This sunny Sunday morning, we wake up to yet another human catastrophe in the Mediterranean. The earlier ones have not caught much media attention – imagine if these had been luxury cruise ships with white Europeans and Americans. I listened carefully to the presenter at AlJazeera in this report Hundreds feared dead as boat capsizes off Libya coast He says that they come to seek a better life. NO! They run away to another continent without shoes, money or belongings because their lives are unbearable and hopeless. Normaly people seek a better life where they are, don’t we all? Here is a better explanation: “Behind almost every refugee stands an arm trader” – said once Swedish human rights advocate and humanist, Dr. Peter Nobel, former head of the Swedish Red Cross, when he was chairman of TFF’s Board. This formulation has been chiselled in my mind ever since. These people, all from warzones, are not on the run to happiness but run away from Hell. To solve, or at least reduce, the migration problem we should criminalise arms trade and abolish war as a socially acceptable institution.

Read More →