We spend €150m on a spacecraft and €3m on saving refugees at sea

Since 1995, 20,000 refugees and asylum seekers have died in the Mediterranean Sea fleeing persecution and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. Some of this poverty and persecution is caused by European exploitation and inappropriate military interference.

The Italian government’s naval-rescue service, Mare Nostrum, has saved 140,000 lives since October, 2013. However, probably due to pressure from other European states, Mare Nostrum, which cost €9m euro per month, has been cancelled and replaced by Operation Triton, which costs €3m per month. Triton’s primary role is ‘border management’, not rescue.

On February 11, another 300 asylum seekers were drowned in the Mediterranean, on the same day that the European Union launched a spacecraft and then recovered that empty spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean at a cost of €150m.