You know the thing with this situation....it is being approached by everyone differently than I would do it. The argument leapt straight to housing/settlement.
I see, first of all, running atop everything, serious, long-term issues continuing in North Africa and the Middle East. And maybe atop that the fact that people move about more all around the globe. These are long-term issues.
Cameron says we are doing something....gathering intel. I'll give him that. It certainly needs to be done.
But to me, I see first and foremost regarding the actual refugees, very concrete problems. Are they getting enough water and food? Is there some way to up patrols along coasts to stop the baby bodies washing up? I mean is there some way to distribute life jackets or anything?
How long is it before some sort of communicable disease breaks out? What about when winter gets here?
Will these camps turn into death camps? Will a country open fire on a column of refugees?
These are not easy things to solve, but we can handle this sort of thing, we have done it before. Food, shelter, clothing, medicine....child-sized flotation devises and rescue boats.
Get the people onto land and dry, with 2000 calories a day, basic shelter, inoculations, portable toilets, etc. Screen them for evil-doers. Old style relief done at multinational level. We know how to do this.
Make sure they are temporary, that they aren't concentration camps.
Then the hard part comes. But questions about eventual settlement shouldn't stop these basics from being addressed first.
