Trending Now
We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
Rescued miners are seen as they are processed by police after being rescued at the mine shaft where rescue operations are ongoing as attempts are made to rescue illegal miners who have been underground for months, in Stilfontein, South Africa, January 14, 2025.
South African authorities haul dozens of bodies from mine siege
South African police said Wednesday that rescuers had recovered 78 bodies and 246 living miners this week from an abandoned gold mine near Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, that has been the site of a tense siege since August. Hundreds more miners were believed to be hiding underground, but rescue volunteers were unable to locate them.
The miners have been hesitant to leave the mine and have gone for months without natural light, including periods without food and water, because police arrested those who surfaced. Over 1,500 miners have been detained since August, and some have been deported.
Vulnerable migrants. The majority of the arrested miners came from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho to seek a better life in South Africa. Instead, they were targeted by criminal gangs that took over abandoned commercial mines and forced disadvantaged migrants to risk their lives extracting what little valuable ore remains.
The men in Stilfontein managed to send letters and pictures via an improvised pulley system that friends and family used to send them food and water. Images of emaciated men sitting among what appeared to be the remains of colleagues have shocked the Rainbow Nation, but police say they are determined to crack down on illegal mining.
Political waves. Tackling the heavily armed gangsters who control the mines, however, will be tough. And the siege threatens to upend politics in Johannesburg, where a delicate alliance between the African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance has held together against all expectations since last summer. The DA is calling for an independent inquiry into the mine operation, and we’ll be watching for cracks in the coalition.
Members of the rescue team from the Egyptian army inspect the damaged areas, following a powerful storm and heavy rainfall hitting the country, in Derna, Libya September 13, 2023.
Libya’s death toll keeps rising
The death toll continues to rise in Libya, where at least 6,000 are now dead after two dams in the eastern part of the country burst due to torrential flooding. Most of the carnage is in the Mediterranean city of Derna.
The statistics are grim. The UN says that as many as 30,000 have been displaced, while other observers estimate that the death toll could rise to a staggering 20,000 as bodies continue to wash up on shore.
So far, the rescue effort has been grueling Debris and mud are hindering access to hard-hit communities. Meanwhile, destroyed roads and bridges are also compounding shortages of food and water.
Making matters worse, Libya has been mired in civil war for a decade, and political factionalism is further complicating rescue efforts.(More on that here.)
As chances of finding victims alive diminish, attention is shifting to how this part of the country became such a deathtrap. Analysts say that the dams had not been maintained by warring authorities for years, and never had any hope of suppressing heavy waters.Rear Admiral John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, speaks at a press conference about the search of the missing OceanGate Expeditions submersible, on June 22, 2023.
The politics of rescue
Five people. A billionaire. A scientist. An inventor. A father and son. Two miles below the surface. At the wreckage of the Titanic.
All of them, now, gone, according to the US Coast Guard.
The tragic fate of the OceanGate Titan crew gripped the world in another Titanic obsession for obvious reasons. It led to a massive search operation that has had US and Canadian naval ships, Coast Guard vessels, and many others desperately rushing to … do whatever they could. But the bottom of the ocean is as inhospitable, as dangerous, and frankly, less accessible today than outer space. Eventually, physics gave way to prayer – never a good place to be – and, now, confirmation that it has ended in the worst possible way.
The intense search effort – which highlighted the intimately close relationship between the US and Canada, especially in times of crisis – has also been criticized as a stark reminder of the abdication of other wider responsibilities these two countries have to vulnerable people around the world. Contrast the attention, money, and material lavished upon the Titan search versus those sent to help the hundreds of lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea after a smuggler-run fishing boat jammed with migrants sank. Bodies are still being found today. Did the world do enough? Obviously not. Why was there an obsession to help five people on an adventure and not hundreds of people fleeing to freedom from a life of poverty?
I am loath to compare pain and tragedies – they are both deserving of attention, resources, and help – but proportionality matters. And the harsh reality is, there is no fairness in these matters. The rich get more resources than the poor. This is not to justify the unfairness but to call it out. Other factors, like race, religion, and country also play a part. Why is there more research money spent on curing male pattern baldness than malaria, as Bill Gates pointed out a decade ago? The market of money shapes and distorts the market of empathy. Who gets the resources for help? What are our obligations to people in danger?
These are not just maritime disaster issues, but immigration ones as well. As we cover this week in GZERO North, Canada’s Supreme Court just ruled that the Safe Third Country Agreement stands, meaning that refugees who transit through the United States, from say, Latin America, and cross into Canada, will be turned back to the US and processed there. Critics have said this puts refugees in real danger (the court said the discretionary exemptions based on key factors make it legal), but the politics of immigration in Canada is also ricocheted by the US obsession over its Mexican border troubles.
The cost of this isn’t just absorbing fatal gaps in our empathy – it also has a huge consequence for population growth and productivity. Canada has welcomed a record number of immigrants – over a million last year – and its population just reached 40 million people. This has driven a higher level of employment (especially driven by non-permanent residents) and, according to officials, immigration is responsible for almost all of Canada's growth in the labor force. Politically, high immigration rates and accepting refugees is also popular, even if it is debated.
In the US, immigration and refugee issues are lightning rods of political division, amplified by the crisis at the Mexican border. Not only that, but US Census results are just out and the focus is on how many white immigrants came to the country. Without immigration, according to the Census, white population numbers would have fallen. Immigration in the US is a proxy debate for race, economic and housing issues, xenophobia, and values. Just who should be welcome and how is one of the defining questions of US politics.
In some ways, the terrible and now sad drama that unfolded miles under the ocean is a microcosm for issues on land, asking the same unsettling question: What are our responsibilities for people in need?
– Evan Solomon, Publisher
To get Evan's column in your inbox each week, subscribe to GZERO North.