What does absolute despair look like?
What do years of war really mean?
What is the saddest image you can imagine?
Those questions were all answered yesterday in the lifeless body of a young boy, found lying face down in the surf near the resort of Bodrum in Turkey. The dark-haired toddler, wearing a bright-red T-shirt and blue shorts, could have been anyone’s bairn. But he was a young Syrian – one of 12 who drowned trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. And that group was one of dozens this summer who have risked everything to escape the Islamic State and reach the holiday beaches of Europe. As a grim-faced Turkish policeman carried the tiny body away, the photograph went viral on Twitter under the hashtag #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik (humanity washed ashore). And I’m sure tens of thousands, maybe millions of European citizens shed a tear, forgot their own low-grade problems and made a silent resolution. Not in our names. Not a minute longer.
Yet as that latest boatload foundered, David Cameron was telling journalists that “taking more and more refugees” is not the answer to the EU’s migration crisis. How shameful. How repellent.
In four years of bloody conflict, the UK (population 66 million) has accepted just 216 Syrian refugees whilst Germany (population 80 million) expects to welcome 800,000 this year alone. The number of Syrians who have been resettled in Britain could fit on one London Underground train — with seats to spare. We could take far, far more.
But we won’t.
Or to be precise, David Cameron won’t.
The Prime Minister recently described the desperate migrants as “a swarm” and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond warned that “marauding” Africans threatened European “standards of living”. The Daily Mail recently wondered why the government could stop Hitler but not “a few thousand exhausted migrants.” And Katie Hopkins was rewarded with a TV show after writing “These migrants are like cockroaches. They might look a bit ‘Bob Geldof’s Ethiopia circa 1984’, but they are built to survive a nuclear bomb.” Doubtless this dead little boy must be the exception that proves the rule. To Katie Hopkins and all those who say refuges should be left to drown – this is what that heartless, greedy throw-away line actually means.
It’s time to choose.
Does Scotland care what Cameron, Hammond, The Daily Mail, Nigel Farage or Katie Hopkins think about refugees – or do we agree that the only important question now is how we can help?
This is no longer an arid, distant debate about the “threat” of immigration. The flow of humanity from war torn countries means a terrible lonely end for some refugees. It means the slow destruction of countries from which they have tried to escape. And it will mean the erosion of our own democracy – wrecking solidarity, numbing our capacity for empathy, turning us into robotic number-crunchers who can only calculate the cost of coming to the rescue, making us less than human.
Not in our names. Not a minute longer.
Humanity is washing ashore in Europe and the UK government is looking the other way. We must find a way to act or be complicit – it is possible.
Scots have found ways around Westminster’s callous disregard for human life already. The Scottish Government bought out the bedroom tax and is considering how to mitigate other benefits cuts which are causing misery, ill-health and suicide. Scotland’s 32 councils can declare they are ready to take a total of one thousand Syrian refugees. Individuals can volunteer to house refugees – I will do that and I’m sure hundreds of other Scots will do the same. Icelanders led the way this week when writer Bryndis Bjorgvinsdottir protested against her own government’s decision to accept just 50 Syrian refugees. In just 24 hours, 10,000 Icelanders – 3 per cent of the population – took to Facebook to offer space in their homes and urged their government to accept more refugees immediately.
Why can’t we do the same?
Could Scotland handle the extra population – of course we could. Of course immigration is rising – last week the highest-ever net migration total was recorded with 330,000 more people arriving in Britain than leaving last year. But nearly half came from other parts of the EU. Refugees from conflict zones in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia made up a tiny proportion of the total.
EU interior and justice ministers are set to meet in Brussels in a fortnight to address the crisis. We should urge Nicola Sturgeon to pledge that Scots will house a thousand refugees immediately – and can meantime donate to new charities like Calaid who are collecting donations for those in the French refugee camps.
The First Minister should spell it out for the Prime Minister. Just as Tony Blair is remembered by millions as the man who took Britain into an illegal war in Iraq, David Cameron will go down as the man who played politics while the human casualties of that war washed up on Europe’s beaches.
And while he ponders, we must act.
Ian Preston: Immigration isn’t a drain on the economy ... it’s more likely to be a boost
Letters to the National, September 3 2015: Trident? Spend it on refugees instead
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