On Friday, around twenty activists gathered in Brussels to demand a humane and just European migration policy, in the aftermath of a deadly shipwreck off the Greek coast.
Around 500 to 700 migrants were on the fishing vessel when it capsized in the Ionian Sea on Wednesday, with survivors saying that 100 of those were children. The tragedy is said to be the deadliest shipwreck off the Greek coast in the past seven years.
104 people survived and at least 79 bodies have been retrieved so far, according to UNHCR.
"People are dying, people are drowning, and it is entirely preventable with more humane policy," said Lauren Van Dingenen, a young Belgian activist present at the Brussels action. "Maybe the tragedy has happened far away but the choices are made here, in Brussels."
Belgian NGO 11.11.11 organised a protest action in Petit Sablon Square to stand in solidarity with victims and demand a response from Belgian and European authorities.
"This disaster could have been avoided. Indeed, drownings are a political choice," said 11.11.11 director Els Hertogen."European and also Belgian resettlement programs are so small that they do not offer a realistic option. People have no alternative."
The activists brought swimming bands and life jackets to their demonstration to draw attention to the lack of search and rescue capacities of the European Union.
"Tragic events like this shipwreck, and the lack of attention to human rights or rescue actions in the new European Migration Pact make it clear that we have to force a turnaround from the bottom up through actions like this," added 11.11.11 director Els Hertogen."
Credit: Ioana Plesea / The Brussels Times
The NGO wants the EU to ensure legal entry routes for migrants, mandatory solidarity mechanisms for Member States, and an end to the entrapment of migrants into third-party countries rife with human rights violations.
They also demand that Belgium calls for an independent international investigation into the disaster, saying that the Hellenic Coast Guard is "known for its cover-up operations in the field of illegal pushbacks, violence and criminalisation of NGOs".
The latest proposal for an EU Migration Pact is worsening the conditions for migrants, according to the NGO. Activists want Belgian officials to campaign for a prohibition on the detention of minors, which is permitted under the current proposal.
In Greece, protests erupted across several cities in response to the disaster. Thousands of protestors in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Karditsa and Kalamata are denouncing the Greek authorities' actions as well as EU migration policies.
