Page 122 - A Helping Hand for Refugees

under extremely difficult conditions. Yet nobody would leave his
country packed into a tiny boat, knowingly facing the risk of death,
unless he genuinely feared death or faced the threat of war or starva-
tion. They would not sell everything and give the money to some human
traffickers. The reason why these people risk their lives to flee is not
because of the excellent benefits provided by Great Britain and the EU.
These people merely wish to live as human beings, free from dangers.

The real question is: What kind of logic and conscience do people,

who abandon others to die in the dark realms of the sea, possess? How
could they sleep at night knowing they have been instrumental in
another person's death, in other words they have participated in killing
them?

Although they try to ease their consciences by blaming human traf-
fickers, it is unbecoming of EU countries to become part of a tragedy
in which more than 3,400 people died just last year. An ethical Europe
can only remain ethical if it does not regard those migrants on those
boats as African, Middle Eastern, poor or wretched but as "human
beings." Europe can only be regenerated through altruism, not self-

ishness. Great Britain in particular must immediately withdraw this
shocking decision about migrants being abandoned to die. It should
not be forgotten that once atrophy of conscience has trickled down from
the administration to the people, difficulties, degeneration and
tragedies are inevitable. Europe should avoid creation of an infra-
structure that will open the door to such disasters.

120 A Helping Hand for Refugees