IN 2009, Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party (BNP), said the solution to stopping Sub-Saharan African migrants from coming to Europe was to drown them.
In an article ‘BNP leader: sink boats with African migrants on board’ (Guardian, July 9 2009) he boasted: “But the only measure, sooner or later, which is going to stop immigration and stop large numbers of Sub-Saharan Africans dying on the way to get over here is to get very tough with those coming over.
“Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats.
“Anyone coming up with measures like that, we’ll support, but anything which is there as a ‘oh, we need to do something about it’ but in the end doing something about it means bringing them into Europe we will oppose.”
In October last year, European Ministers decided to halt search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, to deter immigrants from coming to Europe.
When the decision was made, the UK’s Foreign Office minister, Lady Anelay, said: “We understand that by withdrawing this rescue cover we will be leaving innocent children, women and men to drown who we would otherwise have saved.
“But eventually word will get around the war-torn communities of Syria and Libya and the other unstable nations of the region that we are indeed leaving innocent children, women and men to drown.
“And when it does, they will think twice about making the journey. And so eventually, over time, more lives will be saved.” (The Telegraph, October 28 2014).
This week more than 800 refugees, mainly from Africa and Syria, died in the Mediterranean Sea when their ship capsized.
Last week, another boat carrying more than 400 refugees, also capsized killing more than 400people who were on board, mainly women and children.
Both disasters have received fair coverage on major news channels such as Sky News, unlike South African xenophobia.
Its election time, immigration is real.
Secondly, it has happened at Europe’s doorstep.
But most of all, the two incidents are an embarrassment to the Europeans, who, last year, decided to stop rescuing operations in the Mediterranean to rescue African refugees, as a measure to deter Africans from migrating to Europe.
According to a political blogger with The Telegraph, Dan Hodges, the drowning of these refugees was not an accident, but a deliberate act to stop the influx of refugees from Africa and Syria.
He wrote: “There’s something we need to be clear on.
“The death of 900 refugees – we have to use that blanket term because we don’t know the names of the dead, and I suspect we never will – in the Mediterranean over the weekend was not a ‘tragedy’.
“The word tragedy implies an accidental calamity.
“An unfortunate confluence of space and time.
“There was nothing accidental about the deaths of the 900.
“They were killed as a direct – and deliberate – act of government policy, EU policy and British government policy.” (The Telegraph, April 20 2015).
So, what with all the tears coming from European leaders?
Are they just crocodile tears?
This week (Thursday April 23) the European leaders are meeting in Brussels to find a solution to the growing Mediterranean Sea tragedy, which is claiming the lives of many Africans.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, condemned the European leaders’ decision not to rescue migrants.
Speaking on Sky News, he said it is appalling to say, “we are not going to rescue people because there is a pull factor.”
On tweeter, Ed Miliband wrote, “Those dying in the Mediterranean are some of the poorest men, women and children in the world.
“We must act to stop these awful scenes. We are seeing tragic scenes for the second time in days.
“European leaders must work together to stop more of these drownings taking place.”
Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader who is known for his anti-immigration stance, said bombing Libya was the most stupid and appalling foreign policy ever done by Britain and her allies, because it created instability in the region.
However, he does not believe in creating safe passages for refugees.
“We cannot open up our borders to unlimited people,” he said.
“We can help them where they are.”
In other words Farage believes in helping people in their own countries so that they do not see the need for coming to Europe.
But how will he do that?
On the other hand, he is pledging to slash Britain’s foreign aid budget from £9 billion per year to only £2 billion per year (saving £10 billion a year by 2018) should his party win the next election.
Of course he will never be the next PM of the UK.
William Hague, the former foreign secretary, says that there is need to carry out more action against the people who smuggle immigrants, or human traffickers, into Europe.
He believes that Britain can help the situation (reducing migration into Europe/Britain), if Britain increases international aid to Africa and support people where they are.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that in 2014, more than 200 000 immigrants crossed into Europe using the same channel; and about 3 500 of them died in the seas.
Most of these refugees are fleeing the war in Syria.
Before he was toppled from power in 2011, Colonel Muammar Gadaffi warned Europe that their countries would be flooded by immigrants (from Sub-Saharan Africa) if they removed him from power.
He said: “Thousands of people from Libya will invade Europe. There will be no one to stop them anymore,” (The Express March 8 2011).
In November last year, a former Tory who defected to UKIP, Mark Reckless, acknowledged Gaddafi’s role in controlling immigrants from ‘flooding’ Europe, when he said: “Whatever people say about Gaddafi, one thing is he didn’t allow those boats to come across.
“He had an agreement with Italy that stopped it. Since he’s gone we’ve no idea what is going on in Libya.”
Gaddafi’s ghost seems to be haunting Europe.
Perhaps when the EU leaders meet in Brussels on April 23, they will ‘hear’ Gaddafi’s voice, pleading with them not to kill him as he played a key role in stabilising North Africa and controlling immigration.
On the other hand, the drowning of more than 1 200 immigrants within a week does not seem to deter African and Syrian immigrants from taking the risk to use the dangerous routes to come into Europe.
The journey is so dangerous, we hear of Muslims drowning Christians on board these overcrowded, rickety boats cruising the Mediterranean to Europe.
In one incident reported last week, a Christian refugee said, “They took him and threw him into the water.
“We tried to stop them, but they were more.
“And they killed so many,” wrote Daniel Greenfield on April 19 2015 in his article ‘Muslim Refugees Shouted Allahu Akbar Before Drowning Christians’.