MIA SWART: What immigration says about our capacity to be cruel

Right-wing parties are spreading over Europe like a bad rash, a trend to be resisted by reasonable people everywhere.

Many of the political parties that are now gaining popularity in Europe either define themselves in terms of their anti-immigration stance or see immigration as a central feature of their policies.

Ranging from the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom in the Netherlands and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the right is rising and raging against immigrants.

Sunak recently called pro-Palestinian protests a “threat to democracy”. Many of the leaders of these parties have made blatantly Islamophobic comments. In the past week Sunak faced criticism for failing to condemn Islamophobic comments made within his own party.

The migrant deaths in the Mediterranean still form one of the best examples of the cruelty of “Fortress Europe”. At the end of February the findings of an official investigation by EU ombud Emily O’Reilly into the Greek shipping tragedy of 2023 was revealed.

In one of the worst shipping disasters in recent history, the Adriana — an overcrowded fishing trawler that sailed from Libya to Italy — sank on June 14 2023. Of the 750 people on the ship, at least 600 died. In the aftermath of the disaster both the Hellenic Coast Guard and EU agency Frontex were criticised for failing to assist the passengers.

O’Reilly asked: “Why did reports of overcrowding, an apparent lack of life vests, children onboard and possible fatalities fail to trigger timely rescue efforts that could have saved hundreds of lives?” What happened that summer night went directly against European Commission president Ursula van der Leyen’s statement that “saving lives at sea is not optional”.

The Adriana sank amid intensified border security by countries such as Greece and Italy in response to migration via the Mediterranean. The agreement signed between Italy and Albania in November was penned in the spirit of anti-immigration.

In agreeing that migrants to Italy will be held in centres in Albania while their asylum applications are being processed, the agreement represents one more example of the externalisation of border control, a practice Amnesty International has described as unlawful and posing several human rights risks to migrants.

The organisation has stated that externalisation policies risk compromising the whole system for the identification and protection of children, pregnant women, survivors of trafficking and torture, and other groups in need of special care.

In SA, home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has suggested withdrawing from the 1951 UN Refugee Convention to restrict immigration. The ANC plans to radically “overhaul” SA’s commitments under conventions protecting refugees.

The recently released film In the Zone of Interest portrays the lives of members of the Höss family in a villa just outside Auschwitz concentration camp. Rudolf Höss was the camp commandant at Auschwitz between 1940 and 1943.

Unsettlingly, the characters go about their daily lives managing to dissociate themselves from the barbarity next door. Reviewers of the film have pointed out the film’s contemporary relevance.

Reviewing the film for The Guardian, Adrian Horton argued that the film deserves an Oscar for reminding viewers of how easily evil can surface if people look the other way “and that human beings can compartmentalise, can self-justify and, fascinatingly and horrifyingly, ignore”.

As long as an immoral system benefits a group materially, ignoring evil and one’s own complicity becomes so much easier. Since the start of the Gaza war close to 2-million Palestinians have been internally displaced — virtually the entire population.

The death toll in Gaza now exceeds 30,000, according to the health ministry in the strip. But instead of supporting a ceasefire, in a further illustration of the West’s blindness to suffering, countries such as Germany, the US and the UK would rather look the other way.

• Swart is a visiting professor at Wits Law School specialising in human rights, international relations and international law. She writes in her personal capacity.