Surely we must do much more - More Mediterranean disasters

Unlike the mass deaths caused by natural disasters, the deaths of thousands of refugees trying to reach Europe comes in installments, dripping slowly into our far safer world.

Rather than an instant trauma, these deaths seem a tragedy divided into episodes packaged neatly for the never-ending news cycle. They underline the international community’s occasional ineffectiveness in the face of terror, despotism, or religious extremism. These open-ended deaths goad us to do something more concrete than feeling outraged.

The UN refugee agency has said that as many as 700 migrants have drowned in recent days. Three disasters, on consecutive days, have caused the largest loss of life reported in the Mediterranean since April, 2015, when a ship sank with an estimated 800 people trapped on board.