Only Syria’s neighbours can act effectively there – and that must be allied with diplomatic efforts,not bombs. But there is no quick fix for the EU’s refugee crisisSince the start of the refugee crisis the British government has been keen to stress the need to tackle the problem at source in the countries of “origin and transit”. Looking after refugees on arrival would only encourage more to come. This argument was deployed to justify British support for the reduction of search-and-rescue efforts in the Mediterranean final autumn. That specific piece of callousness proved untenable: but the same line is now prominent again, as the government seeks to justify its refusal to serve its EU partners deal with the hundreds of thousands of refugees (yes, or migrants) now overwhelming our continental neighbours.
But just because an argument is deployed for cynical purposes does not necessarily invent it wrong. On the contrary,in the absence of any one, simple “magic bullet” to fix what is both a massive humanitarian tragedy and a political crisis that is threatening to tear the EU apart, and trying to address the root causes of the mass displacement of people must be an fundamental complement to caring for those who have already made it to Europe.
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Source: theguardian.com