IN MID-SEPTEMBER, I attended a public meeting in Stroud which had been called to discuss the European migrant crisis.

At that point in time, it was well known that many migrants were attempting to reach what they considered the safety of Europe via entirely unsuitable, flimsy water-going craft provided by criminal people-smugglers on payment of hefty fees.

Many, if not all, of these migrants had been promised refuge in Germany by Ms chancellor Angela Merkel, who seemingly made her promise unilaterally without taking advice and having no regard to the future of her own country nor that of Germany’s EU partner countries.

Many, many migrants drowned and, to this day, continue to drown, and this situation can be directly attributed to Ms Merkel and her acquiescent cronies.

At the Stroud meeting – with details of the people-smuggling operations widely acknowledged as not being a recent phenomenon – I asked members of the distinguished panel why the EU, who were required to respond to the crisis, had not put in place measures to side-track the people-smugglers completely, thereby ensuring the safe passage of all migrants to Germany and thus obviating the need for all open-boat travel via the Mediterranean.

The logistics were surely simple – migrants wanted to get to Europe and were willing to pay large sums of money to organised criminals to do so.

The EU with limitless resources and the assistance of Turkey (keen beyond measure to join said EU and gain access to its largesse), could direct migrants to suitable locations where they could be safely processed, make their (reduced) travel payments to the EU rather than crooks, and then enjoy safe passage via air routes to Germany.

My suggestion seemed to nonplus the panel, which struggled for a response to this seemingly sensible and readily achievable proposal.

After a pregnant pause, one panel member – a noted academic – began to laugh nervously (maybe from disbelief of my EU criticism?) and then blustered that “the EU are probably about to implement such proposals”.

Four months on and I’ve seen no evidence to support this assertion. The BBC are this week still reporting on tens of thousands of such voyagers landing in the EU, others are still drowning.

What has happened, though, is that the EU has given – unconditionally it seems – three billion (sic) euros to the Turkish government to ease the problem.

For that regal sum, we learn that “Turkey detains 1,300 refugees” (Guardian December 1, 20151.12.15).

Pardon?

There are no reports of people traffickers being arrested, so it would appear that the EU have simply abandoned thousands of migrants – men, women and children - to the ‘care’ of unprincipled criminal gangs.

Was my anti-trafficking suggestion impractical?

Not being a politician and not knowing the full facts (who does?), I will admit to having self-doubt until I read the (Guardian) critique of a TV programme broadcast on BBC1 on December 13 entitled Saving The Forgotten Jews.

The critique bears repetition.

“Operation Moses and Operation Solomon were the means by which in 1984 and 1991, Israel rescued Ethiopia’s Jewish population from, respectively, famine and political upheaval.

“The programme tells the story of these two covert airlifts and the people who planned them, among them a diplomat, a Mossad spy and a Manchester textiles merchant.

“Both operations were acts of logistical complexity and derring-do. Solomon saw 14,500 people carried on 35 aircraft, at one point cramming more than a thousand into a single 747.”

As can be seen, these were ‘covert airlifts’ of ‘logistical complexity’ – not airlifts with the luxury of three billion Euros working capital.

One wonders if Germany sought counsel from the Israeli nation, obviously well skilled in such situations?

The conclusions to be drawn from this ongoing debacle are clear: if the EU cannot, on political, diplomatic and humanitarian levels, organise a relatively simple operation to save hundreds if not thousands of lives, why should such an inept construct which receives British contributions of more thanover £50m,000,000 per day remain in existence?

It also shows beyond argument that even organised crime, without the need for capacious parliament buildings and battalions of self-aggrandising public servants, is capable of out-performing the EU – as indeed are Manchester textile merchants.

Roger Gough

Minchinhampton