We were wrong!
We posted a couple of days ago that “Charlie Hebdo makes mockery of African migrants who died in the Mediterranean?“. After careful deliberation we would like to apologize for that; we were totally out of line and this just goes to show you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Please accept our apology.
Anyway, some few days back, the good people at Charlie Hebdo were wrongly credited for a magazine cartoon ‘mocking’ Africans that drowned in the Mediterranean.
It is easy to see where the confusion comes from, though, as the cartoonist responsible for the art now works for Charlie Hebdo. The cartoonist is an Algerian, Ali Dilem, but the cartoon was published by Liberte in Algeria.
And even at that, the cartoon might have been misinterpreted. Homo economicus’ Weblog explains that “Regroupement Familial” – the words on the cartoon which literally mean “Family Reunion” – is the title of the French immigration policy for non-EU residents in France being joined by other family members from abroad. This requires 18 month initial stay (12 if Algerian) before they can come, income status etc. You can read about the policy in a English google translation here.
The cartoon is saying that the policy is contributing to deaths in the mediterranean by families desperate to be reunited.
Ironically, Charlie Hebdo has actually done a magazine cartoon which condemns Europe over their inaction over the thousands of African migrants dying in the Mediterranean monthly.
Sorry guys! It wasn’t Charlie Hebdo that did the Mediterranean drowning cartoon after all
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