The commentators 03-09-15...on the migrant crisisWhy cannot the countries of Europe, possibly supplemented by our allies in the US, Canada and elsewhere, get together our most practical minds, our most experienced administrators, and create an agency for the resettlement of migrants and refugees? Such an agency would be responsible for devising workable and humane solutions on the scale that is needed, and be funded accordingly. I hear the obvious objection, but we’ll spend more in the longer term and in much worse circumstances otherwise. Or do we lack something that our fathers and mothers had? Do our leaders lack the moral courage to lead and do we lack the moral courage to recognise the need to be led? If so, the outlook is dreadful
- David Aaronovitch, The Times Look at the picture of the washed up toddler if we 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
- Yasmin Alibhai Brown, The Independent If the British people were given a choice, would they rather offer a home to genuine Syrian refugees fleeing a terrible war, or to Romanian and Bulgarian migrants (50,000 of them in the year to March) drawn here by the prospect of higher wages and, in some cases, generous welfare payments? My vote would be strongly with the refugees. The trouble is that too many years of uncontrolled immigration — and the inability of politicians of all parties to curb it — have disenchanted many people, and left them anxious about migrants of every shape and size - Stephen Glover, Daily Mail
Europe’s failure to measure up to the human disaster has radically increased the human, financial and political costs of the crisis. One of the bedrocks of the EU, the Schengen free-movement zone, is now in jeopardy. It is not too late for the bloc to recover from a crisis largely of its own making. As hardline, anti-migrant parties surge in many countries, European governments must show they can work together to tame the chaos, uphold international law and show compassion to those in need
- Peter Sutherland, Financial Times As the immigration crisis deepens, a mood of anarchy is descending across Europe. Our once well-ordered civilisation is sliding towards chaos in face of the unprecedented, colossal influx of foreign arrivals. The signs of dislocation are all around us. Only yesterday the Eurostar service from Paris to London suffered massive delays because of a major security alert sparked by migrants climbing on to tracks and trains
- Leo McKinstry, Daily Express The crisis isn’t ours at all. Those in crisis are the citizens of Western European towns faced with the prospect of Syrian refugees moving in nearby. Those in crisis are the people so desperate to escape hardship, war, persecution and poverty that they have made a notoriously treacherous journey to Europe
- Holly Baxter, The Independent What would have happened had the shootings taken place not in America, but in Norwich? What if the victims had been a local TV crew known to two or three hundred thousand people? Would our London-based newspaper executives have thought "We've never heard of them, so we'll use lots of gory pictures" or "They're British. We'll show some restraint"?
What if the victims had been a Newsnight reporter and cameraman, people we were used to seeing in our living rooms, people known all over the country? Would the photographic coverage have been muted - in deference to our familiarity and their families - or even more excessive? Editor's blog: Murder on camera Comment archive, 2015 |
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