To think it’s ironic all the stops are being pulled to rescue 5 people from a submarine

[MrsMillhouse]

Yet…. The world allows a boat with hundreds including children to sink

This.

@BCCGoAway such assumptions but ok take it away.

@milkyaqua how dismissive. It should be a long running story because hundreds of people drowned including children.

Nobody is 'happy' about refugees making dangerous crossings! It's the tragedy of our time and this type of desperate migration will only increase with the climate crisis. But how can you possibly know about every boat crossing in the Mediterranean or in the Channel - especially when they are designed to evade detection by the authorities? When you know about a boat in trouble you can do something about it - if there is time.

The rhetoric and 'othering' of migrants by the likes of Braverman, Farage et al is despicable. It's insidious and plays to the worst elements in our society. But this is not the fault of these men in the sub, one of whom is 19. It's the fault of the people in the U.K. stupid enough to vote for these xenophobic, Brexiteer politicians. Many of whom are on MN. So look to yourselves before you cast aspersions on others, just because they have more money than you!

I maintain this thread is in very poor taste.

How can it be poor taste if all it does is state a fact?

I admit it is a presumption- based on the probability that on a website in a country that is 84% white most posters will also be white.

I agree

Both terrible events .I see your point and feel so sad for those poor people in the boat that sank.however it is still a tragedy that 5 men (including a 19 year old) are trapped in a locked metal pod under the sea.Yes these are those dreaded pale male and stale types ,with more money than you can shake a stick at. However they dont deserve to die at the bottom of the Ocean, a horrific death with no one trying to help surely?

Of course they don't deserve to die! Noone is saying that.

I hope that they will pay for the search and rescue.

Or that their estates will pay.

Butchyrestingface - What a nasty post.

Personally my attention was peaked more by the subversible for the reasons a pp said: the subversible story has not reached its conclusion yet.

The people on the boat in the Mediterranean has come to an end. The people who survived, survived. the people who died, died. We know the ending of the story. We know why they were there and what went wrong.

The people on the subversible. Are they alive? What actually went wrong with the submersible? Who is to blame? etc.There's unknown elements which continues the drama, which I believe is the reason the media is paying more attention to it.

Not just nasty, but plain stupid too. Like children have a say who their parents are.

Oh, don’t be obtuse. Clearly that was tongue-in-cheek.

Butchyrestingface - disgraceful.

Yes, well, i think they have to catch them first.

As if that 19 year old had any choice of who his parents where. Talk about stupid. I hope they are all found alive and well.

Same.

Small degree of sympathy for submarine people but an avoidable situation entirely of their own making.

Hopefully will prevent similar tragedies in future though as this incident will (surely?) put others off.

It has already been shown that some of the "facts" were lies. Various agencies sat by and did nothing, then lied to cover up their inaction. It was known that the boat was in trouble and not moving for several hours when the "various agencies" claimed that it had refused help and was moving steadily and without any trouble. Also, I don't actually think that "they said they didn't want help so we didn't help them" is a valid explanation for not helping people clearly in danger, however they got into that situation. The truth is that the "various agencies" didn't want their country to have to take responsibility for several hundered living people, so they left them in the hope that somebody else would step up - and the result was several hundred dead people.

So YABU for not knowing the actual facts, which have been widely publicised.

Also our government in particular loves to blame the shadowy people traffickers rather than look at their own behaviour.

Excuse me? There was nothing dismissive in what I posted. There was no further story in that tragic accident. This is an ongoing story. You can't make every tragic event a "long running story" when the story is over and a new tragedy occurs almost every day.

Of course it's horrific. It's a nightmare. They'll probably suffocate as the air runs out, trapped in a tiny sub - and one of them is only 19. And as for paying - they will almost certainly die.

I have read posts elsewhere saying about the migrants the same as this comment above, that people made their choice. Vile thing to say.

There are a lot of vile people around, basically.

A story? What's the story exactly? And why does it only need to be told when 1 x 700 people die? What about the dozens of similar incidents when fewer migrants drown? Don't they need their stories telling too.

The truth is there is plenty of coverage of migrant and/or refugee crossings and drowning, going back years. What there aren't, even from the emoters, are any viable solutions. Some things that could be done - safe routes for refugees - aren't politically supported because at the end of the day the citizens of Europe want less migration (political and economic) not more.

I also think the submersible incident has an element of novelty. Sadly desperate people drowning trying to reach European countries and receiving an unenthusiastic welcome has become the norm.