Now is time for action on refugee crisis

THE SCENE must have been like a vision from hell. Dead bodies were being thrown overboard. Some of those still alive were confined to the ship’s hold writes, Michael Clifford.

More who managed to get off the ship onto small crafts rowed for the shore, where they fell out of the boats and crawled on hands and knees towards an unlikely salvation.

These people were the wretches of the world, fleeing certain death and a cruel regime, having spent days at sea. Now they had arrived at the Promised Land and what they found was that far from being welcomed, they were despised and wished dead rather than be a burden on the native population.