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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/let-migrants-drown-mediterranean-lost-sense-of-common-humanity
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| Let migrants drown in the Mediterranean? Have we lost our sense of common humanity? | Let migrants drown in the Mediterranean? Have we lost our sense of common humanity? |
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| I am horrified to read that our government will no longer support search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, claiming that rescue missions “simply encourage more people to attempt the dangerous sea crossing” (UK accused over migrant rescue plan, 28 October). Have we lost our sense of common humanity? Are we to isolate ourselves to such an extent that we are unable or unwilling to reach out to our fellow human beings? These people find themselves in such dire difficulties that they see no choice but to take to the high seas and risk their lives in vessels that are woefully inadequate. Let us not forget that our government acts in our name and that each of us is implicated in this act of barbaric selfishness.Anish KapoorLondon | I am horrified to read that our government will no longer support search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, claiming that rescue missions “simply encourage more people to attempt the dangerous sea crossing” (UK accused over migrant rescue plan, 28 October). Have we lost our sense of common humanity? Are we to isolate ourselves to such an extent that we are unable or unwilling to reach out to our fellow human beings? These people find themselves in such dire difficulties that they see no choice but to take to the high seas and risk their lives in vessels that are woefully inadequate. Let us not forget that our government acts in our name and that each of us is implicated in this act of barbaric selfishness.Anish KapoorLondon |
| • Perhaps there is a link between ministers’ plan to let people drown, on the basis that rescuing them only encourages others, and government benefits policy, as outlined in Aditya Chakrabortty’s article (Today’s Britain: where the poor are forced to steal or beg from food banks, 28 October), illustrating how the government let people drown in their poverty on the basis that this callousness is some kind of disincentive to joblessness and a spur to others to find work. | |
| These two articles illustrate that the same repugnant casual disregard for human lives pervades government policy, whether it is benefits claimants, the working poor, the environment, or desperate migrants: literally, sink or swim.Miles HalpinWirksworth, Derbyshire | These two articles illustrate that the same repugnant casual disregard for human lives pervades government policy, whether it is benefits claimants, the working poor, the environment, or desperate migrants: literally, sink or swim.Miles HalpinWirksworth, Derbyshire |
| • Tuesday’s Guardian front page was inspiring, with the story about Dean Balboa Farley running into the prime minister (Police under fire after PM hit by jogger, 28 October) appearing under the one about the government’s refusal to support a Mediterranean rescue mission. I was happy to imagine that Mr Farley was seeking to make a citizen’s arrest of David Cameron for bringing the UK into disrepute, rather than jogging to the gym.Jan DubéPeebles, Scottish Borders | • Tuesday’s Guardian front page was inspiring, with the story about Dean Balboa Farley running into the prime minister (Police under fire after PM hit by jogger, 28 October) appearing under the one about the government’s refusal to support a Mediterranean rescue mission. I was happy to imagine that Mr Farley was seeking to make a citizen’s arrest of David Cameron for bringing the UK into disrepute, rather than jogging to the gym.Jan DubéPeebles, Scottish Borders |
| • According to the Home Office, rescuing migrants from boats in the Mediterranean acts as a “pull factor” in encouraging more people to try this desperate route. I’m surprised they haven’t followed their own logic, and employed the Royal Navy to sail around the Med sinking migrants’ boats: that would certainly reduce the flow of would-be migrants. | • According to the Home Office, rescuing migrants from boats in the Mediterranean acts as a “pull factor” in encouraging more people to try this desperate route. I’m surprised they haven’t followed their own logic, and employed the Royal Navy to sail around the Med sinking migrants’ boats: that would certainly reduce the flow of would-be migrants. |
| Oh dear, I’m not sure I should have suggested that, as there must be people in the government who would actually think this a serious suggestion, worth following up.Dr Richard CarterLondon | Oh dear, I’m not sure I should have suggested that, as there must be people in the government who would actually think this a serious suggestion, worth following up.Dr Richard CarterLondon |
| • I expect soon to see the disbanding of the ambulance services sent to crash scenes, the cancellation of mountain rescue teams, and the banning of first-aid teams at football matches, all of which have the deplorable “pull factor” of encouraging people to crash their cars into each other, stand under avalanches, and break their own legs playing football.Karl SabbaghNewbold on Stour, Warwickshire | • I expect soon to see the disbanding of the ambulance services sent to crash scenes, the cancellation of mountain rescue teams, and the banning of first-aid teams at football matches, all of which have the deplorable “pull factor” of encouraging people to crash their cars into each other, stand under avalanches, and break their own legs playing football.Karl SabbaghNewbold on Stour, Warwickshire |
| • Saving people’s lives sends out the wrong message? Did someone turn the lights of civilisation out?Stefan WickhamOxted, Surrey | • Saving people’s lives sends out the wrong message? Did someone turn the lights of civilisation out?Stefan WickhamOxted, Surrey |
| • So, our government thinks that allowing a few hundred more fleeing migrants to drown will act as a deterrent to others following. We’re an island nation with an absolute duty to “those in peril on the sea”. I am ashamed to be British.Ken CordingleyWilliton, Somerset | • So, our government thinks that allowing a few hundred more fleeing migrants to drown will act as a deterrent to others following. We’re an island nation with an absolute duty to “those in peril on the sea”. I am ashamed to be British.Ken CordingleyWilliton, Somerset |
| • I shouldn’t be surprised. The government’s refusal to support search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean because they encourage refugees to risk their lives is consistent with all its other welfare policies: benefits discourage the disabled from getting out of their wheelchairs and so on. | • I shouldn’t be surprised. The government’s refusal to support search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean because they encourage refugees to risk their lives is consistent with all its other welfare policies: benefits discourage the disabled from getting out of their wheelchairs and so on. |
| But the callous ignorance of this “quietly announced” decision fills me with anger. Why does the government think that the number of people attempting this desperate and expensive voyage has doubled to more than 160,000 in the first nine months of this year? No doubt the 90,000 that have been fished out of the water by the Italian government’s Mare Nostrum operation so far this year embarked on their crossing happy in the knowledge they’d be rescued when their ramshackle crafts sank. Those 500, many children among them, who were recently murdered by people smugglers when they refused to transfer to an unseaworthy vessel were just the unlucky few, mere drops in the ocean. | But the callous ignorance of this “quietly announced” decision fills me with anger. Why does the government think that the number of people attempting this desperate and expensive voyage has doubled to more than 160,000 in the first nine months of this year? No doubt the 90,000 that have been fished out of the water by the Italian government’s Mare Nostrum operation so far this year embarked on their crossing happy in the knowledge they’d be rescued when their ramshackle crafts sank. Those 500, many children among them, who were recently murdered by people smugglers when they refused to transfer to an unseaworthy vessel were just the unlucky few, mere drops in the ocean. |
| The doubling of numbers fleeing Syria, Gaza, Somalia, Libya and other devastated countries of the region is because these people have lost their homes, their jobs, their families. The politics of these upheavals is complex, but for Britain to wash its hands of a situation for which it bears some responsibility is squalid. I look forward, without much hope, to Labour and the Lib Dems challenging and denouncing this cold-blooded decision.Rod EdmondDeal, Kent | The doubling of numbers fleeing Syria, Gaza, Somalia, Libya and other devastated countries of the region is because these people have lost their homes, their jobs, their families. The politics of these upheavals is complex, but for Britain to wash its hands of a situation for which it bears some responsibility is squalid. I look forward, without much hope, to Labour and the Lib Dems challenging and denouncing this cold-blooded decision.Rod EdmondDeal, Kent |