“I don’t need to be on the news, I need to be rescued” – these were the words of one of the precarious passengers who called us from the Central Mediterranean Sea on the 20th of January 2018. He was among a group of roughly 100 people who had left Libya a day before and made it into international waters before being refouled back to Libya by a cargo vessel – a refoulement ordered by the Italian authorities, even by the Italian prime minister Conte himself, and carried out by their Libyan allies together with a private merchant vessel. […]
In light of the devastation and suffering in all three Mediterranean regions, it is often difficult to remain hopeful and to struggle on. However, that thousands of people still make it across the sea in these very adverse circumstances gives evidence to the unrelenting desire to localise new routes and methods to reach a place of perceived freedom and security. Now European societies have to show solidarity, pressurise governments against their anti-migrant policies, and open corridors on which people can move to desired destinations after reaching the shores of Europe.
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