Let Them Drown

The recent report that the Italian navy operation, Mare Nostrum, has saved the lives of 150,000 migrants and refugees so far this year but despite their best efforts more than 3,000 have died. You would imagine the desperate plight of workers crossing the Mediterranean in dangerous boats seeking employment in Europe would meet with world-wide sympathy, but that is not the view of the British government. 'A Home Office minister has urged that emergency rescue operations of drowning migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean "be stopped at the earliest possible opportunity" despite being told his approach amounted to "a barbaric abandonment of British values". The unrepentant immigration minister, James Brokenshire was defending in public for the first time the decision taken by the Home Secretary, Theresa May, to refuse to support future search and rescue of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean in rickety unseaworthy boats.' (Guardian, 30 October) RD