"It is unacceptable that in the 21st century people fleeing from conflict, persecutions, misery and land degradation must endure such terrible experiences in their home countries, not to mention en route, and then die on Europe's doorstep," said William Lacy Swing, the director general of the IOM.
William Lacy Swing, the director general of the IOM, said: "It is unacceptable that in the 21st century people fleeing from conflict, persecutions, misery and land degradation must endure such terrible experiences in their home countries, not to mention en route, and then die on Europe's doorstep".
Europe's professed commitment to human rights, including, in principle, a duty to give refuge to those escaping persecution and misery, has not been matched by meaningful policies.
If left-wing political leaders don't have clear answers for how to build a new economy that provides for human needs, people will do what they've always done: Put their faith in right-wing demagogues -- men who will prey on public fears and misery, and channel them into persecution of the Other -- i.e. of some imagined internal or external scapegoat.
The fear is that making sea crossing safer may just lure more people.Moreover, the boats invariably carry mixed human cargoes of refugees fleeing wars and persecution, and migrants escaping economic misery.
By focusing on misery and describing its cause as "ceaseless persecution" by "the so-called just and righteous", she intensified the urgency of her plea for change.
"Because of human misery, because of despair, for reasons of persecution in their home countries, these people have nothing else but to take an unseaworthy boat to a European haven," Tuerk said.
"This a cruel and callous way of adding to the misery of people fleeing a systematic campaign of persecution".
