Border Crisis: Control the Border, and Keep Young Boys Alive

One of the most famous modern photographs is of a dead two-year-old Syrian boy named Alan Kurdi taken by a Turkish photographer of the Dogan News Agency in 2015. Kurdi’s family was fleeing the civil war in Syria and hoping to make it to Europe and then to British Columbia to be joined by family there. The image of Kurdi still has the potential to shock. The red shirt and sneakers he wore are so evocative of boyhood, they would have been picked by an artist trying to depict “boy” as an abstraction. The image was put on magazine and newspaper covers around the world. It was turned into a huge mural that appeared next to the European Central Bank. Kurdi’s mother gave a speech to U.K. viewers of Channel 4, as an alternative to the Queen’s Christmas message.

For a brief moment in time, the emotions the photograph elicited from the world had the effect of concentrating authorities on the refugee flows out of Syria. Kurdi was one of more than 3,600 people who died in the eastern Mediterranean that year. Eventually, Europe struck a deal with Turkey that stopped the bulk of the criminal gangs operating between the Turkish and Greek coasts. Four people smugglers were arrested in connection with the illegal journey. But the problem in Europe shifted westward to the waters between Libya and Italy, where it remains. In recent weeks, Europe has been getting a surge of migrants that is overwhelming the island of Lampedusa off the coast of Italy. Six thousand Italians live there; 7,000 migrants have arrived there in a two-day period.

About the Author

Michael Brendan Dougherty

Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review Online.

Featured Tags

One of the most famous modern photographs is of a dead two-year-old Syrian boy named Alan Kurdi taken by a Turkish photographer of the Dogan News Agency in 2015. Kurdi’s family was fleeing the civil war in Syria and hoping to make it to Europe and then to British Columbia to be joined by family there. The image of Kurdi still has the potential to shock. The red shirt and sneakers he wore are so evocative of boyhood, they would have been picked by an artist trying to depict “boy” as an abstraction. The image was put on magazine and newspaper covers around the world. It was turned into a huge mural that appeared next to the European Central Bank. Kurdi’s mother gave a speech to U.K. viewers of Channel 4, as an alternative to the Queen’s Christmas message.

For a brief moment in time, the emotions the photograph elicited from the world had the effect of concentrating authorities on the refugee flows out of Syria. Kurdi was one of more than 3,600 people who died in the eastern Mediterranean that year. Eventually, Europe struck a deal with Turkey that stopped the bulk of the criminal gangs operating between the Turkish and Greek coasts. Four people smugglers were arrested in connection with the illegal journey. But the problem in Europe shifted westward to the waters between Libya and Italy, where it remains. In recent weeks, Europe has been getting a surge of migrants that is overwhelming the island of Lampedusa off the coast of Italy. Six thousand Italians live there; 7,000 migrants have arrived there in a two-day period.