Lampedusa: The Shame of Fortress Europe

Lampedusa: The Shame of Fortress Europe Posted: English Statements Tags: socepp statements 0 socepp-header Lampedusa: The Shame of Fortress Europe More than 300 bodies are expected to be retrieved at the coast of Lampadusa as a result of the disaster that struck a boat carrying close to 500 desperate refugees from the hell hole that calls itself Libya. Most of the dead refugees were Somalis and Eritreans and we can imagine that there were some Ethiopians too as Ethiopians are prisoners in their hundreds in the containers of the Libyan Desert, left to the mercy of racketeers, sadists and rapists. Ethiopians have also died on the shores of Yemen and in the hands of modern slavery lords from Lebanon to Qatar and beyond. Lampedusa is the name of fortress Europe, the inevitable result of a wrong and cruel European policy whose xenophobia is crudely manifested by the likes of the Golden Dawn pseudo Nazis of Greece and very many right wing extremist groups all over Europe, the Eastern part included. The harsh policy towards asylum seekers has led to many deportations, to brutalities at frontiers and in holding cages and to many racist and cold blooded aggressions against refugees. Lampedusa is closer to Africa than to Italy and refugees fleeing war, famine, the callous and hard hearted treatment by Libyans and others flee to it as a last desperate attempt to seek safety and a life worthy of a human being. The place is used as entry point to cold hearted Europe and it has become the graveyard of boats and human beings. SOCEPP hopes that the European countries would not again knowingly push more refugees to die in attempts to seek safety. Fortress Europe is not the way to resolve the crisis at all and a rethink is called for. Those countries that deport or threaten to deport refugees (even to practically Stateless Somalia) should change their policies so as not to endanger more lives. SOCEPP expresses sympathy to the families of the children, the pregnant women, the young and older refugees who all perished when their rickety boat sank. INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE SOCEPP, POSTFACH 51213, BERLIN 13372,GERMANY SOCEPP, 30 RIGA COVE, WINNIPEG,MB R2P 2Z7,CANADA E MAIL: SOCEPP @AOL.COM WEB SITE: WWW.SOCEPP.DE