The news has been filled for a few weeks now with stories about "immigrants" making their way into Europe through various routes – across the sea to the Greek islands, and across land through Hungary. Of course technically they are all travellers until they stop moving and set up home (at which point they are immigrants unless they stopped moving before they left their home country.
It turns out that most of the travellers are from Syria or from Afghanistan which makes them refugees.
This is a special category of migrant, and such migrants have the right under international law to seek and enjoy asylum.
Anyone trying to limit that right of asylum is almost certainly a criminal under international law, and morally bankrupt to boot. Those thinking that we can't take any more should take a long hard look at that dead child above; you are as responsible for that death just as much as if you beat that child to death personally.
There is no refugee crisis except in the sense that the refugees are not being treated properly. The fact that Europe was going to see an increase in the number of refugees was entirely predictable given the situation in Syria; particularly given that Turkey is hosting 1.7 million refugees. If anything there has been a crisis of political leadershiop amongst European politicians, and a failure to take a strong moral position. With a handful of exceptions.
The UK government is busy playing osterich games by pretending that by dealing with the Syrian crisis in Syria will make all the refugees disappear. Yes the ultimate solution is to sort out the situation in Syria, but in the meantime there are refugees dying.
The EU needs to start funding the cost of dealing with refugees so that the countries least able to afford to don't have to pay a disproportionate amount (i.e. Greece).
The EU needs to set up safe, secure, and comfortable refugee centres where refugees can be accommodated, assessed, and then allocated a new country to go to.
The EU needs to allocate refugees out amongst all of the countries of the EU on a fair basis, and need to shame the reluctant into accepting their fair share.
And we all need to slap down those who oppose treating the refugees properly.
