HOW many deaths will it take, as Bob Dylan asked, till we know that too many people have died? An estimated 3,000 people lost their lives last year trying to cross the Mediterranean in search of safety.

This is nothing new; since the turn of the century more than 20,000 people have died making that journey. A humanitarian emergency which started in southern Europe eventually reached Calais, but the UK Government’s response – more fences and more dogs – was rooted in the myth that Britain is “full”.

By contrast, Germany is showing real leadership, intending to accept 800,000 refugees this year. Bayern Munich will donate €1,000,000 to refugee projects to provide food, German lessons and football equipment for children; a football club showing real compassion, contrasting with the UK Government’s heartless attitude to this unfolding human disaster. The Scottish Government too has shown an enlightened attitude, and there are many individuals and charities working to respond to the breath-taking scale of human need.

But the case for a coherent EU-wide response which safeguards the vulnerable and ensures safe passage has only begun to be heard in recent weeks. Month after month, the bodies kept washing ashore.

And then there was one.

The image of one tiny figure, his face buried in the sand, made an impact. It shouldn’t be this way, but it is.

This is just one example of the difficulty human beings have in relating to issues which seem too huge to fully grasp. It can be the same with violence, preventable disease or climate change. Show us a statistic about the scale of an issue which affects thousands or millions, and we find it hard to process. Tell us instead about one person, a story we can empathise with, a single picture, and it’s so much harder to turn away.

Even the Daily Mail, just weeks after condemning the BBC for broadcasting Songs of Praise from the refugee camp at Calais (actually they called it a “squalid migrant ghetto”, ignoring perhaps the most salient details of the life of the man those songs were sung in praise of), now tells the story of Alan Kurdi in tones that would tug at any heartstring. Some of their loyal readers may be feeling confused at the mixed signals; the rest of us would, I suspect, feel nothing but contempt for those who have pumped out racist and xenophobic propaganda and who now feel obliged to join in with the emotive front pages.

The truth is that though countless others have died before this one little boy’s photograph caught widespread attention, we do now have a chance to change the tone and purpose of public debate. A human story is being heard instead of statistics. While that cannot bring back any of the thousands who have already died, it might increase the chance that we can end the suffering.

That won’t just require physical accommodation, and the services and infrastructure which go with it. It will also require a co-ordinated effort between EU countries to put safe routes in place so that people can escape danger without putting their lives at further risk, and without being exploited by traffickers. Some of that can be done outside of the EU’s territory, if we work with other countries to support their capacity. But a large part of this agenda will mean facilitating people to travel. And to make that action politically possible, it will also mean mounting a direct and relentless attack on the misinformation, the prejudice and the hatred which underpins so much of the media debate about this issue.

That will be no small task. Even now, in the midst of an emotional outpouring prompted by the images of that lifeless body on the beach, we still see the stereotypes and the prejudices bubbling away just beneath the surface. Baroness Warsi for example urged her own party colleagues in the UK Government to give special attention to the needs of unaccompanied children, but was clearly drawing a line between them and others. Pleas have been made for compassion toward mothers protecting their children, but there is clearly still a tension, a fear, and a prejudice toward the young men who have made the same perilous journey away from danger.

And of course, we are constantly reminded that “genuine refugees” are different from economic migrants. Of course their reasons for moving are different – but all are human beings. Our compassion should surely be no less for someone fleeing poverty and hunger, than someone fleeing war and persecution. Nobody asks to live in such circumstances and in such a globalised society, we must ask ourselves the hard questions – how much have the actions of Western governments caused crises abroad whose casualties now find themselves on our own shores, in need of help?

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The National View: One child’s death shows it’s time to say enough suffering ... #refugeeswelcome