EXPERT COMMENTARY: Migrant deaths at sea

Dr Tanja Müller is a Senior Lecturer in International Development at The University of Manchester and is available for interview about the implications of the migrant deaths in the Mediterranean upon EU and UK politics.

She said: “When boats are left to drown because of a lack resources at sea, this is not mere negligence.

“In the forthcoming British election, anti-immigration themes feature among most major parties. British political engagement to the deaths in the Mediterranean is almost absent. This makes ‘us’ silent accomplices of what might one day be called the greatest crime in the post-second-world-war-world by future historians.

“The humanitarian catastrophe and mass murder of refugees at sea is ultimately a direct consequence of EU politics – even if actual deaths are also caused by smugglers who in the past have locked refugees in below deck or thrown them overboard.

“The European Charter for Human Rights promises protection to those who flee war and persecution. But this promise has become hollow.”

Read Dr Müller’s full Policy@Mcr blog here.

Dr Tanja Müller bio.

Notes for editors

Media enquiries to:

Deborah Linton
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 8257, 07789 948 783
Email: deborah.linton@manchester.ac.uk