https://baptistnews.com/article/people-are-dying-in-africa-but-the-world-doesnt-notice/
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/1/13/european_migrant_crisis_rescue_volunteers_trial
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/7/12/dead_calm
Over the past decade, tens of thousands of refugees have died attempting to get to Europe. Many are war widows and orphans attempting to escape impossible situations. They're coming from as far away as Afghanistan and Sub-Saharan Africa. Many have fled the wars in places like Libya and Syria.
The EU feigns compassion by framing the issue in terms of refugees being exploited by people smugglers - very in much in keeping with the narratives of the American Right. Frontex is marketed as an agency of compassion, trying to stop these terrible gangs that smuggle people, when in reality it exists to block the migrants from getting to Europe. The ugly side of EU policy was revealed in 2024 when the Greek Coast Guard effectively sank a migrant ship killing hundreds on board. The shock and call for investigations are little more than crocodile tears - this is the unofficial policy. Maybe no one is saying 'sink the boats and kill them', but the idea is - do what you have to do to keep them out. Greece it must be remembered is on the front line of this problem. Many of the migrants cross from Western Türkiye into Greece - some of the Greek isles (and thus the EU) are just a few miles off the Turkish coast. As such, Greece is under extra pressure, as is Italy with its Mediterranean islands such as Lampedusa sitting just sixty miles off the coast of Tunisia.
In 2015, Europe attempted to step up and help the migrants - many fleeing from war in Syria - a conflict NATO did all it could to foment and fuel and which is still not completely ended. Türkiye had taken in millions of refugees and Europe felt compelled to act. But it backfired. Between the fallout from the financial crisis a few years earlier and the waves of refugees, the Right found an opening and now a decade later is already changing the face of EU politics and is even on the verge of seizing power. As such, the policies have changed.
In the meantime we also see nations like the UK and Italy doing all they can to ship migrants out - as a means of deterrence. If you make it, you won't be allowed to say. You'll end up in Rwanda or in Albania - Europe but not the part of Europe that people want to visit or work in, not a part of Europe that will give you access to the rich countries like Germany, France, and Italy. These programmes have been controversial and have run into snags. But no one seems to care about the people nor the fact that often what they are fleeing are conditions that Western governments and corporations have helped to create and profit from. These nations are in debt, are torn apart by wars - which are often connected to geopolitics and resources. And though some don't want to acknowledge the reality - climate change is playing a part, as is overpopulation. The latter reality becomes more acute in connection with climate change.
Why doesn't the Church seem to care? It's a disgrace but the groups that do are theologically modernist or liberal. They don't believe in the revelatory message or supernatural aspects of Christianity but they try to follow and live out (in some respects) the ethics of the New Testament, far more than those who profess to believe in Scripture and engage in political action to bring it to bear on society - or so they claim.
The New Yorker piece tells the story of those who are trying to reconnect the thousands of missing people with their families by means of forensic investigation. The article touches on the many ways in which families back in the home country are affected by this as they are unable to close the book and even take care of basic legal issues.
The Baptist News article correctly calls out the lack of coverage and interest in Africa and its people. I've long noticed this even when writing on my own websites. If it's a piece on Africa you can be sure that it will receive very little attention. Some will argue this is racial bias. Maybe, but I think most people are just lost when it comes to Africa. Few understand its size and diversity, let alone its history and problems. Let's face it, when the news talks about Africa it's just an endless succession of the same images - people in camps, starving children, strutting peacock-like politicians, and fighters wielding AK-47's from the beds of Toyota trucks. People just glaze over and can't be bothered to look into it. Doing so requires time and energy as well as curiosity and desire.
The crisis in Sudan is epic in scale with millions affected and yet it receives relatively little attention. And how many are going to be able to understand that the present crisis is connected with the US-sponsored project to carve out South Sudan in 2011, or the recent civil war in neighbouring Ethiopia - which was also spawned (at least in part) and fueled by US interests. And the coverage in the media (when covered at all) was dishonest.
And tragically when Africa is given attention by Evangelicals it's usually politicised and subjected to spin - either focused on attacking Islam, Democratic Party policy, China, Russia, or all of the above.
The problem is the people. These thousands of dead are people - people with lives, stories, families, hopes, and dreams. No one seems to care. It literally is like the movie Elysium.
Africa has generated plenty of its own troubles to be sure but one doesn't need to be a sold-out liberal to understand that many of the problems are connected to the interests and money of the rich nations which until very recently were all in the West. The US role in the post-war period has been overwhelming. This isn't about ideology shaping the news. Read the history. It's all there and it elucidates the problems of the present. Without investing some time in the history, there's no possible way to understand the present.
Repeatedly this tragedy is a case of the mammon-worshipping West along with its ecclesiastical allies ignoring and despising the least of these and often trampling them under foot.
See also:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/16/the-crisis-of-missing-migrants
The Democracy Now! link above is in reference to the New Yorker article but the latter cannot be read without a subscription. The DN piece is sufficient to get the point across. The fact that the author is suffering some kind of mental illness/dysphoria shouldn't detract from the story.
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