Skip to main content
The irony of World Refugee Day – ‘celebrating,’ then blaming the victims 
Too many lavish dinners will be catered in the name of the refugees in many Western capitals and embassies around the world – but little will change and the real culprits will avoid censure, says RAMZY BAROUD
Asylum seekers on a beach

FADI, a Syrian teenager, with curly hair and an acne-covered face, has miraculously survived one of the greatest migrant boat disasters in the modern history of the Mediterranean. 

Only 104 people have been rescued from a boat that carried an estimated 750 refugees after it capsized on June 13 in the open sea near the coastal town of Pylos in Greece.

Scores of lifeless bodies have been pulled out from the water, and many more have washed ashore. Hundreds are still missing, feared dead, many of whom are women and children, as they huddled on the lower deck of the 30-metre boat. 

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of Israel's P
Features / 15 April 2025
15 April 2025
Once able to defy a US president before Congress, Netanyahu now finds himself weakened by military setbacks and facing a populist Trump who may yet put ‘America first’ instead of Israel, writes RAMZY BAROUD
BREAKING POINT: Israelis take part in a protest against Prim
Features / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
Netanyahu’s failed attempt to replace Shin Bet’s chief violates longstanding Israeli political taboos, as the apartheid state’s internal power struggle spirals to a new level of crisis while Gaza burns, writes RAMZY BAROUD
Buildings destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offens
Features / 4 March 2025
4 March 2025
Israel’s crimes in Gaza have forced a reckoning with international law’s selective application as Western nations sanction ICC prosecutors and attack UN officials who demand accountability, writes RAMZY BAROUD
West Bank
Features / 10 February 2025
10 February 2025
Will 2025 be a year of combat for Israel, as promised by the new IDF chief of staff, wonders RAMZY BAROUD
Similar stories
A man stands amid the rubble of homes, destroyed by the Isra
Features / 20 February 2025
20 February 2025
One can only imagine what would happen if 2.2 million Palestinian refugees were pushed into Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries, per Trump’s proposal, writes RAMZY BAROUD
West Bank
Features / 10 February 2025
10 February 2025
Will 2025 be a year of combat for Israel, as promised by the new IDF chief of staff, wonders RAMZY BAROUD
MOVING SCENES: Displaced Palestinians return to their homes
Features / 28 January 2025
28 January 2025
As Gazans return to the ruins of their homes, their chants and songs and moving spirit of defiance point the way to a new Palestinian future, by and of the people, writes RAMZY BAROUD
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pictured before
Features / 30 July 2024
30 July 2024
The Israeli PM has lost his status as a ‘modern-day prophet,’ including among Israelis, as opinion polls now tell us, writes RAMZY BAROUD