TIME RUNNING OUT FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES ...?

Watching the news tonight, and this refugee sunami situation is set to become far worse! Austria blocking-off its border seems to have led to a domino effect running southward, with other European countries refusing entry too. There is now a huge build-up of people at the Macedonian border - all intent on getting into Europe. And it looks as if there are little or no facilities for them. How on earth are they all going to be fed and sheltered? And their frustration is leading to arguments and fights breaking out among them. I can see the potential for real, uncontrollable, violence here. (We would all hate to be there with our families - especially if we had young children. Uncomfortable? Cold? Dangerous! It must be hell on earth!)

But then I do wonder why all these refugees left Turkey in the first place ...? They were safe there - out of harm's way - yet they risked the lives of their families to cross the Aegean, in flimsy dinghies and such, to get to Greece. Another thing that bothers me slightly ... These refugees are not poor people. They've paid thousands of pounds to get themselves out of their home countries. The real poor people are the ones who have to remain in their war-torn countries, with no way out at all.

Germany, after flinging its doors wide open, is now threatening to close its borders to Syrian (and other) refugees.

Five of the wealthiest Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain) have taken no Syrian refugees at all, (not one!) saying that doing so would open them up to the risk of terrorism. (Yet these refugees are your Muslim brothers, surely ... ?)

I feel really sorry for Greece. How can they possibly cope with this huge influx of people? The logistics of just feeding them - not to mention shelter, toilet facilities, available water - must be an absolute nightmare. And now Austria and some other European countries are calling for Greece to close its northern borders, leaving Greece to cope on its own.

The European Union has been just hopeless in dealing with this problem. It's been going on for the last year - and no procedure, no policy, has been decided upon. Just its usual faffing!

But this isn't a European problem! The refugees have made it so, but it really isn't! It's a world problem. Where is America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand? Where is Russia, Latin America, Israel, China, Japan? All keeping very quiet, with their heads under the blankets, that's where!

What we need is a co-ordinated world response to this crisis. Why should just Europe bear the brunt?

(And the potential danger! It is estimated that 1,500 terroists have slipped, unnoticed, into Europe on this tide of refugees.)

It's time to get a grip! All refugees must be rigorously processed. Passports registered. Fingerprinted. (You're fingerprinted the moment you enter the US!) Then allocated a country to where they will be sent. (Maybe there's room for a choice in this ...?)

If every country in the world was given a quota of refugees, dependant on its size, the problem would be sorted.

Sorted!