Recently I had the chance to talk to someone from a boat that had been in the mediterranean rescuing migrants – not one of the PC frauds that are the final stage of the people-smuggling operation, determined to land the ‘rescued’ in Europe or not at all, but just would-be humanitarian rescuers and returners.
What I was unprepared to learn about was something that sounded a bit like combat fatigue – the kind when a man says vehemently “I don’t want to talk about it”, and two hours later can’t stop talking about it. The people-smugglers pack them in, so the engine room is always crowded – maybe with those who did not pay or promise as much as others, maybe with those who were rashly eager, boarded first and got sent below, or maybe randomly. The ventilation is never adequate, and the people-smugglers never care, so typically half are dead by the time they are intercepted. I think the man who didn’t want to talk about it and couldn’t stop talking about it had cleared one too many such scenes – or maybe several too many.
Such accounts reinforce the impression I get from anecdotes on samizdata or elsewhere.
– Firstly, this is a commercial operation in which the people labelled ‘refugees’ are indeed really migrants but they are also more (or do I mean less?) than that. They are a commodity – a collaborating (and also pressured and deceived) commodity.
– Secondly, it is news to me if this aspect gets on the mainstream news. Is it just me (maybe it is – maybe I’ve missed watching counter-examples), or does mainstream media news consistently obscure this basic aspect of the migrant operation?
This is not something the mainstream news would want to talk about.
Our betters in the media have decided that such knowledge would not support the desired Narrative. Therefore, it must be suppressed for the greater good. THEIR idea of the greater good. See Narrative.
I’ve seen some coverage of it, although mostly not in any graphic detail. They give the bare facts. And I’ve heard from other people who say they have seen more ’emotional’ coverage on TV of the boat people of the Mediterranean.
But then the same goes for the coverage of war zones, natural disasters, and refugee camps. Or for that matter, hospitals and traffic accidents. The TV news can never have the impact of being there. It’s not new or unusual for news coverage to be kept somewhat ‘clean and dry’ for family viewing, ‘narrative’ or not.
Here’s some.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28383622
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37560655
@Nullius in Verba
they have seen more ’emotional’ coverage on TV
You mean something like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hL_DyvEV84
See peter singer solution: (i) any requests for ayslum are only processed from refugee camps; (ii) anyone found to have illegally immigrated is sent back to the relevant refugee camp.
He argues for being generous to genuine refugees.
That the only way to stop the exploitation involved in people smuggling is to make it pointless.
Being sent to say a syrian refugee camp to wait and see if you are given asylum is pretty unattractive if you are actually from a 2nd world country – so the system becomes a lot more honest. Rich countries are less likely to be generous if they feel they are being cheated which is why an honest system is important.
Do i understand correctly, that — unlike the “PC frauds” — the true rescuers return the rescued to North Africa?
In this case, is it a valid surmise that the people-smugglers let them make contact only to save their own lives?
I’d go further, with a UN resolution to the effect that any country A that receives an influx of lots of refugees from country B, as well as any allies of country A, have a right to invade part of country B to create a safe haven.
It is indeed a people smuggling operation. But the smugglers are only part of the mechanics of the operation, like the NGOs that supply the final link in the sea crossing.
The folk behind it all will, I think, be found to be western civilisation-despising individuals who have been educated in the post-sanity prevalent in the disconnected-from-reality western universities, and similar institutions. The collectivist elite.
They encourage and facilitate the narrative that finds such NGO ships to be run by heroes, despite the fact that the promise of rescue is luring many, expensively, to their deaths.
I think the migrants pay around 1000 euros each for the privilege of a possible watery grave.
A realistic partial solution would be to stop the people smugglers and their false promises.
Further, if the political and other management of the places from which the migrants escape, to hopes of the streets of London paved with gold, or similar, could be encouraged to be more functional, that would also help.
Africa is, after all, the continent of abundant naturale resources.
The impression I get from the media and ‘NGOs’ is that the right thing to do is to run a free ferry service from the southern to northern shores of the Med for anyone who turns up and wants it, and by not doing this, governments are playing into the hands of ‘people-traffickers’ who move in to fill the gap.
Then hand out the welfare when they arrive.
Rinse and repeat (if you pardon the expression).
Funny how in the 18th Century our navy could blockade many a port to prevent shipping adverse to our interests from moving, and that the Royal Navy could effectively interdict the trans-Atlantic slave trade, yet now, when people are smuggled and die in large numbers, nothing can be done, except for the Royal Navy giving the Manchester bomber a water taxi ride home to kill a bunch of teenage girils.
The navy obeys the commands of the Crown.
“Steerage”
Nope, it’s NOT the part of the ship where the steering is done from.
I seem to recall drawings of old “Dutch” boats that were able to accommodate chattel from Africa, to the marketplace in land of opportunity, quite efficiently!
Of course, chains were involved to keep ’em in their place.
Now, let’s discuss train travel.
Maybe even mass pedestrian “caravans”.
NGO’s = Soros funded revenge mission.
Do what Australia started doing – turn them away. The number attempting to enter dropped significantly and so, of course, did the number of deaths.
Leftist NGOs and Progressives were horrified by this.