Deadly crossings in the Channel are a tragedy - The Yorkshire Post says

The loss of so many lives in a boat crossing the English Channel is a tragedy that should not be understated simply because of politics surrounding the incident.
A group of people waiting at Dover marina in Kent in September 22, 2020. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.A group of people waiting at Dover marina in Kent in September 22, 2020. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.
A group of people waiting at Dover marina in Kent in September 22, 2020. Picture: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire.

Three children and a pregnant woman were among the people, at least 27 of them, who died after the boast capsized off the coast of Calais on Wednesday.

Many such people are desperately fleeing unbearable situations in search of hope. So desperate that despite the dangers, which have been so awfully highlighted by what was described as the deadliest day of the “migrant crisis”, that more people making the perilous journey were brought ashore in the UK only yesterday.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is going to ask for extra help from Britain because these people “don’t want to stay” in his country, and critics in the UK have said it is “disgraceful” that ministers have refused to rule out using the so-called “pushback” tactic, one feared by charities to be dangerous.

Perhaps the intervention of the Bishop of Dover, the Right Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, is the one that politicians and the public should heed most keenly.

She told BBC Radio Kent: “I am feeling a deep inner rage that the world continues to allow this to happen, couched with political rhetoric as to whose fault it is.

“This is all our fault, we must all take responsibility.”

Whatever their politics, those who cannot understand that the world is a poorer place for the loss of those children, and the many who surrounded them, should pause for a moment to reflect on what sort of a person they are.

Humanity must be at the centre of this crisis.