Lesbos migrant: ‘I lost my son when dinghy was hit’

Since the fighting broke out in 2011, more than four million Syrians have fled their homeland, according to the UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

The boat had been on its way from the northwestern Turkish port of Canakkale to the Greek island of Lesbos.

My companions from the BBC and I had coffee in the picturesque fishing village of Sykaminia. The photograph of the boat at sea (above) was taken midway between Turkey and northern Lesbos, which are six miles apart. They are not heading to the UK.

Early Sunday afternoon, searchers rescued a young Syrian man who came ashore wrapped in a silver foil insulating blanket and shivering from hypothermia.

Why not I asked some of them?

Infringement notices have been sent to Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Slovenia. The pope’s timely message of hope and humanity presents us with the challenge of helping our brothers and sisters in humanity regardless of all kinds of differences we might have with them.

But this has become one of the most troubling dilemmas I have witnessed. We are the ones who pay taxes.

Britain has pledged instead to accept 20,000 Syrians from camps in neighboring countries by 2020.

Let’s start with 2,000.

European Union interior ministers agreed on Tuesday to distribute 120,000 refugees arriving in Greece and Italy over the next two years between other member states. In addition, Poland will accommodate some 2,000 refugees that Warsaw committed to in July. We have people in every province who need help.

Reports said that eight people had been rescued following yesterday’s incident.

Recently, thousands of refugees rushed to Turkey’s border with Europe, demanding to travel to Greece for more welfare, but their appeal was met with prevention by riot police.

It has long been clear that there are problems in unintegrated multicultural societies, as illustrated by the British jihadists.

“Look at these people, what are they doing here?” The Afghans were poorer than Syrians, but stoical in a grim situation. They did not steal or even beg (although their litter upset locals).

Personally, I think Canada should take care of its own people first.

There would need to be acceptance from migrants that they might be housed for long spells in temporary accommodation such as disused barracks. The group’s frantic efforts to scoop out the cold sea faster than it was rushing into their boat paid off. They weren’t going to be arrested by Turkish authorities.

Romanian Foreign Minister, Bogdan Aurescu, and Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, disagreed on Hungary building a barbed fence just last week at the border to keep out more refugees from coming in.