According to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person and no one shall be subjected to torture or cruelty, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. So what is the use of this declaration when no one is implementing it? For decades, immigration has been confined to certain nationalities and to specific countries. At present, wars have affected some parts of the world and some countries have disintegrated. The phenomenon of illegal immigration is increasing and worsening as well, and now it has begun to affect some developed countries. When we look at history, we will find that the main causes of migration vary from one place to another. So I think that this problem will be solved if the common international immigration laws are revised. Last week, hundreds of illegal migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea as they were attempting to cross to Europe. As a result, various social media sites started trending in solidarity with those who lost their lives in the quest of seeking a better future for themselves. We talk about social media and how powerful this tool is to raise awareness, but what about change? We tweet, post and share, but how is that going to help the hundreds of people who flee their countries on a regular basis? There was only one reason why the European Union (EU) leaders were urgently driven to hold their recent emergency summit in Brussels. It was not to help save migrants from facing the threat of almost certain death in the Mediterranean graveyard, nor to put down solid, effective and long-term policies to resettle them. The only reason behind the call for the emergency talks was that European leaders are facing a crisis of conscience and do not know what to do about it. With up to 1,000 people killed by drowning this month alone along European shores, the meeting took place at the same time as a funeral was hurriedly held in Malta for the 24 unknown victims who were among the 800 refugees who drowned last week. Many migrants have died in the last two years, but no reaction whatsoever was forthcoming from Europe. United Nations agencies confirm that 219,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea in 2014 and at least 3,500 were victims of drowning. In September 2014 alone, an estimated 500 migrants drowned in one incident off Malta after smugglers transferred them to a smaller vessel on the high seas. In another incident in October 2013, at least 366 people lost their lives when a vessel carrying 500 migrants began to sink and then caught fire off the Italian island of Lampedusa. In addition to the 800 victims who died last Sunday, more than 330 people lost their lives in February as they were ordered by traffickers to embark from Libya on overcrowded rubber crafts in dreadful weather. We cannot just sit and expect that having tweeted on this issue is enough. This issue needs action more than awareness. We try to put the blame on others or argue that it is not our responsibility, and in the meantime we miss out on the importance of the issue, which is not who to hold accountable for the loss of lives but who can bring change. We have seen the rise in various political parties that campaign against migration in various European countries, but if I am going to throw the ball to you, and you in turn are going to throw it to someone else, who is going to help all those people on the run?
