In “ungoverned spaces” such as the high seas there is always lawlessness. It waxes and wanes with efforts by seagoing nations to keep it at bay, but to some degree it has been a constant throughout history. The various types in our modern iteration was covered well by Ian Urbina’s, “The Outlaw Ocean.”
The closer you get to shore – especially the shores of modern, effectively governed nations – such lawlessness tends to be limited to smuggling of high value items, usually narcotics. Nations that do not have effective maritime law enforcement agencies can see the full breadth of lawlessness Ian outlines come fully inshore.
Recently we’ve seen something unusual in the seas to the south of what many assume to be one of the most effectively governed areas on the planet, Europe.
The migrant crisis at sea in the Mediterranean has been with us for years, and with each year it morphs in a different way as money, politics, and laws adjust to changing incentives and barriers. For reasons mostly political, waves upon waves of illegal economic migrants are being brought in at such a level they are impacting the social cohesion and political stability of the entire region.
Why is this being allowed to happen? That’s a tough question with an list of possible uncomfortable answers, but let’s take a snapshot of the latest twist.
This year we’ve seen renewed attention to a small fleet of ships owned my NGOs that have by action if not intent partnered with criminal human smugglers to bring in mostly sub-Saharan African economic migrants in to Europe.
The Daily Mail has a good summary and a pic that captures the truth about what is going on.
German charity Jugend Rettet is also accused of towing boats used to ferry migrants back towards Libya, where most migrants hoping to reach Europe depart, to be reused by smugglers.
The revelations emerged after investigators took the unprecedented move of impounding the aid organisation’s vessel, Iuventa, at Lampedusa on Wednesday.
Details about the alleged collusion were contained in documents outlining the case prepared by prosecutors in Sicily following months of accusations about charities co-operating with smugglers.
Though the Italian government is showing interest in doing more to stop this lawlessness, for now the human traffickers and their NGO enablers have the initiative.
An interesting development this year concerns a new non-state actor whose arrival should not be a surprise. If things get to a point that governments fail to act, eventually people will act themselves.
In a series of articles (Part 1 & Part 2), Claude Berube and Chris Rawley do a great job outlining what is going on.
The first of the new maritime NGOs were focused on rescuing migrants amid the highly publicized loss of life as boats failed to make it to southern Europe. Search-and-rescue NGOs such as Migrant Officer Aid Station, Jugend Rettet and others have been chartering or otherwise operating ships to enable these rescues. Meanwhile, a counter-movement emerged under the name Defend Europe that is attempting to preserve what the group views as European identity by stopping migrants from reaching the shore.
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What is the C-Star’s mission? “We came to the conclusion,” Schmidt says, “to get activists who are independent and fair. We need to get our own ship to get people there and to observe the left-wing NGOs.” Schmidt contends that the media has been embedded with the NGOs and therefore have a bias in support of their work. When asked if C-Star had an embedded reporter or asked for a reporter from any media organization, he stated that they just wanted their own activists to report with cameras.
The European governments need to get hold of their southern maritime approaches sooner more than later. They have non-state actors partnering – and therefor funding – organized crime entities smuggling people who have little to no skills useful to a modern post-industrial welfare state. Other non-state actors are going to sea to counter them. Nothing good will come from this, and doing the same or nothing is not a solution.
With each passing year, especially from sub-Saharan Africa, the pressure to migrate will only grow. Making it easy, attractive, and profitable will only increase the flow.
In one graph, you can see the future;
The front-line European nations of Greece, Spain and Italy have youth unemployment rates of 47%, 39%, & 37% respectfully. They do not have the economic means to absorb what wants to come ashore. That is a simple economic reality independent of the cultural problems that this influx is creating.
The economies of the source nations cannot grow fast enough to meet the meager needs of their people. The drive to leave source nations will grow at the same time the desire to keep the migrants out of destination countries is growing.
This is the hard reality facing Europe. If the political will can be found to hold the growing masses at bay to avoid additional social conflict at home, then the front lines will be at sea.
To do that, Europe will need to deploy a sustainable and effective force with the ROE to back them up. They will also have to clear out the criminal gangs and their supporting NGOs who have found a nice business niche in the last few years. If they do that, the likes of C-Star will have no reason to put to sea.
An interesting question would be this: if the European nations do not act, what if the counter-NGO fleet becomes 2, or 6, or 20? What if they are attacked by the criminal element or decide that more direct action is needed either in defense or offense?
That is a level of anarchy no one wants to see.
The sad thing is that there are millions of desperate people who are looking for a better life. What could be done with the millions of Euros expended either enabling human trafficking or blocking it, that could instead be invested in building social, political, and economic capital in the source nations?
That ultimately is the solution to everyone’s problem.
