
There has been a substantial increase in numbers of refugees leaving for the Greek islands in August this year. Compared to last year’s 5,483 departures in August only, there’s been an increase of 299% with the same month this year’s total of 21,870 hopeful refugees who set out from Turkey on their dangerous journeys crossing the Aegean Sea on their quest for a safer and better life.
Only 7,893 of them actually arrived the islands though, yet coverage on the returned refugees is nowhere to be found in media. Why is that?
Why is media only focusing on the increase of the lucky few arrivals – leaving out the even higher numbers of the unlucky ones that didn’t make it to Europe?
Even though the increase of successful arrivals is 152% higher than that of August last year – which is, in fact, quite significant – the numbers of non-successful attempts of crossing the Aegean Sea to escape hell are even higher. But no-one ever mentions that.
The fact that the number of boats stopped – and in many cases arrested – by the Turkish coastguard before reaching the Greek islands has increased by a staggering 496% compared to August last year. How can media and big organizations forget to mention that?
In one month alone, almost 14,000 people have been arrested while trying to reach safety in Europe. What is holding the media back from reporting on such an important issue? Politics? Lobbying? Ignorance?
Sure, there’s often hidden agendas behind media’s behaviour but there’s no reason good enough to keep such important news back from the the rest of the world. Is there?…