No simple answers to this complex humanitarian crisis

In RESPONSE to Les Arnott’s recent letter posing five questions, I would like to ask some more fundamental ones.

1. Why are so many people from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Chad and much of Sub-Saharan Africa so desperate to leave their homelands? Could it be in part due to western governments stirring up hornets’ nests and polarising groups into civil wars?

2. What does he propose doing about other bottlenecks besides Calais, the island of Lampedusa springs to mind, as does the Spanish enclave of Melilla and there are plenty of others?

3. How would Italy, Spain and Greece cope with all the refugees, if the UN protocols were followed, when none of their economies is in wonderful condition and unemployment is very high?

4. If the French don’t care, why are the mayor and the inhabitants of Calais desperate for the French and UK government to help them to deal with the increasing number of refugees who exist in innumerable squats around the town?

5. Why did the French Government close the refugee camp at Sangatte? Could it be that they felt that it was attracting refugees?

6. If the UK was taken over by a dictator who made life intolerable or dangerous for Mr Arnott, where would he emigrate to?

7. Are the groups who organise the movement of refugees not prime examples of a market economy? There is a demand; they are attempting to supply a solution, much as slave traders did in the 18th Century with similar fatality rates.

The truth is this humanitarian crisis is a very complex and widespread one. The southern European countries have the problem and politicians in northern ones are reluctant to do anything to help for fear of acting as a magnet, leaving these poor people in a desperate limbo.

It will take some courageous and farsighted politicians, which seems to be an almost oxymoronic requirement nowadays, to solve these problems.

From: Thomas Jefferson, Alexandra Court, Bridlington.

HAVING seen the number of finance ministers, heads of state and monetary experts working day and night to solve Greece’s debt crisis, I think my Yorkshire mother could have solved it easily. She always said to me “never throw good money after bad”.