"Either you lose hope completely and you shatter and break into pieces, or you become so resilient that no one can break you anymore," writes Malala Yousafzai in her book We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World.

The survivors of the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean, the worst in several years, are having to be similarly resilient and unbreakable. The UN refugee agency UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have since called for urgent and decisive action to prevent further deaths at sea.

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Although it's not clear how many people were onboard the fishing boat Andrianna when it capsized on June 14 off the coast of Greece, the number is estimated to be between 400 and 750, according to various testimonies. So far 104 people have been rescued and 81 bodies recovered, while hundreds remain missing and feared dead.

'A very tragic situation'

"This is a very tragic situation. And unfortunately, it's adding to a horrific mounting death toll on the Mediterranean," UNHCR's global spokesperson Shabia Mantoo tells CGTN. "What is really important in these situations is the emphasis and the need to preserve human life."

According to reports, the Andrianna had been in distress since the morning of June 13, but a large-scale search and rescue operation was only announced by the Hellenic Coast Guard on the morning of June 14, after the boat had capsized.

"One of the people was yelling at us and took all of our food away. When the Greek ship came they tied a rope at the front of the boat and started to pull slowly, but the rope got cut off," a survivor said in witness statement seen by CGTN. 

"Then they tied for the second time. At the beginning, we felt that it was pulling us but then the boat tipped. While the coast guard was speeding off, we yelled 'Stop' but they didn't notice. Our boat first moved left and then capsized."

The duty to rescue people in distress at sea without delay is a fundamental rule of international maritime law. Both shipmasters and states have an obligation to render assistance to those in distress at sea regardless of their nationality, status or the circumstances in which they are found, including on unseaworthy vessels, and irrespective of the intentions of those onboard.

"This tragic shipwreck off the coast of Greece is another preventable event. The European leadership's outpouring of grief is showing the hypocrisy of existing European policies on migration," said Juan Matias Gil, MSF Search and Rescue representative.

"What happened is the consequence of the absence of safe and legal pathways to come to Europe. Those deaths will raise the already dreadful toll of 1,166 people who have lost their lives at sea since the beginning of this year, making the Mediterranean the deadliest border in the world," added Gil.

In the first three months of 2023, the number of irregular border crossings reported by national authorities increased to 54,000, an increase of 26 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the European Border and Coast Guard agency Frontex. 

UNHCR reports a total of 74,706 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe since the beginning of this year – almost half of 159,410 that arrived during 2022. The most active paths remain the central Mediterranean sea route and the western Balkan land route. 

It is important to note that the EU supports the western Balkan partners in developing effective migration management systems, including strengthened asylum procedures, additional reception facilities and further efforts in relation to voluntary and non-voluntary returns, in accordance with EU rules.

'The most dangerous migration route in the world'

Meanwhile, the central Mediterranean route – via the sea between North Africa and Italy – saw nearly 28,000 irregular border crossings in the first quarter of the year, three times the number from a year ago. In March, the total detections on this route increased almost nine-fold compared to last year to more than 13,000, reports Frontex.

In March, more than 22,500 irregular border crossings were detected at the EU's external borders, 60 percent more than a year ago.

"It is clear that the current approach to the Mediterranean is unworkable. Year after year, it continues to be the most dangerous migration route in the world, with the highest fatality rate," said Federico Soda, IOM Director for the Department of Emergencies.

"States need to come together and address the gaps in proactive search and rescue, quick disembarkation, and safe regular pathways. These collective efforts should have the human rights of migrants and saving lives at the center of any response."

While UNHCR's Mantoo agrees with Soda that the current approach is unworkable, she believes that the numbers coming to Europe are manageable.

"The vast majority of the world's refugees aren't even coming to Europe," she points out. "They're hosted in some of the least resourced states. There are about 35 million refugees in the world and most of them are hosted in countries that are quite overstretched themselves."

She says that if authorities study the "numbers of those arriving irregularly on the Mediterranean," they will see that "last year there were about 160,000 people. This is not an unmanageable number and this pales in comparison, for instance, to the numbers we saw of refugees that have fled from Ukraine, in which we saw an exemplary and very commendable response from Europe in being able to quickly absorb and receive those refugees that were fleeing the war."

Similarly, since the start of the conflict in Sudan, Egypt has received 132,000 refugees in just the space of a few weeks while 150,000 refugees have crossed the border into Chad, according to IOM. 

And those who have arrived in Egypt have been given access to residency, education and healthcare. Chad is also offering the refugees safety and protection.

In comparison, Mantoo says the EU migration "is not a crisis, it is manageable."

Dignity while displaced

Mantoo insists safe and orderly pathways are key so people can access other countries without having to resort to these "dangerous, perilous journeys, where their lives are at risk and where they are essentially victims of traffickers, or smugglers."

These safe pathways can take the form of legal resettlement opportunities such as family reunification schemes and work or study permits. 

"There are various forms in which people can move safely to other countries, especially those that are in need of international protection," says Mantoo. "It's really important that they receive a dignified and humane reception."

Refugees often arrive with just their essential documentation and often only the clothes and the shoes that they're wearing. So it is important that while they are displaced, they are able to live a life in dignity, and have access to community access, healthcare, and education for the children. 

"We saw that in the EU, when the Ukraine situation happened, there was a very swift activation of the Temporary Protection Directive, which provided refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, opportunities to access residency, education, healthcare. In some situations, depending on the country, the labor market as well," explains Mantoo. 

"That is really crucial because then you can ensure that people are able to support themselves and also live with dignity while they're displaced."

'Stand in solidarity'

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the arrival of more than a million asylum seekers and migrants in 2015 set off a political crisis in the European Union, the effects of which are still being felt today. The chaos at borders and the strain on unprepared and under-resourced national asylum systems laid bare serious deficiencies in the EU asylum system.

However, HRW says that the EU institutions and national governments drew the wrong lessons from the challenges of managing mixed migration flows since 2015. The focus of EU policy since then has been on preventing arrivals, outsourcing responsibility to countries outside the EU, and downgrading refugee protection inside the EU.

But activists and campaigners will continue to fight for safety and survival of refugees and migrants.

"Today is World Refugee Day, so we hope that the world will come together and  people will take a stand in solidarity, in support of refugees, and remember their plight, remember the situation that they're exposed to," says Mantoo.

"Strong political action is needed to foster peace, to prevent people from having to leave their homes in the first place, and ultimately also to ensure that those that have left can then find a solution to their displacement. 

"We need more solutions. We need more action to address these dangerous journeys and the reasons that compel people to take them."

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