This undated handout image provided by Greece’s coast guard on June 14, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. One of EU official called it one of the worst disasters ever in the Mediterranean Sea.
This undated handout image provided by Greece’s coast guard on June 14, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. One of EU official called it one of the worst disasters ever in the Mediterranean Sea. Credit: HELLENIC COAST GUARD VIA AP

While I applaud the heroic multi-nation emergency response to locate and rescue the private experimental submersible with five sightseeing tourists at the ocean floor site of the luxury liner, Titanic, I have some serious concerns. There are many thousands of desperate refugees across the world dying by the hundreds weekly as they attempt to escape the poverty and political oppression that engulfs their home countries. Yet there has not been nearly the same amount of outpouring of international resources to aid and save these poor souls — or the news media attention. Just last week hundreds of people perished in a sinking fishing trawler attempting to migrate to Greece, including women and as many as 100 children who all had been confined to its hold.  United Nations International Organization for Migration Director General, AntónioVitorino stated “With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route (Central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Italy and Malta) since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been ‘normalized.’” This must change. June 20 was World Refugee Day. Let’s make every effort that their deaths do not become “normalized.”

Joseph A. Twarog

Florence