Europe's refugee crisis

So David Cameron, is this dead Syrian child one of the 'swarm' of migrants you fear so much?

Those who have decided not to care will not be moved - but this should be moment when Britain finally finds its compassion

the Independent,

2 September, 2015

He looks asleep, far away in dreamland, as if he dropped off after a long day of play and fun, of tricks and naughtiness. His trainers are still on his feet. Did he pester mum and dad until they bought them? His red T-shirt and trousers have rolled up to reveal his tummy. I want to touch his soft, plump tummy, to hold him, wake him gently and dry him off.

But the boy is dead. He drowned in the foaming, blue sea, just off Bodrum in Turkey, a tourist destination for Europeans seeking sun and fun. The waves delivered him to the beach, gently it seems, so intact is the little body.

If this lifeless toddler was a European, the reaction across the continent would be shock and sorrow. But he is a Syrian, a pest, part of the “swarm” of refugees that David Cameron wants to keep out of Britain; a “cockroach” to Katie Hopkins, the loutish commentator.

Our Government can only talk in numbers, so too most of the media, including the BBC. Until yesterday, when Yvette Cooper finally acknowledged the Syrian refugee crisis, leading Labour figures were cowardly too, staying silent. Social psychopathy is the result. Thousands perish as they try to get into Europe; asylum-seeking women miscarry on the streets; children are starving and traumatised; young men look trapped and emasculated. Those who have decided not to care will not be moved. (Millions do care and do what little they can, but this is a humanitarian disaster which requires a pan-European response).

Maybe this is the moment, the image which breaks through the emotional and political fortresses. Remember that little naked, burning girl in the Vietnam war running away from bomb attacks? That single picture turned American public opinion against that terrible war. Or the first photographs of young Malala Yousafzai after she was shot on a school bus? Until then most Pakistanis were in denial about the Taliban in their country. After the shooting they had nowhere to hide.

Look at the picture of the washed up toddler if you can bear to. He is a little person, an innocent, who died before he could grow. Think of the chances his parents took and why they felt they had no other choice. How frightened they must have been when they got on to the packed, unsafe boat. Did they drown too? They might have seen their child sink. Imagine that. If they survived, they must wish they hadn’t. We don’t know their names. Maybe we never will. But this is our child now, whoever we are. Even those who support hardline anti-immigration policies, must, I think, feel pity and some urge to help.

Our PM and Home Secretary must speak out with some compassion now and take in more refugees. The boy on the beach will either become a symbol of European brutality or humanity. But he will never be erased from history and collective memory.

CrossTalk: Western-made Refugee Crisis

The real and imagined migrant crisis engulfing Europe: What accounts for the EU’s near indifference to the plight of refugees clamoring to enter European countries? Could it be that these people are from countries NATO members have attacked, and turned into failed states or havens for terrorists? These refugees never wanted to leave home in the first place. CrossTalking with Sukant Chandan, Anders Lustgarten, and Tim Finch

23,000 Migrants And Refugees Arrived in Greece Last Week

Greek Reporter,

1 September, 2015

Frontex announced on Tuesday that based on preliminary data 23,000 seaborne migrants and refugees arrived in Greece last week.

Among the most common entry points for the more than 200,000 people that have entered Greece through the seas in 2015 has been the Greek island of Lesvos in the Eastern Aegean sea. The island of 86,000 residents currently has 12,000 migrant and refugees awaiting to leave for mainland Greece, according to Greek newspaper “Kathimerini”.

LesvosNews.gr reported on Tuesday that there are 6,000 migrants and refugees located at Lesvos’s port at the city of Mitilini. Amid this situation, two units of riot police have been called to the island.

Greek passenger ships are continuing their routes from these islands to the port of Piraeus. 4,230 migrants and refugees from Lesvos are expected to disembark to the Piraeus port later today.

The TERA JET ship left Lesvos earlier in the day with 1,730 passengers. The Eleftherios Venizelos passenger ship, which has recorded multiple journeys around the Greek islands in the past few days for this purpose, will leave later in the day with 2,500 more refugees and migrants on board.

Pavlopoulos Urges Collective Response

The President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos reiterated the necessity for a European summit on the migration crisis during a meeting he had with Greek Foreign Affairs Minister Petros Moliviatis on Tuesday.

“It is a security issue but especially a humanitarian issue. Europe cannot overlook it given the beliefs and ideal that it has,” he said and noted that this is a collective problem, not just a Greek one.