I had been preparing another post on the refugee crisis after watching a report on last night's evening news. It focussed on some of the Syrian women trapped on Lesbos with their small children. I was horrified by the imagery which was conjured by their words. One woman told of how she made it to land from a terrifying dinghy voyage only to find that her husband had been crushed to death in the bottom of the overcrowded vessel. She was young and had three children. She had nothing of her husband's to remember him by and she had no idea what was going to happen to her. I have said it before on this blog but I will say it again: how desperate do you have to be to risk such a journey with small children? How can any of us in the West really imagine what it must feel like? None of our histories are immune from people migrations throughout the ages. We all have a responsibility to help.
Then, as I was driving today, I happened upon the speech being made by Angelina Jolie Pitt on the BBC today. It was part of a series of programmes for World On The Move Day and she expressed very eloquently exactly what I would have hoped to say. Her speech and knowledge in the question sessions afterwards were very impressive.
I highly recommend listening to the programme. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36303688 for the article on the news page and http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07bqjgq to listen.
There is also an excellent series on The World At One on BBC Radio 4. I have listened to it as often as possible and it really brings home the realities of life as a refugee. A correspondent has been following the Dhnie family for some time and reports regularly on their progress.
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