The media could make us care more about migrants

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/20/media-could-make-us-care-about-migrants

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Perhaps one reason why we apparently don’t care about the plight of the burgeoning number of migrants from Africa to Italy (Analysis: It is our not caring that is the real killer, 20 April) is the way this continuing tragedy is presented in newspapers and on television. Endless photographs and news footage of over-full boats and graphs and statistics quickly become boring.

The photographs published invariably show boatloads of men. Where are the women?

Although there are references to women and children in reports, the photographs published invariably show boatloads of men. Where are the women? Is there a trail of abandoned women and children in the countries from which these men have originated? What happens to families left behind when the men go on these perilous sea-voyages? There must be many hundreds of families who will never know what happened to their sons, brothers, husbands. Are the successful migrants eventually entitled to have their families join them? How do they adjust to their new lives in countries where they don’t speak the language?

These are just some of the issues that would make interesting and meaningful articles that we, as caring people, could relate to. How caring might lead to a long-term solution to a problem so complicated that it seems insoluble is another question, but at least it would be a start.Marion NevilleBrighton, East Sussex

• Patricia Oldman (Letters, 20 April) bemoans money spent on aid. Last weekend we learned of the tragic death of hundreds of migrants trying to escape from political turmoil and poverty. Surely money spent to assist their economies to develop, and provide education and healthcare, might reduce the need of so many to flee? It could turn out cheaper than sending the navy to rescue them or an Australian-style blockade of the north African coast, turning back hopeful migrants, as was suggested last week. We are the world’s sixth richest nation; if Patricia thinks we are hard up, she should look at where the migrants are trying to escape from.Martin CooperBromley, Kent

Related: 700 migrants feared dead in Mediterranean shipwreck

• If on seeing someone in difficulties in London’s Regent’s canal I chose neither to help nor to summon help, I would be culpable under the law. Numbers do not alter cases. For shame that people die in the Mediterranean by our deliberate and culpable negligence. For shame, Europe. Great Britain, for shame indeed.Mary JacksonGilston, Hertfordshire

• One needs only to contrast the reaction to the recent Germanwings crash with last weekend’s disaster, which resulted in the loss of almost five times as many victims. If ever we needed an example of how the west views and values these desperate people, we need look no further.Paul MorrisonDerry

• The immigration debate boils down to this: “Some people have had the misfortune to have been born in a country where they are under threat from poverty, civil war, drought, religious intolerance, etc. I have been lucky enough to have been born in a country where these things are rare. I have no desire to share my good fortune, so they will have to put up with what fate has dealt them.”

Is this your view? How many of us would be happy to answer yes?Cherry WestonWolverhampton

• Jim Littworth (Letters, 17 April) claims that turning back refugee boats and preventing them from landing, as is done in Australia, would be a solution. For whom? I can see how it might be a solution for us, but how is it a solution for the refugees? Jill WallisAston Clinton, Buckinghamshire