Rescue in the Mediterreanean

It was right to reverse the previous policy on rescue in the Mediterranean. It is wrong to rewrite history in order to use a tragedy to score political points.

This Telegraph article by Dan Hodges contains points which should be uncomfortable reading for people in all political parties, including Conservatives, Lib/Dems, Labour and UKIP supporters. There are no easy answers to the tragic situations in Libya, Syria or Iraq. But we need to somehow find the right balance between rushing in gung-ho with all guns blazing and trying to totally ignore the massacre of innocent people in Africa and the Middle East.

And make no mistake - if we try to ignore the problems of the Middle East, they will not indefinitely ignore us.

Comments

Jim said…
How about changing the policy of articles 18 and 19 of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which basically state if you can get here and land here, we wont get rid of you. there is the key, remove the pull factor and people wont risk it in the first place.
2:49 pm
Jim said…
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when we first practice to deceive.
3:12 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
That's one approach. We also need to look at the relative attractiveness of safe and legal routes to request asylum in Europe as against the routes controlled by criminal gangs.
4:08 pm
Jim said…
but thats just it, isn't it. there are many rules and regulations on how to deal with people when they get here, but none that ever allow safe passage in the first place. we build fences to prevent the land routes, which in turn opens sea routes, and that is the key point.

Until the cause is removed there can only ever be at best "moving" of the symptom.
8:02 pm
Jim said…
which leads to the logical conclusion that off shore screening centres, for example in libya can then process the genuine asylum seekers and offer safe passage. then the walls can come down as as the rest get is a ryan air flight back home, and well, who in their right mind wants that?
8:28 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
What you say is sensible, although implementing it in practice in a state like Libya or Syria is easier said than done.
11:50 pm
Jim said…
well, yeah I agree. The fundamental thing is that there is a "pot oh gold" if you like attracting people within the EU fundamental rights charter.

Its just you have to break the law in the first instance, as thats the only way to take advantage of it. We build up defenses to stop people taking the easy route to it, so we are in fact encouraging an illegal smuggling trade. People think the reward outweighs tye risk, so they take the risk.

It will continue to happen until we change the attraction. I also agree with you that its not going to be an easy thing to do, and there are no simple answers. There very rarely is a magic wand solution, but we have to have joined up policy, and action to deal with it. That is why simple "UKIP" style solutions wont work, only a joined up policy and a great deal of effort will work.

fences and baricades and things, preventing people illegally getting to the pot will never work for as long as the pot is there. Every fence has a "weakest point" and every weakest point repaired only creates a new weakest point, which also has the side effect of greater risk to the people trying to get in.

Changing a policy to one by which you can have safe crossing and entry legally IF YOU MEET THE CRITERIA, must be a better way than "you can have everything you want, if you can get here"

Complex problems indeed, and as I say, complex problems tend not to have easy answers.
5:20 pm
Jim said…
^ of course we need to add to that, that if you bypass the legal routes or if you tried the legal routes and did not meet the criteria, and still decided to enter the EU illegally anyway, then the best you can hope for is a short stay, for the time it takes to get you on a flight back to your home nation.
5:27 pm
Jim said…
This is an issue worth far more discussion, and whilst I understand you are busy in election mode, and then possibly busy in mayor of couple l and mode. It is one I would welcome a face to face discussion about one evening in a coffee shop.

All people need to work together on this.
7:35 pm
Jim said…
-I hate my phone and kindle. They seem the only thing on the planet that are determined to automatically auto correct, no matter how many times you tell it not to. Copeland to Cope I and.

Honestly the kindle and smart phone are in many ways worse than the press for editing and bending what I said.

I would have said "worse than a Labour party conference, but that's just going too far"
9:03 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Let's have a chat about it over a coffee when we both have some time to.
12:01 am
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