The rescue of the Titan and the shipwreck in the Ionian Sea: a contrast marked by dehumanization

C-17 planes from the United States Army, state-of-the-art aquatic drones capable of diving up to six thousand meters deep, patrol planes, surface vessels equipped with specialized doctors in diving medicine, underwater robots, sonar buoys, helicopters, and support teams. All of these elements were part of the impressive deployment in the North Atlantic to rescue the Titan, the famous tourist submarine of OceanGate Expeditions designed to explore the wreckage of the Titanic.

Several countries from around the world were involved in the search, and a multitude of public and private resources were invested in the operation, estimated by experts to exceed six billion euros. Beyond the extensive resources deployed, the search for the missing submarine received frenetic and massive media coverage that captivated the entire world.

The tragic outcome is well-known to everyone: the five crew members, who had each paid around 250,000 dollars for this adventure that ended up as a deadly trap, died due to the catastrophic implosion of the vessel while descending towards the remains of the Titanic.

This gigantic deployment, both in terms of resources and media coverage, contrasts with the scarcity of resources and limited coverage allocated to rescue operations involving hundreds of lives at stake. This is the sad reality experienced by thousands of migrants who venture into the sea daily, fleeing war and poverty in search of a better future, often ending in tragedy amidst almost widespread indifference.

Without going any further, the desperate search for the Titanic submarine coincided in time with the dramatic shipwreck of the fishing boat Adriana, fifty miles off the Greek coast. It had departed from Libya carrying over seven hundred migrants. The journey ended with at least eighty-one deaths and over fifty still missing.

The difference in media coverage between both events has sparked numerous comments and raised many criticisms, such as that of former US President Barack Obama, who described the comparison between the attention received by the Adriana shipwreck and the disappearance of the Titan as "unsustainable".

Migration policies that are far from guaranteeing the right to life.

In relation to this contrast and the enormous media dimension concentrated on the rescue of the Titan submarine, David Minoves, the director of the Fons Català de Cooperació al Desenvolupament (Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation), highly criticizes the fact that "such a significant amount of economic, human, and media resources has been allocated to an event that, ultimately, is just a pleasure trip to take photographs and selfies next to the remains of the Titanic". He compares it to a journey like that of the Adriana, where "people risked their lives and paid a much higher and more costly amount to the criminal organizations organizing these types of crossings, compared to the people traveling in the submarine."

However, Minoves makes it clear that these are different situations, but when it comes to economic and human resources allocated to each of these situations, he focuses not only on the quantity but also on the purpose of these resources, especially in the case of rescuing migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

"Very few resources are allocated for rescue efforts, and they come from Frontex, the European agency that should ensure secure borders and guarantee the right to life. However, instead, it channels its resources towards containment policies aimed at fortifying European borders and preventing the arrival of refugees and asylum seekers, as repeatedly denounced by institutions, organizations, and entities", says the director of the Catalan Fund.

In the same line, Adrián Vives, the Coordinator of Political Advocacy and Social Participation of the Catalan Commission for Action for Refugees (CCAR), asserts that "the deadly migration policies of the European Union (EU) aim to prevent or make it difficult for migrant individuals embarking on these journeys to leave their countries, reach European territory, and, if they do arrive, prevent them from staying and subject them to deportation". That is why, according to him, "it is not surprising that all the necessary means are not deployed to rescue these individuals".

According to Minoves, this lack of safe and legal pathways to seek refuge leads to the existence of deadly escape routes where human rights are violated and lives are disregarded, thus forcing thousands of people to risk their lives. This is largely a consequence of migration policies and actions by states and authorities that "should guarantee the right to life and not endanger it, as is currently happening", he laments.

The treatment of the media or how to dehumanize migration

If we consider the media coverage and societal reaction, the contrast has also been stark. The rescue operation of the tourist submarine has overshadowed the tragedy of the Adriana, which the media has simply treated as one of the thousands of shipwrecks of vessels filled with refugees that occur every year on migration routes.

This widespread disregard, bordering on indifference, is due to a series of factors that have long been present and can be summarized in one concept: the dehumanization of migrants and refugees. "We have been witnessing migration policies that result in deaths for forty years, and in a way, this has led society to normalize these deaths", explains Vives.

The coordinator of CCAR also highlights the role of the media, which continuously "reproduce the same images of people in highly vulnerable situations, and after so many years, they have succeeded in numbing and desensitizing us to the deaths of certain people who come from certain countries and are migrants and refugees."

Minoves agrees, also highlighting the structural racism that still permeates a significant part of society and translates into the prism through which the media presents these issues. The director of the Catalan Fund points out the evident difference in treatment between refugees from Ukraine and those from Sudan or those embarking on journeys to reach Europe.

"We have seen countless reports about people from Ukraine, we have learned about their human stories, and we have empathized with them, while those coming from Africa or dying in the Mediterranean Sea are only news when they die, and we have no information about them other than a number", says Minoves.

The same has happened with the crew members of the Titan, whose names, surnames, life stories, and even technical details of the submarine they were traveling in have been revealed. "We have never seen this level of information provided in reference to a ship or a dinghy that has sunk in the middle of the Mediterranean," adds the source.

Beyond that, the dehumanization of migrants also greatly contributes to the way in which major media companies treat the issue, which is far from being approached from a human rights perspective. For example, it is rarely emphasized that migrant and refugees are rights holders and that states have obligations and responsibilities towards them.

"On the contrary," argues Adrián Vives, "at most, migration is discussed as a utilitarian issue, such as when it is said that migrants come to pay for our pensions or when it is suggested in terms of the low birth rates in European countries; or even when racist concepts are directly used, such as invasion, or when it is demanded that these people be deported to their countries of origin."

In conclusion, this combination of factors, deeply rooted over many years and ingrained in the social imagination, has led to the dehumanization of migrants, resulting in indifference and one shipwreck after another. "Dehumanization means exactly that there are people who are seen as inferior, whose lives are not valued equally, and therefore, the same resources are not deployed to rescue them," emphasizes the member of CCAR.