I refer to the story on p. 7 of last week’s paper which focused on the plight of the owner of a local haulage business who now finds using the port of Calais impossibly difficult because of the ‘migrant crisis’. There is however little explanation of what has caused this crisis, other than that many have ‘travelled from war-torn countries like Somalia, Sudan and Syria’.

Perhaps this week you could look at some of the background to people being forced to leave their homes, families, friends and countries.

After all, if your readers were, for example, having barrel bombs dropping on their streets, as is happening regularly in Syria, or if they were in danger of arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and torture, as is the case in Eritrea, they too might well want to go elsewhere.

This is not a form of benefits tourism - after all, UK benefits are much lower than in most other European countries – it is about refugees seeking asylum, people fleeing for their lives. The UK is often a preferred destination for many because they have learned English in school, not French, German or other European languages. What the UK government should be doing is not sending in yet more razor wire and sniffer dogs, but sitting down with other EU governments to work out a plan for helping such people, with the ‘burden’ shared fairly between all member countries. That would be the way to solve the ‘Calais crisis’ in a humane way.

Pat Caplan

Brynberian