“There’s no room at the inn. We’re only a small country. We can’t take all these people.”
Our nation in home to about one percent of the world’s 27 million refugees. Turkey hosts 3.7 million of them. Germany hosts the highest number in Europe. However, most refugees are hosted by states neighbouring areas of displacement.
Meanwhile, we’ve spent somewhere in the region of £50 billion over the past two decades on military misadventures — overt and clandestine — in the nations from which most of our asylum seekers derive.
Try to develop an attention span longer than responding to whatever soundbite you heard on talk radio this morning.
Our nation destroyed Libya in 2011, seeding anarchy everywhere, aiding the very jihadi groups we later claimed to be fighting in Syria. But still we have the temerity to complain about migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean from Tripoli.
Before that, we destroyed Iraq, setting in motion civil disintegration and causing years of devastating chaos, conflict and misery, which spilled over into neighbouring states, destroying the lives and livelihoods of millions.
I would say that being generous to the destitute is the least we could do, given the amount of destruction left in the wake of our apparently tiny nation over recent decades and beyond. If we cannot afford the upkeep of the inn, perhaps it’s time to rein in the misadventures.
Last modified: 21 September 2024
