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WORLD NEWSTuesday 2 February 2016
As children die reaching for Europe’s shores, empathy fades
ANGELA CHARLTON Remains of a boat that was carrying migrants seen on the shoreline near the Aegean town of Ay- migrants wailed, witness
Associated Press vacik, Canakkale, Turkey, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016. A boat carrying migrants to Greece hit rocks Gulcan Durdu told The As-
PARIS (AP) — Five months off the Turkish coast on Saturday and capsized, killing at least 33 people, including five children, sociated Press.
ago, a 3-year-old Syrian officials and news reports said. Some 75 other migrants were rescued. A Turkish government of- “I will never stop hearing
boy’s corpse on a Turkish ficial said he expects the death toll from the incident to rise as rescue workers try to reach other those cries,” Durdu said
beach galvanized public migrants believed trapped inside the wreckage of the boat which sank shortly after departing Sunday, a day after the di-
action for refugees. Now, from the Aegean resort of Ayvacik. saster.
strikingly similar images “They died screaming.”
are generating little more Associated Press Images of children victims
than a collective shrug. encapsulated the drama.
It’s partly about timing, In this Friday, Jan. 29, 2016 photo made available Saturday, a beach near Ayvacik, Turkey. In one, a boy about Ay-
circumstance and the ex- Associated Press lan’s age is lying on a rocky
ceptional power of last shore, a pacifier attached
September’s photos of Ay- “People react very strongly On a policy level, its impact German city of Cologne to his clothing with a plastic
lan Kurdi. to individual stories,” Flem- was mixed. It prompted an are blamed largely on mi- chain, a hat with a pom-
But it’s also because sen- ing said. “It was a single initial groundswell of pres- grants. European far-right pon on his small head. In
sitivities are growing dull. boy on the beach, looking sure on leaders to act, but parties have capitalized on another, a Turkish police-
Boats arrive on Europe’s like my son, my little broth- the European Union’s 28 the refugee wave. man readies an older boy
shores daily, or sink on the er, in a sleeping position.” states remain divided over Then another ship capsized for a body bag.
way — like the one that The image became short- how many refugees to take off Turkey’s coast on Sat- But for many viewers, the
capsized off Turkey’s coast hand for the refugee crisis in, and howgenerously. urday en route to Greece. moment of awakening
on Saturday, killing at least and government inaction. Since then, Babies and other young had already passed.
37 people including babies It triggered soul-searching two Islamic extremists children were among the The new images saw mar-
and other young children. on a global and personal mixed in with refugees and 37 dead. ginal coverage in France,
Images from the latest level, and volunteers from joined European-born radi- The response has been Germany, the Nordic
tragedy, including the Britain to Greece showed cals staging deadly attacks more muted, though the countries and Poland. They
bodies of children, failed up to feed and shel- in Paris. A string of robberies horrors were not. drew little attention in Italy
to generate the same level ter newarrivals. and sexual assaults in the As the boat struck rocks, — but the country has no
of shock. shortage of its own heart-
Fears — that refugees will breaking scenes on its
stage extremist attacks or shores and at sea.
molest women — threaten Countries in the Balkans,
to displace compassion. closer to the source of
And Europe has yet to find the new arrivals, paid more
the magic solution to its mi- heed.
grant dilemma. In Greece, the sinking —
“The public seems to be the fourth in less than a
kind of immunized. They week, and not the dead-
don’t want to see it any- liest — was covered with
more,” said Melissa Flem- equal horror and attention
ing, spokeswoman for the as all the other drownings.
U.N. High Commissioner for In Hungary, tabloid news-
Refugees. paper Blikk had a large
Some are rebelling against back-page spread includ-
the numbness. Greek soc- ing a small photo of Ay-
cer players held a sit-in lan’s body being carried
solidarity protest after the by a rescuer and a close-
latest refugee drownings. up of the latest disaster.
Artist Ai Weiwei, One of the headlines
wanting kinder migrant reads: “No one learned
policies, re-enacted Ay- from little Aylan’s tragedy.”
lan’s death. On Hungarian news web-
The photos of Aylan site origo.hu, several of
weren’t the first or last to the comments from read-
document the fatal risk ers blamed the parents for
that families take to flee the drownings, saying they
Syria’s war for something were irresponsible for un-
better in Europe. dertaking unsafe journeys.
But his lifeless, tidily-dressed Some media weighed
body — first face-down on whether to show the latest
the sand, later in the arms images at all.
of a police officer — cap- One Hungarian newspa-
tured the collective imagi- per warned the picture
nation like no other. could have a harmful ef-
In an era when images are fect on children.
ubiquitous and fleeting, it The Italian navy, after a
stood out. boat capsized last year
Unusually, he was quickly with about 800 migrants
identified and found to trapped inside, refused to
have relatives in Canada, allow or distribute any im-
which helped his story go ages of the dead out of
global. respect for their memory.q
