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Voices from the front line of the refugee crisis
BEN COWLES talks to some of those who are battling to save lives on the borders of ‘Fortress Europe’
Sea-Eye 4 crew members rescue people from a wooden boat in the central Mediterranean [Camilla Kranzusch/Sea-Eye]

EUROPEAN governments have either given up trying to save lives in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, in the Channel, at the borders between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, Spain and Morocco, and along the bloc’s eastern borders, leaving people to drown, starve or freeze to death — or they have actively made their borders deadlier.

At the same time, European states have also deliberately hindered and even tried to criminalise the activities of the activists and civil society organisations that have stepped in where they left off.

About 1,500 people drowned in the central Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration’s latest estimates. And over 31,400 people were returned to Libya.

Simon Campbell, Border Violence Monitoring Network

Natalie Gruber, Josoor

Sophie W, Sea Eye

Kim, Channel Rescue

Marie, Mare Liberum

Deanna, Alarm Phone

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