More deaths might stimulate some EU action

Maybe, once refugees start dying
from disease, food poisoning, malnutrition or exhaustion, maybe then the world will take action.

The UNHCR had a little whinge on Friday. They said that they were seriously concerned about “sub-standard conditions at several sites in northern Greece. They added that: “the conditions of the some of these sites, to which the refugees and migrants are transferred, fall well below minimum standards.”

Yes. They do.

The UNHCR spokesperson, Melissa Fleming, explained : “Some of the refugees who had been living in Idomeni have been moved into derelict warehouses and factories, inside which tents are been placed too tightly together, so that air circulation is poor, and supplies of food, water, toilets, showers, and electricity are insufficient.”

The report stated that more than 1,400 people sleep all together in one high-ceilinged room filled with long rows of canvas tents. Though all windows and doors are kept open, the air is humid and smells of human waste. Refugees said that electricity is available for only a few hours per day, and at night the warehouse is pitch-black.

Food Poisoning

When I read about the food-poisoning at Piraeus yesterday, I cried. It takes a lot to make me cry, but I was very angry and very sad.  I ran restaurants for 15 years, and I know that most food poisoning can be avoided by simple hygienic procedures; the stories from Friday’s outbreak suggest gross negligence and laziness.

Spread the Truth

You probably won’t get anywhere with your MP, but you can get local. Lobby your council; talk to community groups – your local football club, the schools, the sports centres. Get the word around. Help ordinary people understand the scale of the crisis, because the media aren’t telling the whole story.

Talk to Faith groups, regardless of your personal beliefs, because these people can have international influence: the vicar, the rabbi, the imam, in your local churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. Together we have a voice that can be heard.

Alternatively; wait till people start dying.

Thousands died already

Thousands already died trying to reach Europe, if a few hundred more die in the camps, it might finally tip the balance to initiate serious, practical, humanitarian action.

It's a terrible thing to say, but I don't think the governments of the EU will do anything until more refugees die. 

More families. More children. 

More desperate people who have only their lives left to lose 

- because they have already lost everything else.

We need action if we are to stop putting lives at risk.