Stephanie English |
Syrian refugees continue to escape their native country, as the Syrian civil war continues, in the hope of a safer life.
In the past few months, the world has been overwhelmed with images of refugees threatening to engulf Europe: the ugly scenes in Budapest, the 71 bodies found abandoned by people traffickers in a lorry in Austria and the thousands of people drowned in attempting to flee across the sea to protect their families from the atrocities of civil war.
However, it was the image of a lifeless three-year-old boy being carried away on a Turkish shore which was most haunting, a symbol of an impotent International union that could not come up with a humanitarian plan to save lives first and consider the costs later.
Of course, it will be difficult for some of our towns and cities to house the Syrian, Afghan and Libyan refugees, but the cost of doing nothing is so much greater, can we have this on our conscience. As a wealthy, compassionate nation we cannot remain impotent in this crisis and witness the deaths of more innocent children who were simply unfortunate to be born in these countries.
Now is the time to show the ideals on which the European Union was formed including justice, humanity, equality and compassion. It may seem a bit ironical to some that Germany is leading the way in following these ideals, opening its borders to welcome the majority of the poor, exhausted families, as the German population said:
“You’re not lepers, you’re welcome – we respect you for what you’ve had to endure”.
Why has David Cameron dragged his heels over this emergency? He has now declared that the UK had a “moral responsibility” to resettle 20,000 by the year 2020, as he told the House of Commons: “In doing so, we will continue to show the world that this country is a country of extraordinary compassion, always standing up for our values and helping those in need.” Of course it is difficult to keep the electorate happy but are votes really more important than lives?
