Another Two Deadly Shipwrecks off Lesvos and Kythira: EUropean Migration Policy Kills!

06.10.2022 | mrm.fhws.de

According to latest reports, at least 21 people have died in two shipwrecks off the Greek islands of Lesvos and Kythira throughout Wednesday night. While 17 people – 16 women, one boy – have drowned in a shipwreck off Lesvos, 13 people are assumed to be missing. In another incident, 15 people are believed to be missing after a boat hit rocks near the island of Kythira.

As students of the international Master’s program “International Social Work with Refugees and Migrants”, we express our solidarity and condolences to the relatives and friends of those who have been violently torn out of their lives.
The Greek Minister of Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarachi, shortly after the first reports, urges Turkey to “prevent all irregular departures”. However, it is precisely these demands that, in the past, have resulted in migration policies that do not allow people to exercise their freedom of movement and fulfill their basic rights to safety, asylum, and self-determination. Instead, in the absence of safe passages and viable alternatives, people on the movie are continuously being forced to embark on life-threatening journeys.
The enactment of the EU-Turkey Deal and the proceeding criminalization of refugees and civil society organizations at sea and on land, for years have posed ever-more limitations to the movement of people. As do the ongoing illegal pushbacks and various other deterrence measures at the EU external borders that continue to kill people on a daily basis and have led to the emergence of new, longer, and even more dangerous migration routes.
These latest and all previous shipwrecks are preventable! They are no mere accidents “due to harsh weather conditions” and “unseaworthy vessels”, as claimed by Greek Migration Minister Mitarachi, but rather the inevitable consequence of EUrope’s murderous migration regime that knowingly leaves people to die at its borders and beyond. It is thus undeniable that the responsibility and accountability for the people drowned off Lesvos and Kythira lies within EUropean governments.
We condemn the ongoing isolationist and deterrence policies of the EUropean migration regime whose effects have caused the death of more than 25,000 people in the Mediterranean since 2014. In solidarity with all people on the move and in order to stop the deaths at the borders and at sea, we demand –
- safe passage and freedom of movement for all people,
- an adequate state-led dedicated and proactive search and rescue fleet in the Aegean Sea and elsewhere,
- an immediate end to violent pushbacks and all other organized practices of border violence,
- the de-criminalization of migration and solidarity, and
- transversal and unconditional solidarity with all people on the move.