Stop the traffickers

The sinking of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean with the loss of dozens of lives is the latest tragic manifestation of this pernicious trafficking in people seeking to enter Europe for a better life.

Inevitably, however, the blame is being heaped by campaigners not on the criminals but on the Italian government led by the populist Giorgia Meloni. She has been pressing for stricter migration laws, arguing that the system in which migrants are picked up by rescue vessels is encouraging them to make dangerous voyages.

In the past, crossings mostly took place in the summer when the seas were relatively benign. For this ship to have set off with hundreds on board in the depths of winter is indicative of the recklessness shown by people traffickers. But it also reflects an understanding that passage is almost guaranteed because rescue boats are always on hand.

In this case, with the seas so rough, they were not and the vessel broke up as it tried to land on the Calabrian coast. This disaster differs from what might happen in the Channel only in scale of loss. Most of the boats coming from France are small but the risks to those on board are the same.

The British Government is also trying to stop this traffic but is being thwarted by legal challenges. Opponents of tougher measures maintain that they do not favour an open-door migration policy yet fail to say how they would end this grim trade.

If it is common political ground that there should be controls on economic migration, with protection for those genuinely fleeing persecution, then critics need to come up with an alternative that will discourage the thousands even now preparing to make these perilous journeys.