Three year old Alan Kurdi's death was tragic. That little child should not have died. But he had no choice. His parents made the decision for him, and that decision was fuelled by the financial support provided by the father's sister from Vancouver. Alan died when the plan of the elders in his family went terribly wrong.
As refugees, Alan's parents lived a relatively comfortable life in Turkey for more than a year. The U.K.'s Daily Mail has published pictures of the family in Turkey last year which shows them happy, in good health, well clothed, and seemingly satisfied with life. The BBC also reported that of all refugees in Turkey, the country allows Syrians to work legally. Thus Alan's father may not have been financially despondent, and their lives may not have been miserable, or even worse at risk of being snuffed out.
The family however decided to make the perilous journey because it wanted an even better life.
But if they wanted a better life, they should have taken their very first step out of Turkey fulfilling all legal requirements expected by receiving nations from economic migrants. They should have known that they were seeking to get into countries which have for long placed high importance in the rule of law. But to follow the rules was clearly not on their minds. They wished to migrate for economic reasons, but by clinging to refugee status in order to cheat the system.
And so they set out in the dead of the night by paying a human trafficker and getting on to a dangerously overloaded inflated rubber boat hoping to illegally off-load themselves on the other side of the sea in Greece.
That unfortunately never happened when the boat capsized and the mother and children drowned.
They were within Turkish waters and hence the responsibility for such clandestine practice and its consequences should be that of the Turkish government. To blame Western governments for the tragedy doesn't seem appropriate at all. The crime of human trafficking happened on Turkish territory, and the deaths too occurred in Turkish jurisdiction.
The Canadian Conservative government rejected the family's refugee application last year. But it can hardly be blamed for doing so. Tens of thousands of people seek entry into Canada through this route, and on the basis of certain predetermined principles the government has to take the call on who can enter. The Turki family may not have met those expectations.
The movement of refugees from the East to the West is no simple matter for Western governments.
The determination of the masses of young people who leave Turkey on a terribly perilous journey to illegally offload themselves onto European soil is now transmitted on news channels around the world. It has become a headache for European governments.
But what is worrying about this mass of largely young people seeking entry into the West is they do not seem to care about the laws of the land they enter. They refuse to be documented. They refuse to go to holding centers. And they force the receiving countries to do their bidding - i.e. transport them to Germany.
When they behave in such a manner, they cease to be refugees. They take on a political identity that challenges the establishment as well as the traditions and culture of the lands they step on to.
Why should Europe or any country for that matter then receive such people?
Europe has every reason to fear that they who take their very first steps in aggression against it and its historic traditions, might go on to do more damage once they have settled within it.
This legitimate fear permeates European nations, and some news media outlets have reported there are Westerners who strongly feel the scheme may be the means for mercenaries to enter Europe and the West and to eventually cause problems in the West. Even if there aren't many hardened criminals among those coming in as refugees, such a robust influx of people who don't show sensitivity and respect towards the law and culture of other civilizations, and instead force the receiving countries to do their (the refugees') bidding one way or another, is a matter of grave concern.
That nearly all the refugees wish to settle in Germany must be worrying both for Angela Merkel as well as the heads of other European countries.
Economic strains was one of the chief reasons for disquiet and paranoia to emerge amongst the German people before the Second World War, and they do not want a repeat of it through a mass influx of people within their borders.
Germany's European neighbours may be privately hoping what is already the largest European nation does not get even larger because of the Arab migration. It could once again offset the balance of power in Europe. It might be hence that France is insisting that all European countries share the human load of the refugee crisis.
Then there was the Hungarian Prime Minister Orban declaring that Hungary was a Christian country, and it was averse to taking in a large number of Muslim refugees. Was this a signal to the 'Christian warlord' Putin that Hungary and possibly other slavic nations are likely to be aligned in a common cause with the slavic Big Brother should the need arise?
Amidst all this China showed off its military arsenal and Putin enjoyed preferred seating while Japan politely refused to attend the event. To cap it all, if America gets as its next president a person who does not display strong character, what is till now still only a regional difficulty could turn into a global nightmare.
Thus the influx of refugees into the West from Turkey isn't something that should be simplistically approached.
Reuben Gabriel is an instructor at the College of New Caledonia.
