They defy death in desperation

Can anyone, in a sound state of mind, imagine that he can cross the Mediterranean Sea getting on an inflatable dinghy, a small boat filled with air? Think that you are squashed into such a dinghy that can accommodate only 10-12 persons. And you are one of the 40-50 people huddled together in the tiny boat in place of 10-12. Such a dinghy should better be called a raft as it is no longer than a raft in size. In fact, they are rubber dinghy. Along with those 40-50 people from different countries around the world you are there ready to cross the Mediterranean Sea. It sounds crazy! But still you are ready to embark on the journey.

You are setting off in that tiny boat from the coast of Libya. Your destination is Italy from where you will try to reach any of the European countries to make a fortune. Before reaching Libya you have already had to pass through an ordeal of life. You sold out your gold or took money against your gold, sold out your only piece of land or borrowed a big chunk of money from a private money lender or your relatives. You have in your mind all these things. You know that you have to give your loan back and you have to get your gold released when you have a pretty good job in the country you are going to be settled.

You have your dream and in your desperation to make your dream come true you are hell-bent on going to a country of your choice. As soon as the inflatable dinghy sets off from the coast of Libya your dream begins to fade away. When you see yourself floating in a vast ocean with tumbling water all around you, your dream begins to evaporate. As the sunny morning gives way to the overcast sky, as the shimmering water turns grey, as the wind begins to howl in your ear with a storm brewing in the far-off horizon your dreams begin to sway with the tiny rubber boat bobbing up and down to the rhythm of the turbulent sea water.

You are carried into the real world from that of your imaginative dreamy world. When you look up in the sky you see cumulous cloud looking like white fluffy cotton balls. And suddenly the sky grows darker and darker darkening your mind. Everywhere it is dark and grey. No blue sky any more as the sun has already hidden itself under the dark cloud. The strong wind begins to blow violently. There are screams, shouts and wailing all around. The tiny boat can’t hold on; it can’t afford to bear the torment of the hostile weather. It gives in and collapses. You go down under the tumbling and turbulent sea water. And this is the end of the world.

The grey rubber dinghy you are in is washed in by tide lying on the shore of an Italian beach or a Libyan beach. One of your shoes and your lifejacket are strewn filled with sand on a sandy beach. You are found nowhere. This is how the dreams of irregular and illegal migrants end up in tragedy. People mostly from poor and war-torn countries embark on their journey by sea route. They mostly choose the central Mediterranean Sea route to reach Italy from Libya before they go to the country of their choice. They use this route as a way of easy transportation that saves their costs.

The route is also popular and common to Bangladeshis. Over the past few years a lot of shipwrecks have claimed the lives of thousands of people but nothing could deter them. On March 13 this year 17 Bangladeshis were rescued after the latest deadly shipwreck in the Mediterranean. Thirty people were feared drowned after the boat they were traveling in from Libya capsized in bad weather. The tragedy followed a 26 February shipwreck near the southern region of Calabria in which 79 people died.

Irregular migration to Italy rose even after the country opened its door to Bangladeshi workers in 2020 after a ban of eight years over the violation of recruitment conditions. A UN data says over the last two years the overwhelming majority of the irregular Bangladeshi migrants traveling to the European country went from Libya via the central Mediterranean Sea route.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 20, 000 people have died or disappeared while crossing the central Mediterranean Sea between 2014 and 2022. In May 2019, about 60 migrants, mostly from Bangladesh, died in a boat capsize in the Mediterranean on their way to Italy from Libya. In January last year seven Bangladeshi migrants who were being transported in a small fishing boat from Libya to Lampedusa in Italy died of hypothermia. In 2020, traffickers killed 26 Bangladeshi migrants in Libya following an altercation.

No one intends to take such a perilous journey if their backs are not pushed to the wall. When they see a bleak future beckoning them they throw in their lot with traffickers to make a fortune in a foreign land. Many of them know it beforehand that their lives might end up in tragedy. But still they take the risk of this perilous journey. Not only the hostile weather that may claim their lives in the middle of the sea but there are also other kinds of risks lurking everywhere along their journey.

There have been many reports of violence against them. There have also been reports of serious abuses like detention and exploitation by the traffickers and militia groups as soon as they set foot in Libya. People and migration experts are coming up with lots of what is to-be and not-to-be done. Some of them think that a comprehensive global effort is needed to bring an end to this irregular and illegal migration to save

human lives.

I think, nothing is going to come to any fruition. The only solution to the problem is to ensure the basis rights of people. When they are deprived of their basic rights, when they can no longer bear the burden of life, when they can see no path before them for their survival they gamble with their lives. It is a do-or-die situation for them. I heard one of the high-ups in the government telling them off for taking such risk calling them ‘fool’. Sitting on a cozy, comfortable and swiveling chair in an air-conditioned room no one can understand the agony, pains and pangs of those who resort to such perilous journey.

The writer is a journalist.

He can be contacted at [email protected]