Refugee Tragedies in the Mediterranean

Desperate attempts by refugees to flee to Europe from the political crises in several North African nations are ending in disasters at sea. In response to the rising number of fatalities, “The European Union proposed doubling the size of its Mediterranean search and rescue operations on Monday, as the first bodies were brought ashore of some 900 people feared killed in the deadliest shipwreck while trying to reach Europe” (Reuters, April 21, 2015). “Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi compared the smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean to the African slave trade of centuries ago. ‘When we say we are in the presence of slavery we are not using the word just for effect’” (ibid.). 

Ill-trained and greedy smugglers have abandoned boatloads of refugees in past months, as well as made major navigational and payload errors resulting in the deaths of hundreds—just to profit from people fleeing tyranny, persecution, violence and starvation. These refugees are looking for safer, better lives with a real future and are willing to risk death to do so. As professing Christians look on from the relative peace and safety of their homes, they should be moved to pray more fervently for a time when a loving, righteous King will rule on the earth and usher in true and lasting peace!

For more, read The World Ahead: What Will It Be Like?