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Europe’s migration tourniquet comes full circle

For every asylum application that was accepted in the EU last year, two were rejected. Anti-migration rhetoric has become the lowest common denominator for rightwing populist politics in many of the 28 member states.

By Preethi Nallu
Europe’s migration tourniquet comes full circle
One of six boats arriving during a Mare Nostrum rescue mission in the Central Mediterranean. | UNHCR/Alfredo D’Amato/Central Mediterranean
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The Rescue
June, 2014, San Giorgio, Central Mediterranean

“My baby, my baby!” A woman being led up from a dinghy screamed, catching her breath as if she were swallowing water – her agony, an unsettling contrast to the rest of the group filing out of the vessel with remarkable composure. They were shell-shocked.

Throwing quizzical glances at each other, the coastguard staff tried to find a lone child in the boat. We were aboard the Italian military ship San Giorgio, witnessing a rescue at sea, part of Mare Nostrum, the largest ever Search and Rescue (SAR) operation in the European Union.

The rest of the mother’s words poured out in Arabic. “It is no more,” she tried to explain in vain.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0