A little boy, a massive loss

WORLD War II started 76 years ago this week. What followed was death and the displacement of people on a scale never seen before. Europe is now at peace, but the continent can’t escape the impact of conflicts in the Middle East and Africa driving innocent men, women and children in their millions to seek safety in the West.

European leaders have manifestly failed in their response to the crisis, dithering in the hope that the migratory tide might turn.

The situation is growing ever more serious. In July alone, more than 100 000 individuals crossed into EU countries. Even more profound, perhaps, is that more than 2 500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean, and yesterday, we saw the harrowing pictures of tiny Aylan Kurdi lying face down on a beach in the Turkish city of Bodrum.

The three-year-old Syrian boy and his five-yearold brother Galip, whose body was found not far away, became instantly symbolic of the staggering human tragedy. They died after the overcrowded boat on which their parents’ dreams were held sank just 30 minutes into a 20km journey from Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos.

People across the world wept at the images of Aylan and shared them on social media, raising an intense global consciousness about the horror which refugees face. Before this, the catastrophe might not have affected all people as deeply. Now, there is no more looking away.

Here at The Star, we too faced the trauma of seeing the images, and then having to decide whether we should publish them for you to examine and ponder. Perhaps it was an ethical question. Perhaps it was about humanity. But we wrestled deeply over what to do and, in the end, ran instead with an image of a living child, his mother desperately trying to hold on to him as soldiers came up against a wave of new refugees at the border between Macedonia and Greece.

Instead, we cropped the image of Aylan, showing only his tiny feet and the back of the Turkish gendarmerie whose unspeakable task it was to lift his body out of the water.

We wanted to register its enormous impact, knowing that it would be all over social media, giving millions the choice to view it or not. We didn’t wish to take that choice away from you by putting it on our front page in its entirety, such was the devastating nature of the image. If you have seen it, it will surely stay with you for a long time.

Sadly, with each new development around the refugees trying to enter the EU, hands are wrung, heads are shaken, yet still there is no solution in sight. And, while responding to the movement of so many desperate people isn’t straightforward, it’s clear that many of Europe’s existing policies are inadequate. The Dublin Regulation requires refugees to seek asylum in the first country they reach. But to do so places an unreasonable burden on Italy and Greece and, in principle, criminalises those fleeing war for crossing a border.

Whatever the political difficulties, quotas are the only solution, at least in the short term. British shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has set out how a large number of refugees – about 10 000 for the UK – can become much less daunting to the British public if they think locally: 10 refugee families aided by each and every council.

However, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s refusal to budge on taking more may be to his cost. It hasn’t impressed Germany’s Angela Merkel, who Cameron needs if he is to secure a renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership.

If ever there were a time for Europe to work together – and to show how far the continent has come since the dark days of the world war – it must be now. Aylan’s passing hurts too much.