Alarmphone | 27.07.2017
When the world’s attention was grabbed by the G20 spectacle in Hamburg in early July, where those came together who are responsible for many current wars and conflicts in the world that prompt millions to flee, and who create and maintain barriers to the free movement of the world’s poor while reinforcing neo-liberal forms of capitalist exploitation, hardly anyone noticed some of the devastating consequences of their policies: the ongoing mass dying in the Mediterranean Sea.
On the 17th or 18th of June, more than 120 travellers are feared to have died in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, with only a few survivors.[1] On the 4th of July, we learned about one of the largest recorded shipwrecks in the Western Mediterranean Sea. After drifting at sea for several days, up to 49 travellers seem to have drowned on their way to Spain, with only three survivors.[2] On the 7th of July, the NGO Sea-Watch found the remains of a capsized rubber boat, stating that ‘nobody can or wants to imagine the story behind it’.[3] One day later, on the 8th of July, at least 35 people, including seven children, seem to have drowned in the Central Mediterranean, when their boat sank off the coast of Libya. Fishermen rescued 85 people.[4] This year’s official death count stands at 2365 fatalities at sea.[5] These 2365 individuals lost their lives because of the bordered state of the world. Hegemonic governments, including those of the EU, profit from both the creation of unlivable living conditions in many parts of the world and the simultaneous criminalisation and deterrence of precarious travellers.
