Who cares about migrants today? That is the query requested by journalist Annalisa Camilli within the Italian journal Internazionale. Disturbed by the sinkings of migrant boats and the obvious indifference of Europeans to the horrible deaths that at the moment are an everyday prevalence within the Méditerranée – greater than 2,500 are anticipated in 2023 by some estimates – Camilli tries to unravel the pondering that may result in such apathy. ”How did we get right here?”, she asks. ”How did the Pylos catastrophe, maybe essentially the most tragic in latest Mediterranean historical past, not even make the headlines? How can we settle for this flagging public curiosity?”
Political video games
Among the many potential explanations, Camilli factors to the instrumentalisation of migration by our elected representatives. In El Confidencial, Nacho Alarcón summarises a textbook case that arose on the casual assembly of EU leaders in Granada on 6 October. The assembly was imagined to be a chance to debate the EU’s strategic autonomy and enlargement, however was hijacked by Hungary and Poland with the intention to air their grievances in opposition to the EU’s migration coverage. It was a golden alternative, notes Alarcón, for Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki (Legislation and Justice, PiS) to put the groundwork for the parliamentary elections on 15 October.
In parallel with the elections, a government-initiated referendum was additionally to be held on 4 questions, one in all which requested Poles their opinion on ”the reception of hundreds of unlawful migrants from the Center East and Africa […] imposed by European paperwork”. The ballot was extensively criticised for its deceptive and alarmist character, experiences Alicja Gardulska for the Polish day by day Gazeta Wyborcza. Ultimately, 15 October proved to be a disastrous date for the PiS, which received the election however misplaced its majority, and on the identical day noticed the outcomes of its referendum rendered non-binding for lack of the mandatory quorum.
A triumph of conscience
Regardless of a number of setbacks, hardliners in Europe appear to be within the ascendant, for now – each on the bottom and likewise in folks’s minds: in keeping with a Eurobarometer report carried out final June, 24% of Europeans surveyed consider that immigration is ”one of many two most essential points going through the EU”. Nonetheless, as Olivier Lenoir, Elena Maximin and Marin Saillofest level out in an exhaustive evaluation for Le Grand Continent, ”on common within the EU, solely 19% of individuals know the proportion of non-European immigrants of their nation”. They go on: ”In no nation can greater than half of individuals accurately estimate the proportion of non-European immigrants. And a 3rd of Europeans by no means work together with a migrant (or lower than annually).”
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One other research, this time carried out throughout a dozen nations by the Midem analysis centre on the College of Dresden, reveals that migration is without doubt one of the two most polarising points for the Europeans questioned, on a par with local weather change.
The crucial of respecting basic rights is disappearing from the debates on migration. As a substitute, the problem is turning into a political soccer the place the implications for the general public – usually ill-informed – and above all for the exiles themselves, take second place.
Unpredictable penalties
For now Europe’s response appears to be to tighten the screws, even when it means promoting out its values, making pacts with dictators or leaving folks to their destiny on the excessive seas, as described by Claudio Francavilla of Human Rights Look ahead to Politico Europe. That is taking part in with fireplace. ”Sacrificing the rights of migrants and refugees for short-term political acquire just isn’t solely an immoral alternative but in addition a part of a series response that dangers having a disastrous impression on the Union and its founding values”, he warns. ”The following sufferer of the bloc’s migration obsession might properly be the EU itself”.
On migration and asylum
Lorraine de Foucher | Le Monde | 18 September | FR (paywall)
A research revealed in The Lancet of 273 feminine asylum-seekers reveals that 26% of them report having been victims of sexual violence throughout their final twelve months in France, whereas 75% say they have been subjected to violence earlier than getting into France. Le Monde publishes eight heart-rending accounts from feminine asylum-seekers, every one bearing witness to the risks these girls face every day.
iStories | 26 September | RU
”On the border between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, on the finish of the Latchine hall, a humanitarian disaster is underway”, says the impartial Russian investigative outlet iStories. The report, made within the ”buffer zone” the place medical doctors and volunteers are attempting to assist refugees from the unrecognised republic, paints a vivid image of the chaos attributable to the Azerbaijani offensive on 19 September.
Ani Gevorgyan | EVN Report | 9 October | EN
For the Armenian publication EVN Report, Ani Gevorgyan profiles a gaggle of the identical refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh who’ve sought refuge within the village of Zorak. In a photograph report, Gevorgyan recounts the shattered lives of the villagers, but in addition the solidarity they’re displaying – generally in the direction of folks completely unknown to them.
Kaja Puto | Krytyka Polityczna | 14 October | PL
On this interview with journalist Aleksandra Suława for the Polish journal Krytyka Polityczna, Kaja Puto traces the historical past of Polish immigrants who went to France over the last century, notably to work within the coal mines. From the preliminary heat welcome to their subsequent rejection in the course of the Nice Despair, this historic episode feels surprisingly topical.
Oiza Q. Obasuyi | Open Migration | 17 August | EN
In keeping with a research revealed by the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels (VUB), migrants are victims of a European prejudice that they’re much less certified than native staff. Their diplomas and previous skilled expertise usually are not at all times recognised at their true worth, in order that they usually discover themselves working in jobs for which they’re overqualified, explains Oiza Q Obasuyi for Open Migration.