but...
Many if not most of the "settlers" from Europe were treated like dirt when they first came here as well, as unwanted. Some arrived as virtual slaves, "indentured servants", work to death, cheated, or put into ghettos for generations. And many we now consider "white" were not defined as such, the category has broadened over time as political expediency required it. People have said what you have said about all sorts of religious and ethnic groups you'd now define as "white". And the strongest nation in the world, the USA with all its warts, is that way because it accepts ambitious migrants looking to advance themselves.
Immigration Gumballs
Jun 2, 2015 at 5:28pm
So how many of these migrants is Europe supposed to take in before Europe, for all intents and purposes becomes just another Africa?
Superb video made in 2010 and more relevant then ever. Completely debunks the whole Immigration as a Humanitarian Love-Quest . Gwynne Dyer might even learn a thing or two from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE
Solution
Jun 2, 2015 at 7:13pm
If the Western world stopped meddling in Africa, destroying countries and raping the countryside for resources, the flow of refugees would stop as Africans would be able to rebuild societies on their own terms.