There is only one way to stop another traff icking tragedy

THE DESPERATE last message from inside the sealed container – ‘I’m dying because I cannot breathe’ – brings home the full horror of what happened to the 39 migrants found dead last week.

We extend our sincere condolences to the bereaved. We mourn a national tragedy for us and for Vietnam.

But what do we do then? Compassion without effect is useless. What is the most practical way of preventing these dreadful deaths from happening?

Whatever we may think of immigration, it is hard not to sympathise with the immigrants themselves. It is brave and hard to uproot yourself from your home country and travel, in perilous conditions, thousands of miles to an unknown land in the hope of bettering yourself.

These events are driven by a ‘Golden Dream’ of life in Britain, promoted by the wicked exploiters whose trade is the smuggling of their fellow humans. They are also fuelled by poor conditions in the illgoverned and often corrupt places from which they come.

If our extravagant foreign aid programme did more to alleviate such things directly, it would be easier to defend.

But much of what these migrants believe about their hoped-for lives here is false. Those who actually manage to arrive on these shores usually find themselves trapped in a world of exploitation and fear, as they struggle to pay their debts to the extortioners who brought them here in the first place.

No harm would be done by a Government-sponsored campaign aimed at such countries as Vietnam, warning would-be migrants of what they can really expect, as opposed to what they think they will find.

There is another powerful force which brings migrants here. And that is our extraordinarily poor record of repatriating illegal arrivals. Those who arrive here without papers are still almost impossible to return to their countries of origin, and migrants know it.

There are two ways of combating this. The first is to ensure, by increased vigilance, that fewer such migrants reach this country, so that fewer set out. The second is to develop methods by which they can be speedily returned – the most effective way of discouraging illegal entrants. Those who argue that this is in some way cruel are wholly misguided.

Illegal immigration, as we see, is not just unfair to those already here, and to those who abide by the rules and seek to come here legally. It is deeply dangerous for the immigrants themselves.

The Forces need cash, not steroids

IT IS disturbing that the Ministry of Defence should even be considering permitting the use of steroids by Special Forces soldiers.

The unacceptable dangers of such drugs are well known, and no civilised country should consider allowing their use by serving soldiers. At the same time, we learn that many of our expensive surface warships spend only a few weeks at sea, because of technical and manpower problems.

There is a general air of crisis in the armed services.

Governments love to boast of their prowess, and to deploy them. But in quiet times they neglect them. Boris Johnson knows enough history to understand that such neglect is a dangerous mistake.

Let rugby heroes tackle Brexit . . .

IF ONLY Brexit were as simple as rugby, then we might send the England team into the House of Commons to sort it out. Anyone who can beat the All Blacks could surely overcome Jeremy Corbyn, John Bercow and the Democratic Unionists.

Alas, we will just have to be content with a splendid sporting victory, and hope our MPs learn something from it.