Over the course of the past week or so, the world has been transfixed by a macabre juxtaposition; the death of five billionaire occupants of a submersible which imploded at extreme ocean depths, and the mass drowning of at least 500 refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Mediterranean. The titan submersible has received extensive and saturation media coverage; the deaths of the refugees obtained only scant media attention.

It is not often that the New York Times gets something right, but we must give credit where it is due. Richard Perez-Peña correctly observed, “5 deaths at sea gripped the world. Hundreds of others got a shrug.” Not bad for an NYTimes journalist. There is no shortage of commentary highlighting the media disparity; the ultrawealthy deceased from the submersible spent their time and money on deep sea tourism.

The drowned refugees in the Mediterranean were mainly Pakistanis, Syrians, Palestinians, and other nonwhite nationalities fleeing dangerous conditions at home, making a perilous journey for a chance at a better future. Their homelands are impoverished and dangerous precisely because of wars and foreign policies implemented by the richer European and Anglo-majority nations.

Considerable resources were mobilised and joint efforts made to find the doomed Titan submersible. Extensive cooperation between the US and Canadian militaries and coast guards was apparent, as well as the participation of numerous private companies all pitching in with the latest technologies to search for the submersible. Such international collaboration makes evident the fact that we do have the capabilities, up to and including remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to handle maritime disasters.

No such cooperation was forthcoming in relation to the sinking fishing vessel in the Mediterranean. Greek coast guard authorities were tracking the overcrowded ship, but did nothing to save the people on board. The latest refugee drownings are a tragedy, but a preventable one. This is only one in a long line of maritime disasters in the Mediterranean, a predictable consequence of the EU’s anti-refugee policies. They have turned the entire Mediterranean into a militarised zone, making Europe an impregnable fortress.

Ramzy Baroud, writing about the latest refugee deaths, states that only 104 of the estimated 750 refugees were rescued. The authorities pulled dead bodies out of the water off the coast of Pylos, a Greek island, on June 13 and 14. The dates are significant, given that, only a week later – June 20 – the United Nations celebrated World Refugee Day.

Indeed, between 2014 and 2023, as the EU has turned the Mediterranean into a militarised maritime boundary, 23,000 refugees have drowned or gone missing when attempting to cross into Europe. That appalling statistic is particularly ironic; the same imperialist powers who hailed those East Berliners risking life and limb to cross the Berlin Wall, are now vociferously denouncing the refugees who make the perilous journey from their homelands.

The Berlin wall, from 1961 to 1988, became emblematic of Communist tyranny; the escapees were hailed as ordinary people demonstrating extraordinary courage. The East German government was condemned for implementing a shoot-to-kill policy at the wall, and for sealing the borders of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Hundreds of East Berliners, knowing full well the perils of escape, nevertheless attempted the journey, in search of a better life.

Since at least 2014, the member states of the EU have ratified numerous cross country agreements to erect fortified borders, particularly in Greece and Italy. Turkey, while not an EU member, has cooperated in enforcing a harsh anti-refugee regime, helping to expel asylum seekers from Europe’s southeastern borders. The refugees, mostly from Middle Eastern and African nations, are the victims of today’s fortress mentality.

Migrant shipwrecks, such as the latest one off Pylos island, are not isolated incidents. Moira Lavelle, an independent journalist based in Athens, writes that such tragedies are the result of deliberate political choices. In 2016, the EU signed an agreement with Turkey where refugees – mainly from Syria – would be sheltered in Turkey itself, rather than making it to EU territory. Outsourcing immigration and refugee policing has become the preferred method of dealing with asylum seekers.

Kenan Malik, writing in the Guardian, states that EU countries are paying the poorer sub-Saharan African nations, to keep refugees in their territories. Niger, Libya (or at least rival Libyan militia groups), are being bribed to retain and force refugees back to their place of origin. Incarcerated in makeshift refugee camps in appalling conditions, the EU has implemented a money-for-taking-refugees business model in African nations – the very philosophy of the people smugglers whom the EU governments strenuously condemns.

Dictatorial regimes in African nations, with horrid human rights records, such as Niger or Rwanda, are considered acceptable business partners when it comes to immigration detention. Libya, prior to the 2011 NATO intervention, was a functioning and reasonably developed society. Since that catastrophic intervention, Libya is a shattered society, and rival militia groups compete for control. The EU pays these militias to lock up sub-Saharan African refugees. Torture, rape and murder occur in these squalid camps.

As Malik observes, the EU has sponsored an entire cross-national regime of refugee detention. Prison camps, warehouses and temporary accommodation has become the norm for asylum seekers trapped in this business model. Let’s not forget that Britain, the US and Australia lead the way in the forcible detention of asylum seekers, all the while participating in policies which destroyed societies and thus prompted the outflow of refugees. No matter how much talk-back radio shouts about stopping the boats, or sneering ‘f*ck off, we’re full’, asylum seekers much prefer to live in their country of origin.

Yes, those who died in the Titan submersible should be mourned. Let’s devote equal – even more – attention towards the thousands of nameless victims of fortress Europe and imperialist wars. We need to re-examine and change our own conduct in global affairs.