MEDITERRANEAN BOAT PEOPLE, A NEW CRISIS FOR EUROPE?

Icheoku says on a hindsight those Europeans will be regretting now why they removed Libyan strongman Moummar Gaddafi, the hitherto bulwark of their defense from being overcrowded and crowded-out of their Europe by migrant Africans and Middle Easterners.  But for their conspiracy that killed Gaddafi, they would still be enjoying their Europe free from these maddening surge in flow of human-beings, the new boat people from Africa and the Middle-east. Daily are the ports of Italian Lampedusa and Malta crowded by rescued migrants from the Mediterranean Sea, the many  who were lucky to make it as opposed to the not so lucky ones that did not make it to the ports but who perished in the sea while trying. 

Records have it that for the over two hundred and twenty thousand migrants who have survived that treacherous journey within the last year alone and made it to Europe, about three thousand five hundred migrants did not make it but perished in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.  Eight hundred and fifty migrants even died in just one weekend alone this year,  all drowned in the choppy waters of the Mediterranean, lost forever and without trace or family to mourn them. As they rest in their watery graves, Icheoku asks what is the world doing to mitigate this disaster of the new boat people from Africa and the Middle east? Except o course if their lives don't matter much like with every minority of this world to elicit immediate solution. 

Icheoku asks what is the watching world waiting for and/or doing, especially Europe, to mitigate this world's deadliest boarder crossing in the Mediterranean? At the rate these unfortunate hapless migrants, making that leap of faith journey across the Mediterranean Sea, are meeting their deaths,  even the Wildebeest of Serengeti seem to stand a better chance at survival from the African crocodiles at Moro River crossing. Even the United States of America with their southern border crisis does not seem to have it this bad; at the least the migrants coming across from America's southern border do not have this much treachery to contend with, admitted many of them similarly perish in the desert. So what can Europe honestly do to stem this tide of humans flowing in from the Mediterranean Sea? Unlike the Americans who are building a 'Great Wall of China' along their border to protect the inflow of migrants from Latin America, what indeed can these Europeans really do to keep these migrants out of the Mediterranean and their Europe. 

Could mining the waters be a solution except that Europe is not at war with these migrants who are merely escaping hardship, civil wars and persecution from their motherlands. A situation which would have been avoided had these European countries meaningfully helped them have a life in their own countries through development projects instead of of allowing their condition to deteriorate so much to looking for succor elsewhere. Icheoku agrees that Europe should look towards addressing the root causes of these desperation instead of the symptomatic reaction currently being canvassed such as destroying smugglers boats and interdicting migrants on the sea. As is always the case with such measures,  these smugglers will find a way to skit around it and desperation will always force human-beings into untoward thinking and creativity to still find another sea route into Europe. The solution is a Marshall Plan for these deprived countries and nations whose citizens constitute the bulk of these migrants, in order to help solve the underlying problems driving these migrants off the cliff of death in the Mediterranean. Icheoku adds  where repressive home governments are forcing these migrants to flee, the world especially Europe should do something to free such countries from these despots by taking military action against them where diplomacy fails. 

Icheoku is not advocating for a 'total recall' prohibition on migration or that any solution will be the 'it all that ends it all', but at least some measures could be put in place that would help ameliorate the situation and to a large  extent prevent these migrants from escaping from the frying pan of their hellish home countries into the fire that is perishing in the Mediterranean Sea. Icheoku disagrees with British Foreign Office Minister Joyce Anelay that 'search and rescue' will constitute a pull factor that encourages this perilous journey through the Mediterranean Sea. Rather it should be seen as life-saving operation and any rescued migrant should be summarily deported back to his or her home country instead of being allowed to drown in the waters. Europe should follow it up with embarking on dissemination of information campaign in these migrant countries to  discourage such migration as too dangerous, emphasizing that any caught migrant will be deported back. This way intending migrant will understand that such venture is not as rosy as is painted and will think twice before trying to take off next time. 

Icheoku believes with adequate cooperation with the governments of those migrant countries, especially Syria and Eritrea will be a more meaningful approach to starving and stemming off this migration. This will save these migrants lives as well as Europe from being over-ran by these Africans and Middle Easterners. So to German Interior Minister Thomas Maiziere, Icheoku says 'search and rescue' is not necessarily to keep those migrants in Europe, but to save them from a certain death and then they could be just shipped back to their countries of origin and let them be the voice of 'just say no to illegal migration'. They will share their sordid experience with their people and what a better way of letting the would be migrants know that it is not a rosy bed of travel than through one of their own. If not, these migrants who are already in hell in their home countries would rather risk making that leap of faith journey through the deep blue sea to see if they can peradventure make it to their proverbial heaven in Europe, in the hope for a better life. 

That many of them too often never make it, as they die in capsized boats and dinghies, shipwrecked and plunged into the waters of the Mediterranean is not a deterrent and never will be; as many of them believe they will be the lucky ones to make it or be rescued to Europe. Icheoku however finds some logic in Amnesty's Iverna McGowan position that the horrors of the Mediterranean Sea is a result of the 'push-factor' rather than the 'pull-factor' as canvassed by United Kingdom. Those migrants are desperate already, pushed by hellish conditions they are fleeing from in their own countries leading to the risky perilous journey through the Mediterranean. According to her deduction, irrespective of the fears and risks imposed by this migration, abandoning these boat-people to their certain fate of death by drowning should not be an option; and these migrants should not be allowed to die on their way to Europe, trying to escape from certain death in their home countries. 

Icheoku agrees and urges a world action to help this helpless of the world including by repatriating them back to their countries safely; but the search and rescue should go on as a humanitarian operation, regardless of some unintended consequences of possibly increasing the human trafficking because not to do so will only increase the number of victims that are interred in the watery graves of the Mediterranean Seas. What an unthinking and short-sighted Europe that traded Mummer Gaddafi for these deluge of illegal migrants. Now who is crying louder, a dead Gaddafi or an increasingly overwhelmed Europe? You guess is as good as Icheoku's but that removal of Libya's strongman was one heck of a miscalculation, similar to the removal of Saddam Hussein leading to the explosion of anarchists in the Middle East. But hey, life happens and when it does, humans can only seek to finding solutions where possible, otherwise to their faith, oh victims and same applies to the new boat people of the Mediterranean Sea.