So much for the challenge presented by the hordes of refugees who were surging through Europe not long ago. Turkey and the European Union have solved the whole problem. The migrants will simply be returned to their last known stop: Turkey. "This is a historic day," proclaimed Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu. "We today realized that Turkey and the EU (European Union) have the same destiny, the same challenges, and the same future." How nice. Give 'em a happy ending every time.
Not since the ill-fated MS St. Louis, with its cargo of Jewish refugees, was turned back in Havana and forced to return to Nazi Germany has so much callous disregard been shown for those most affected by a policy supposedly adopted for this benefit.
Only a few of the usual troublemakers objected to this change of course, just as only a few now object to this "ideal" solution for an awkward problem. Speaking for Amnesty International, its director for European and Central Asian affairs objected that the "double-speak this deal is cloaked in fails to hide the European Union's dogged determination to turn its back on a global refugee crisis and willfully ignore its international obligations." A spokesman for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund, noted that children make up 40 percent of the refugees in Greece and now face an uncertain future in Turkey.
Europe, it seems, remains Europe, more's the pity.
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