People smugglers still profit as leaders fail to react
Reports on the refugee crisis have come and gone this Autumn. When there has been nothing on the news for a while, it is tempting to think that the tide might have abated and the problem is on the way to some kind of resolution.
John Irvine has a compelling report for News at Ten tonight that turns this on its head. It shows the people smugglers around Lesbos in Greece operating in an incredibly brazen, open and – to be brutally honest – efficient manner. But the trouble is, as you will see, the passage remains perilous. Not everyone makes it across.
It seems therefore that the West is in a tricky position. No serious attempt is being made whatever to stop these smugglers, nor – so far as we can discern – prosecute them. So, as we watch this influx, with some arriving on sturdy craft and some crammed into tiny dinghies, it is hard to avoid an uncomfortable thought; that the chances of making it depend significantly on the price of the ticket (if you can call it that).
European leaders are doing neither one thing nor the other. They are making no serious attempt to turn the smugglers back. But nor are they allowing people to cross legitimately, which would put the people smugglers out of business.
So they come anyway. It is just that some of them die in the process.
And there seems little doubt something must be done soon. Two million people have crossed the border into Turkey from what used to be Syria since the civil war began. 450,000 have moved into Europe. Germany has taken 600,000 people and may end up with as many as a million and a half by the end of the year. How many more can the Germans take?
European leaders will have much to discuss when they meet this week.