There is a massive increase in boats traveling towards the Greek Aegean Islands, people are fleeing Turkey by the thousands every week.
A political shift in Turkey, and threats of mass deportations, forcing even more people out on the dangerous journey towards Europe.
We have seen a steady increase in boats since June, numbers from July was the highest since 2015, and it seems that August will be even higher. So far this month 115 boats have reached the Greek Aegean Islands, 42 of them on Lesvos, 25 on Samos. In July a total of 175 boats arrived on the islands.
What nobody is writing about, is the boats that are stopped on their way towards Greece, by Turkish Coastguard and police. So far this month a staggering 225 boats have been stopped, this in only two weeks. This shows the magnitude of the situation, so why is nobody writing about it? So far this year 1250 boats have been stopped, 40.000 people arrested.
Governments and EU funded organizations are spending millions to produce statistical reports, reports that only tells a part of the story, the part they want you to know about.
They desperately want you to believe that the situation is under control, that fewer people are trying to reach Europe, that their strategy on building fences and walls is working.
The number of boats stopped isn’t mentioned anywhere, 40.000 people erased by the stroke of a pen, amongst them 15.000 children. All these children, equivalent to 500 school classes, are denied their right to seek asylum, denied to live a life without war, suppression, persecution and horrible living conditions.
Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”.
Today pushbacks and pullbacks are happening every single day. People are constantly being denied their basic human rights, because we, the people of Europe, let politicians rule us. We don’t say stop, we just look the other way, like nothing is happening.
There is something fundamentally wrong with this, politicians should be of the people, by the people, for the people. It’s time we say stop, it’s time we once again set the standard for what we want Europe to be, and not let us be ruled by right wing politicians.
We are all equal, there is no us and them, it’s only us.
