As Media Spotlights Titanic Sub, Hundreds of Migrants Who Died in Greek Shipwreck Get Scant Coverage

We Begin Today's Show looking at the Titanic disparity and how the world responds to Maritime disasters as many as 700 migrants are feared to have died in a shipwreck last week off the coast of Greece but the stories receive far less attention than the search for the five passengers aboard a submersible to view the wreck of the Titanic on Thursday search efforts for the submersible ended

of Greece mostly women and children have been essentially forgotten passengers on the Titan were wealthy two were billionaires each paid 250 thousand dollars for an adventure of a lifetime a deep sea dive to view the wreckage of the Titanic those crammed unto the ramshackle Adriana fishing boat were seeking not Adventure but Refuge from war poverty climate change or any of the many other life-threatening crises that

force people to flee their homes with little more than the clothes on their back they paid human traffickers some thousands of dollars to Ferry them from Libya to Europe many of the passengers were from Pakistan Afghanistan Egypt Syria and Palestine a multinational effort was launched to search for the passengers on the Titan submersible meanwhile the Greek governments facing accusations that it could have saved the migrants

aboard the doom ship but opted not to the newspaper El Pais reports Greek authorities were tracking the ship for more than 12 hours and never activated a rescue operation even after the ship's engine broke down We Begin Today's Show with two guests jorgas Cosmopolis is a senior migration campaigner for Amnesty International he's joining us from Brussels and in parents were joined in Paris we're joined by

Lawrence bonda spokesperson and operations Communications manager for SOS mediterranea she's been on seven rescue missions in the Mediterranean we welcome you both to democracy now let's begin um with Lawrence a spokesperson for Mediterranean if you can respond to what took place last week and continues to take place and clearly when we don't know the migrants names when we don't know their stories like we know those

on the Titan the Titans it is hard to care talk about who died last week hi Amy yes it is very difficult to relate and to understand what happens in the Mediterranean when it's uh far and when you don't exactly understand what it means to be in the middle of the sea uh in the completely alone uh facing with the strength of the elements and and

having no one to hear your cry of Despair and and to come and rescue the people that um flee via the sea and that take the risk to die to seek safety are people from very different uh regions of the world from the African continent Asian continent middle east region the these are people as you were describing who are fleeing their original countries for various reasons

from war to Poverty um different kinds of violence and they end up in Libya trapped in a country where they are um facing hiring cycle of violence um we hear recounts of people who are abducted uh detained in unofficial detention centers beaten up with their family on the phone to make sure that the family sells everything they have and and provides as much money as possible

and so the people who take these nc-worthy boats that are critically overcrowded without life jackets often without food enough food and water to do such hazardous and dangerous Crossing are people that are in the absolute despair they will take any opportunity they have to just flee and try and seek safety eurogos Cosmopolis you have said that this is a completely avoidable disaster El Pais continues to

expose what took place off the coast of Greece explain where the migrants were coming from and this overcrowded fishing vessel what the Greek navy knew when they knew it and why this sunk we don't know how many hundreds of people in fact have died but it could be up to 700. hi Jaime thank you for for having this all indeed it's it's a tragedy beyond beyond

words and it was completely preventable simply because Europe doesn't allow doesn't afford safe and legal Roots Pathways for these people to to seek uh safety and that's the beginning that's the the result of policies of European member states who do not prioritize uh lives hearing the account of uh our other guests I always remember my friend Ali when he friend Fred Syria he he called me

yesterday after the Shipwreck he told me a few years ago it could have been me and my children he always tells me how it was the hardest thing he ever had to do fleeing his own country among Bob's bombs carrying his two his three children in his arms telling them night and day it's gonna be okay and Thinking Inside him it's gonna be okay even if

I have to die it's just to say that these people have absolutely no option nobody puts their family and themselves in such danger unless they have no other option and European politicians who very often now Express condolences we create do very little to do the right thing to to to to to have the safe and legal Roots we also know that the Greek coasters was alerted

in this latest report they were alerted early on and they followed very closely uh the suplex there are a lot of questions who remain to be answered by the Greek authorities why they acted the way they did or why didn't they act in the way they should have acted especially as more information emerges it was clear that the the the the vessel was probably not seaworthy

we need an investigation that is thorough that's independent to come to the truth we need to know the truth and we expect from the Greek authorities now to a look after the survivors make sure that families and their members have access and identify their loved ones and again truth and justice for for what has happened I want to turn to Abdul Fareed Ahmad the father of

18 year old Syrian migrant Muhammad Ahmad who went missing after that shipwreck off Greece he said he doesn't know if his son is dead or alive on Friday night we lost contact with my son and until now we don't know anything about his whereabouts the Smugglers say they arrived on the other side and until now there's been no communication we don't know anything about him drowned

alive we don't know if my son had to work he wouldn't have thought about leaving if he had peace of mind or a good livelihood he wouldn't have left giorgos uh if you could talk more about what people know at this time what they're told and also talk about your own family coming from the southern coastal town of peloponnese you've worked in the region as a

volunteer we just passed World Refugee day yes it's it's particularly stressful and and uh tactful for for taxing for me to think that this is a region the polyphonies where all my family comes from it's the same beaches where where me and my family spend our holidays and it's becoming a cemetery for for refugees and migrants over 30 000 people that we know of and that's

possibly the tip of the iceberg have a Paris in the Mediterranean again in cypricks that are completely uh avoidable right now um people survivors have been taken to to facilities managed by the Greek authorities and we understand that there has been some invest and one investigation opened by the Greek authorities into the events we don't know the exact scope but again I have to repeat it

has to be a thorough independent investigation to to what happened I also have to say that despite the the negative rhetoric and toxic rhetoric very often by politicians increase in my own country but also across Europe the solidarity strong I've seen a lot of people aiding running to to help providing for these people they have done it again they have done in 2015. I was there

when the thousands of hundreds of refugees from Syria came and the the ordinary people as call them they are there to help and I do think that there is a lot more solidarity left in us and it's proven every day in Europe and European leaders must follow that lead must follow the the legacy of what happened 2015 and solidarity by those people to sow their way

and provide finally safe and legal routes for these people otherwise all the tiers and all the condolences amount to nothing they're almost hypocritical and yeah I hope I really hope that this is the last shipwreck I really hope this is the last time we'll be looking for survivors and share testimonies like the ones we had before because they're completely unavailable it's and it's on us it's

on us to fix it Lawrence Bernard I was wondering if you could talk about is it pronounced marinastrom what this program was started by the Italian government in 2013 over a hundred thousand people rescued that year what happened to it and if you can talk more about how to avoid these tragedies yes the operation called maren ostume in Italian meaning RSC was a European operation conducted

by the Italian authorities in between 2013 and 2014 in this time in less than a year this European operation that was a military and a humanitarian operation also dedicated to search and rescue rescued over 150 000 people in less than a year and it shows how possibilities we know how to do European member states know how to do and Maritime sectors know how to perform research

and rescue it means putting European ships at Sea having people that are trained and equipped and coordinated accurately and efficiently to organize searches and then rescue votes in distress it happened at that time in this operation but this operation was ended in 2014 due to a lack of European solidarity the Italian authorities asked for European solidarity to ensure that this was financed and not only by

the Italian country and that the people that were rescued could be also taken care of by the European uh Union in in its entirety and with this lack of solidarity the operation they decided to put an end this operation and since then it was not replaced only replaced by Opera patients that were military and that were border defense Opera operations no sir European search and rescue

operation have been put in place since then this is why SOS meditation we created ourselves as Citizens eight years ago and other organizations citizen organizations created themselves it's to fill the Gap left in the central Mediterranean specifically in this region in between Libya and Europe that is completely left alone it's completely empty of European efficient search and rescue assets and this is why this is the

hope that I I'm I've been hearing just now it's it's a hope we all share of course we hope that this will be the end that it's the last shipwreck uh at all and and last shipwreck of this magnitude unfortunately I I don't have this I I don't hope I lost this hope I can tell you here and now there will be other shipwrecks um in

the days to come in the weeks to come in the months to come and and most likely in the year to come if nothing is done there will be other shipwrecks there will be other tragedies um the only way to stop that and it's not that complicated it's to it's to have this European solidarity uh in place a movement that organizes a European certain rescue operation

in the Mediterranean so that there is again real coordination uh efficient coordination when we receive this press alert it means that Maritime rescue centers coordinate relay the distress alerts make sure that the ships around in the vicinity are able to assist provide assistance and then disembark in a place of safety we know how to do Maritime world knows how to do what we need is the

the political choices if the the will to do it that's the only thing that is lacking and talking about that will I want to end with giorgos Cosmopolis and Brussels do you have a message to the world's media this as we call it Titanic disparity and how they cover the five people um who died in that submersible the idea that that should be a model blanket

coverage when people die at sea using that model for and multiplying it many many times over for the number of migrants who have died at Sea the message you have to Media responsibility I think it's a message for all of us including media everyone who's at reset scene no matter where they come from one no matter which language they speak their income the the societies they

come from we have to mobilize all our resources to help them with No Reservations no bad or ifs and put human life on the very very top of our priorities not only words but also with actions we need solidarity we need service rescue we need safe and legal routes for everyone and everyone has to be able to look in the eyes of the survivors and see

we did what we could do and this is not gonna happen again but so far this is not what's happening we have policies in Europe that lead to this cprex that they are these policies have a direct cause an effect with this uh Simplex we are seeing so yes we have the resources we have the capacity we have the technology we have advanced it's time to

put human lives on the very top of our our agenda and our efforts no matter where these people come from urugus Cosmopolis we want to thank you for being with us senior migration campaigner for Amnesty International speaking to us from Brussels Belgium and Laurence bondar spokesperson for SOS Mediterranean speaking to us from Paris