The refugee situation is escalating into epic proportions. The photo of little Aylan's dead body on Budrun Beach was the turning point which galvanised Europe and a few other countries such as Australia into accepting more refugees. However, this is only after they have braved the Mediterranean or long overland route, risking their lives (more than 2,500 drowned so far this year) and having been exploited by people smugglers to get them there. I propose a simple solution which will eliminate both.
1. The UNHCR should set up processing posts on the soil of the countries which the refugees are trying to flee. Where this is not possible due to war or politics, they should anchor large vessels as close as possible within international waters, and supply safe dinghies to ferry people from the shore.
2. The countries willing to accept refugees should also provide safe legal transport by chartered planes or ships. Refugees who are able to would pay their fares, which would be set at just their share of the cost of chartering. This would be a fraction of what they have been paying to people smugglers.
Two immediate benefits: no more people drown, suffocate in lorries or otherwise lose their lives on the way. And the obscenely lucrative people smuggling rings would be out of business. Indirect benefits would include the refugees arriving in their host countries with the best part of their savings intact, thus being less of a burden on their hosts, enabling them to make a dignified start in their new lives, perhaps even able to invest this money in their new countries, rather than having lost everything on the way to the smugglers, robbers or in the sea when their boats capsized.
Europe and the other countries which have opened their doors to refugees have done so to all in need, not only to the ones who had the courage to risk the arduous journey, who had the money to pay the smugglers, who knew how to swim or the stamina to walk to their borders. They should go the extra mile and pick the refugees up from their own places of origin, not expect them to make it to the host country on their own and take only the ones who survive the journey. Unless they are using this as a warped way of "selecting the fittest"?
This would also ease the burden on the countries where the refugees first arrive, mainly Greece and Italy. The refugees would be spared the indignity of being held in camps, and the local residents on the most accessible Greek islands such as Lesbos, Kos and Chios would not reach bursting point.
To sum up, apart from the human lives saved, the greatest benefit of my proposal is that the people smugglers would be eliminated.
I have just sent a copy of this to the UNHCR. If you like this idea, or can improve on it, please write to them too.
1. The UNHCR should set up processing posts on the soil of the countries which the refugees are trying to flee. Where this is not possible due to war or politics, they should anchor large vessels as close as possible within international waters, and supply safe dinghies to ferry people from the shore.
2. The countries willing to accept refugees should also provide safe legal transport by chartered planes or ships. Refugees who are able to would pay their fares, which would be set at just their share of the cost of chartering. This would be a fraction of what they have been paying to people smugglers.
Two immediate benefits: no more people drown, suffocate in lorries or otherwise lose their lives on the way. And the obscenely lucrative people smuggling rings would be out of business. Indirect benefits would include the refugees arriving in their host countries with the best part of their savings intact, thus being less of a burden on their hosts, enabling them to make a dignified start in their new lives, perhaps even able to invest this money in their new countries, rather than having lost everything on the way to the smugglers, robbers or in the sea when their boats capsized.
Europe and the other countries which have opened their doors to refugees have done so to all in need, not only to the ones who had the courage to risk the arduous journey, who had the money to pay the smugglers, who knew how to swim or the stamina to walk to their borders. They should go the extra mile and pick the refugees up from their own places of origin, not expect them to make it to the host country on their own and take only the ones who survive the journey. Unless they are using this as a warped way of "selecting the fittest"?
This would also ease the burden on the countries where the refugees first arrive, mainly Greece and Italy. The refugees would be spared the indignity of being held in camps, and the local residents on the most accessible Greek islands such as Lesbos, Kos and Chios would not reach bursting point.
To sum up, apart from the human lives saved, the greatest benefit of my proposal is that the people smugglers would be eliminated.
I have just sent a copy of this to the UNHCR. If you like this idea, or can improve on it, please write to them too.
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