The Guardian view on danger at sea: looking out for all those in peril | Editorial
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Editorial: The contrast between the frantic hunt for a missing submersible and the failure to save migrants drowning in the Mediterranean is illuminating

A massive operation is under way to find and save a stricken vessel and its passengers. As time passes, anxious families and friends wait with growing fear. The US coastguard, Canadian armed forces and commercial vessels are all hunting for the Titan submersible, which has gone missing with five aboard on a dive to the wreck of the Titanic in the north Atlantic. The UK’s Ministry of Defence is also monitoring the situation.

It is hard to think of a starker contrast with the response to a fishing boat which sank in the Mediterranean last week with an estimated 750 people, including children, packed onboard. Only about 100 survived, making this one of the deadliest disasters in the Mediterranean. Greece and the EU blame people smugglers, who overcrowd boats and abuse those aboard them. But both have profound questions to answer about their own role in such disasters. Activists say authorities were repeatedly warned of the danger this boat faced, hours before it went down, but failed to act.

  • crius@beehaw.orgEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    I see your point but just for the sake of discussion, try and change “refugees” with “people”.

    You should notice how all the other considerations simply are not worth the electricity used to transmit them on your screen.

    • Kempeth@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I agree with that. As I already said, what I wrote was not supposed to be an excuse but an explanation.

    • jmp242English
      1·
      1 year ago

      These people aren’t citizens of the same countries though. Their country apparently didn’t want to do anything and hoping random other countries take care of you is not a great plan. Countries have a duty to their citizens first, and nothing about the migrant situation helps Greece other than somehow convincing them not to come. The migrants are creating an emergency and expecting someone to come save them. Europe (nor the US) can’t take care of their citizens right now - look at the news. Expecting them to expend resources for random other people is a fools errand.

      And if it was just picking them up and dropping them somewhere safe like it would have been with the submarine that would be one thing, but that’s not what you’re asking is it? You want them to be taken in for the rest of their lives and likely supported while you have all the other problems expressed in this thread.