Refugees: this is the human tide the west doesn’t want | Simon Jenkins

The global crisis engendered by people fleeing war seems unstoppable. But open borders carry an unacceptable political price for national governments

Who now cries, “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore”? We stand appalled as boatloads of refugees wash up on the beaches of the northern Mediterranean. Men, women and children scramble up rocks and plead: “Is this Europe?” We arrest the traffickers, yet aid thei...