What would you do if you were Italy?

And stop going back over bloody history. It's now I'm talking about.

Your comment about needing the labour input is ridiculous.

I just mean, if we want to stop all these desperate people taking to boats and suchlike, seeking a safe existence, we would need to fix the troubles in their countries to allow them to stay at home. And we can't do that. It would cost another huge world war. So there is no answer.

And you can stuff your clever replies about London being owned by Arabs etc etc. That's not what I'm talking about.

But we didn't, did we?
We sent all our troops centuries ago to conquer other countries, and plunder all their wealth.
Can't pull up the drawbridge now, not when we need them to work in our hospitals, on our trains, sweep the streets, do all the menial things that we do not want to do.
Have you any idea how much of the British infrastructure is owned by foreign companies? You cannot say we want the money but not the people.

Maybe the only sensible answer is to try to keep it all away from our shores for as long as possible. Look after our own.

Al. Not El. If it matters to anyone.

The only real answer is for all of the Western world, the countries with well trained and well funded troops, to send those troops to every country in the world where the fighting and violence is making the lives of the local people unliveable. And keep fighting the jihadists, the El habab, and all the other evil organisations, until peace reigns everywhere and countries can progress economically and justly.

And we all want that, don't we?

In other words, there is no realistic answer.

Another interesting article about refugees.

theconversation.com/forget-the-sympathy-asylum-is-a-refugees-right-43370

I find this article very thought provoking.

www.opendemocracy.net/beyondslavery/joseph-h-carens/case-for-open-borders

There are many more like it on the website.

Heard on QT that we have 140 refugees from Syria in the UK. How embarrassing.

If I were an asylum seeker and came to Britain, I would soon want to move to somewhere more civilised.

opendemocracy.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=9c663f765f28cdb71116aa9ac&id=e85772b9a1&e=3e0fb9998a

This is how we treat asylum seekers here. It's absolutely disgusting.

I agree with dj. 'Most people'? Not in my name.

Armenia is Asian so not on that list, but it has taken over 10,000 Syrian refugees, even though it only has a population of 3 million.
Do we really, the sixth richest country in the world, want to be thought of as worse than Armenia?

Oh well - as Gideon says - "We must break the link" then we can prove what b------s we really are.

See Turkey has 1.8m of displaced and Jordan - only 1/3 of its population is Jordanian.

How many do we have does anyone know?

Today's news.

www.unhcr.org.uk/news-and-views/news-list/news-detail/article/world-faces-major-crisis-as-number-of-displaced-hits-record-high.html

That's nearly as many displaced as the population of the UK.

www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEQQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgreenmediabox.eu%2Fsyrianrefugees%2F&ei=ZgWDVeutM-SH7Qb6jYLQBw&usg=AFQjCNFDxBF-hVSXxG_SmZQQoT-9gmZa8Q&bvm=bv.96041959,d.ZGU&cad=rja

A very interesting infographic.
When it says "tap for more" I suggest you do so. Otherwise you will be scrolling for ages.

How do you know you speak for most people, Magpie?

I know that Petra but the point is the migrants are not going to stop so we need to make a concerted effort to have a world wide humane answer. It is not right to turn a blind eye. We are lucky to live where we do - and us who are so blessed with enough food, water and peace cannot sit back and watch as others of our species, die from starvation, drowning and gas to name just a bit of what they suffer. Nothing will convince me that allowing this to happen to the most innocent - the children - is right. Whatever the reason for the turning up on our shores - there must have been a huge push factor as to my mind no-one takes such an arduous and perilous journey for little reason.

Whitewave. But where does it stop. If the EU says it will accept 2 million people, and that is very possible, what do we say to the next million. The situation will be exactly the same as where we are now.

mag I am not a Christian, but those Grans who are, will no doubt recall the good Samaritan. However I am a humanist, and every fibre in my being recoils at the sort of attitude being displayed by GO.
Nothing worth doing will be easy - we all know that - the Italians know that, but I would be proud to be an Italian or Greek knowing that my government is doing everything in it's power to help these people. Of course there will be problems in Italy and especially Greece if the help is not sufficient, and I would expect other community members to hold out their hands and offer help. In fact they have a duty to.

These sort of problems will not lessen in the future. The world has to face up to global warming and the severe problems that is going to bring to populations. There will undoubtedly be huge migration due to this phenomenon. What should we do about that? Send them back to starve, and to suffer the result of what we in the developed countries have done - totally trashing the atmosphere?

It's the truth.

Blimey mag

I think George Osborne was right the link must be broken. Most ordinary people in Britain and Europe do not want these people, refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants call them what you want. Enough is enough.

petra, those are very simple things to sort out really. May be a bit time consuming but doable.
If they say they can cut hair, give them some hair to cut, with trained hairdressers looking on.
Ditto chefs.
Ditto mechanics. etc.

www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/george-osborne-wrong-say-link-must-be-broken-asylum-claims-pmqs-0