Satellite imagery, sealed court documents and interviews with survivors suggest that hundreds of deaths were preventable.
      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
        193·
        1 year ago

        In summary: They were deliberately ignored by Greece because they weren’t rich enough to care about, requiring private charity to step in and with its limited capacity only rescue a fraction while the rest remained ignored by Greece, and drowned.

        I can be grateful for the charity while still disgusted at the lack of action when compared to the outpouring of support for 5 nitwit billionaires in a deathtrap.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.clubEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      No one helped because it would have put the onus on dealing the refugees on them. Europe is just as shit as the US is when dealing with undocumented migration.

  • ChrisLicht@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Proposed: The UN establishes a sort of Selective Service that automatically enrolls every billionaire. When their card is pulled, they have to present themselves to be the search & rescue mascot of a migrant vessel.

  • Locrin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    75·
    1 year ago

    If you want to help you can contact Greece and say you want to house and feed some refugees.

  • a_mac_and_con@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    Can’t read the article because of paywall, but I’m not surprised by the title. The other worldwide pandemic we’ve been suffering from for much longer than a few years is apathy.

    • Zorque@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      The article paints it as Greece saying they would handle it, then sending a small coast guard boat with a four man special operations team with weapons.

      Basically everyone assumed Greece would handle it in a humanitarian way, instead they let the boat sink and arrested some of the survivors.

      • honey-im-meat-grinding@kbin.social
        0·
        1 year ago

        Basically everyone assumed Greece would handle it in a humanitarian way

        That may be more the way the article presents it - Frontex infamously replaced a more humanitarian approach under the guise of “cost savings” and then over the years grew their budget beyond what was spent on border crossings before they came into the picture, and now is under increasing scrutiny over how they just watch migrants die or even push them back - the Mediterranean border crossing is said to be the deadliest in the world.

        • bedrooms@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          Frontex infamously replaced a more humanitarian approach under the guise of “cost savings”

          Isn’y it more like he moved the money to a pocketable one under the disguise of “cost savings”? Because that’s how these things usually work for politicians and bureaucrats.

  • Nugget_in_biscuitEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Want to know the really messed up part? Let’s say tomorrow Greece changes their policy so that these migrant boats are always rescued and/or allowed to reach their shores. Since a lot of the passengers come from war zones, many of them will stay in Europe as refugees, and soon word will get out that these boats are a nearly certain way to make it to the EU. Sure enough, demand for these boat journeys will start to go way up.

    You may be tempted to say “good, more people can escape from horrible circumstances.” And yes, this is certainly true. The only problem is that you are going to destabilize Europe and North Africa, all while giving smugglers a huge payday.