The people we picked up were not "illegal". It's not illegal to be adrift at sea. They were desperate human beings throwing themselves on the mercy of whatever country picks them up. In this case a US Naval warship. I will never forget looking down from a sponson at their tiny boat and thinking, OMG they put to sea adrift in that. Basically, life so bad they would rather choose a strong risk of being lost at sea and drowning or starving than continue to live in their own country.

It's because life is unbearable in many countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, to name a few. Ironic they get picked up by the US military/navy is it not?

I am aware. I have been to countries where people have reason to want to leave and I have not been to the worst ones. I do not consider it 'ironic' though. I believe it was by intent. The USA often treated them well. Other countries like China often didn't. You can easily google stories about it. The US had a pretty open immigration policy for Vietnamese after the VietNam war. Possibly you say 'ironic ' because the USA was heavily involved in that war but we did not create the communist oppression most of them were fleeing. We did do some things worthy of shame in that war but we didn't create the base problems that sparked the war.

Getting adrift at sea is an emergency - knowingly entering a boat barely able to stay afloat, refusing offered help in fear of not reaching their goal and demanding to get transported to a specific destination and not the nearest safe habor is not an emergency. Sounds hard, but as long as there isn't a war going on in their home country (not the case for the majority of people) they enter the European Union illegally.

If you are referring to the Greece / boat thing then perhaps. I don't know all of the details of that (which are disputed) nor do I know the laws regarding immigration in the EU. In some places if you can set foot on the land and turn yourself over you are not an "illegal". You are just someone applying for asylum or whatever. But I thought you were saying the boat people we picked up on my carrier were illegal. IIRC they turned out to be from Cambodia.

Didn't hear any about that to be honest, so I'm unable to form an opinion myself about it. Hope the people you picked up are OK

It might have slipped under my radar if I was not involved in it. I was there because I was on temporary duty to the ship's master at arms (police). My normal job was much deeper in the ship in the power plants. We were told not to make them raise their arms because some of those folks would booby trap themselves with a hand grenade under their arm. Like if bad people / their government picked them up. They seemed fine though. Just exhausted and a bit bewildered by our huge ship. I caught a glimpse of them getting checked out in medical and didn't see them after that. Was told they got fed / medical etc and then were eventually transported as refugees to I think the USA but not positive. Because of that incident I found out that was fairly common at the time. I had never heard of it prior to that but I did see some news articles about it. I just checked - if you google boat people you can still get articles about them. Most of them were from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Try "people". It's accurate

See my response to Yoyo. It is not a pejorative. it is a shorthand term for a very sad situation describing people in a desperate situation.