A humanitarian crisis 15 years in the making

IN the words of the Chancellor, George Osborne, there is no person who would not be appalled by the ‘very distressing’ picture of little Aylan Kurdi, lying lifeless on a Turkish beach.

The Prime Minister’s own response was that, as a father, he felt deeply moved by an image which served as a reminder of the UK’s ‘moral responsibilities’ to those fleeing the Islamic State and the civil war in Syria.

To listen to his many critics yesterday, as they engaged in an unedifying numbers game over which EU country is taking most refugees, the public might imagine David Cameron’s Government is doing nothing. Austria, Germany and the European Commission – so pitiful in its own handling of one of the great humanitarian crises of our time – all accused the UK of not taking its ‘fair share’.

Pathetically, the deeply unimpressive candidates for the Labour leadership squabbled over who had been first to attack Mr Cameron’s ‘cowardly’ record.

Yet, in doing so, they all deliberately overlooked the fact that Britain is by far the EU’s biggest contributor of aid to Syrian refugees – with the posturing Austrians committing less than one 100th of our £920million donation.

Crucially, this money (finally, a worthwhile use for our bloated aid budget) allows many of the four million people who have fled Syria to be cared for in camps close to their homeland – rather than attempt the perilous journey to Europe which ended so tragically for Aylan, his brother Galip and their mother.

Even more egregious, however, was Labour’s refusal to admit its own culpability in a catastrophe that has been at least 15 years in the making. Through his disastrous foreign policy adventures, Tony Blair sowed the seeds of the anarchy that has led to people across the Middle East – not only Syrians – wishing to seek a new life in the West. At the same time, Labour destroyed our asylum system, wilfully blurred the distinction between economic migrants and refugees, and sabotaged the removal regime for anybody who, after making it to Britain, is found not to have a genuine claim.

Meanwhile, under an open-door immigration system the Tories have failed to get to grips with, net migration from inside and outside the EU is running at unsustainable levels.

If the British public were given a choice, they would surely rather offer a home to genuine Syrians fleeing a terrible war, than Eastern European migrants drawn here by the prospect of higher wages and, in some cases, generous welfare payments.

But, owing to free-movement edicts from Brussels, this is not an option – and even if it was, voters would be deeply sceptical about the Home Office’s ability to identify those who are genuine refugees.

Thus, with public concern about immigration at an all-time high, Mr Cameron’s political options are limited.

Last night, Number 10 – under pressure from Tory backbenchers – said Britain is to take ‘several thousand’ more refugees from the camps surrounding Syria, which we are rightly helping to fund.

This is a sensible response which, unlike the EU’s demands for Britain to take a quota of the migrants who are already massed in Europe, should not serve as a magnet for ever more people to attempt to cross the Mediterranean, with potentially deadly consequences. And, amidst the understandable waves of anguish, it should not be the first in a series of concessions which would leave Britain struggling to cope.

What is tragically certain, however, is that – owing to decades of political incompetence at home and in Brussels – the harrowing scenes we have seen this week will get worse before they abate.