UK ends support for migrant rescue operation

All other things considered, you never ever let people drown.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/27/uk-mediterranean-migrant-rescue-plan

This story absolutely disgusts me.

Coming from a marine background, it is just an unbreakable rule. I winced when I read it.

I don't even have a marine background, just the thought that we'll leave people to die. I thought this was a compassionate country but more and more we seem to be losing that.
For me, if someone is willing to risk their life in a ramshackle boat to try to find a better life then that's the sort of character you want in your country.

I don't even have a marine background, just the thought that we'll leave people to die. I thought this was a compassionate country but more and more we seem to be losing that.
For me, if someone is willing to risk their life in a ramshackle boat to try to find a better life then that's the sort of character you want in your country.

I suppose it depends on whether "a better life" is based on working hard for a living (like the Polish guys who just painted my house) or based on crime or claiming benefits.

The trouble with headline reactions is that it's easy to say "we're just leaving people to die" but nobody forced them to get on the boats, and at some point we have to figure out who we can save and who we can't. We can't possibly save everybody from the consequences of hare-brained schemes to cross oceans.

If you go one way you just shrug and leave people to die. If you go the other way then you create a situation where people know they just have to make it into the water and they'll be picked up and brought to the UK.

and they'll be picked up and brought to the UK.

That part isn't necessarily true.

But why not rescue them, check and make sure they are in good medical condition, and return them? The boat could be confiscated and the people smugglers arrested.

This is not the only solution but it is better than pulling back and watching someone die.