Once more, this period of crisis has given us the opportunity to reflect upon the world we live in. While our personal freedom is restricted due to Coronavirus, we must not forget about those who never experienced our privilege and whose situation deteriorated recently.
Morea is the largest refugee camp on European soil, located on the Greek island of Lesbos just off the Turkish coast. More than 20,000 people live in Morea under critical hygienic conditions, having just one water tap every 13000 people. On the other side of the Mediterranean, refugees keep trying to escape from the Libyan civil war, with the dream of reaching Europe. However, the strict lock-down measures of European countries, alongside the almost total indifference of international media, have caused another humanitarian tragedy. During the Easter weekend, several rubber boats attempted to cross the Central Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. According to "Times Malta," the requests for rescue sent out by the boats in distress were ignored by Maltese and Italian authorities for several days. As a result, 12 people lost their lives and at least one rubber boat was taken back to Libya by Libyan authorities, in a so-called "push-back" that defies the international law of the sea. 51 survivors were put back into Libyan detention camps, known to be places of rape, torture and various human rights abuses.
In order to have a better look into the consequences of Covid19 on the lives of refugees, we interviewed Paul, an intern at the German NGO Sea-Watch.
Dear Paul, could you tell us a little bit about Sea-Watch? What is its mission?
Of course. Sea-Watch is one of several NGOs that operate in the “Search and Rescue zone” (SAR) in the Central Mediterranean. They currently have two ships equipped to rescue boats in distress, as well as a small plane that monitors the area from above. They were founded in 2015 by a group of German civilians who were horrified by the policy of the European Union, which protected its external borders by simply letting people drown in the sea. Since then Sea-Watch has grown substantially, as have other SAR NGOs, but the problem has remained the same. Sadly, the Mediterranean Sea is by far the deadliest border in the world: between 2000 and 2017 over 30,000 people have lost their lives in the attempt to reach Europe, with an average of 6 people drowning every single day.
How has the work of NGOs such as Sea-Watch changed since the outbreak of Corona?
Most importantly, the Corona crisis has made it very difficult to get crew members onto the ships and get them ready for the next mission. Right now, the Sea-Watch 3 is in Sicily, Italy
and the Sea-Watch 4 is in Burriana, Spain. Both these countries have been heavily hit by the pandemic and travelling has been nearly impossible for the last few months. Other NGOs ships, like Sea-Eye’s “Alan Kurdi,” happened to be out at sea when the Covid19 outbreak hit and were able to rescue a few boats but have faced huge difficulties in finding a port of safety where they could disembark the rescued refugees. When they finally managed to enter an Italian port, their ship was seized by Italian port authorities and has not been allowed to leave yet. As the events during the Easter weekend have shown, refugees are not refraining from the dangerous crossing because of Corona: that’s why it is so important for SAR NGOs to be able to go back into the SAR zone as soon as possible.
In which ways did the pandemic affect refugee’s lives?
As any global pandemic, Covid19 and its economic consequences affect the poor and vulnerable members of any society the most. The potential outbreak of the virus is particularly dangerous for refugees living in overcrowded camps, in Europe and beyond. The situation in the Moria camp in Lesbos is incredibly fragile and a Corona outbreak there would be a humanitarian catastrophe, as it is essentially impossible to practice social distancing and follow basic hygiene rules there. That’s why Sea-Watch, along with several other activist groups, is building up political pressure on Germany and the EU to evacuate the camps on the Greek islands and resettle refugees and asylum seekers in other places where the necessary public health measures can be taken to keep people safe.
Do you think the recent deaths in the Mediterranean are direct consequences of the lockdown measures of countries such as Italy and Malta?
I wouldn’t say they are direct consequences of the lockdown measures, no. Although in a world without Corona perhaps there would be more NGO ships in the SAR zone and therefore better chances to detect and rescue boats in distress, people drowned in large numbers before the pandemic as well, so that’s not the reason. Rather, these deaths are the consequence of the lack of political will on the side of the EU to take the situation at their southern border seriously and to create safe and legal escape routes. It is not impossible to
combine public health measures to contain the virus and to safeguard basic human rights and avoid deaths at sea at the same time.
Will the massive media coverage of Covid19 result in a decreased attention towards the sufferings of refugees worldwide?
If national and international attention is only focused on the global pandemic, many social and humanitarian issues are in danger of disappearing from the public eye. However, the Corona crisis does not exist in a vacuum and should not be analyzed as such. Rather, in the case of refugees, this public health crisis adds another layer of difficulty to the lives of the vulnerable.
Thank you, could you give one final message to our readers?
Sure. I think during this harsh period we must not forget about those who don’t have the privilege to socially isolate by watching Netflix in the comfort of their homes, who cannot rely on health insurance if they get sick, and whose lives were already burdensome before the Covid19 pandemic. I believe our world can recover from this crisis and improve, but only if no one is left behind!
This pandemic has been devastating, not only on a sanitary and economic level, but on a human level as well. We must not forget that, even though Covid19 itself does not discriminate, its consequences do: it is the most vulnerable people of our societies that are most affected by this crisis.
Furthermore, now that many countries are loosening up the lockdown measures, we believe everyone should try to re-start their life as a better version of themselves. We as a society should make an active effort to be more empathetic towards one another.
The Charney Center’s goal is to spread a message of hope and peace, wishing that the world of tomorrow will be more equal and inclusive towards everyone. We believe that the best way to achieve this is through dialogue on a personal level and through diplomacy on a political level.