Refugee crisis would have been manageable if tackled at the outset

Dear Editor,  I fully agree with Fr Hilliard’s words (IC 03/09/2015) that Europe has been latent in working to negotiate peace settlements and programmes to be put in place to help people return to rebuild life in their countries of birth. When is Europe going to wake up and face up to its responsibilities?

I live in Italy, so I’ve followed the plight of the first boat people who arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa many years ago. Now, I can be very critical of Italy on other topics, but all I can say is in the above case that they did Trojan work in rescuing and caring for the migrants. Italy’s pleas to the European Community for help in coping with the crisis fell on deaf ears and Italy was told to “get on with it”.

I really think, if this crisis had been tackled in its early stages, with speed, common sense and intelligence, the present-day migrant problem would be puny and manageable.

Thank you for a very interesting newspaper. 

Yours etc.,

Carmel Delaney,

Ravenna, Italy.