Migrant crisis

I am horrified to watch all that imagery of the thousands of migrants flooding in from southeastern Europe, desperate to get to places like the UK and Germany. I am not condemning them. They are the victims, with a capital V. Many are from wartorn countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, where they could not stay. Others come from places where there is little economic future. They have all made the dangerous crossings, over land and sea, lured by promises of great riches. The villains in the piece are the people smugglers, who are making hundreds of millions out of this crisis. The historic background is equally black, and in fact it closes the circle. For it is the policies of western European countries like the UK and France in years gone by that have created this crisis. And it is countries like the UK and France, not to mention Germany and others, to make an attempt to sort it out.