Don’t vilify asylum seekers – tackle the root causes of immigration

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Migrants are helped ashore from a RNLI lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness (AFP/Getty)

The latest tragedy in the English Channel is heartwrenching and illustrates the magnitude of the humanitarian catastrophe caused by desperate people seeking asylum.

As well as addressing the flaws in the asylum system, the international community must urgently target the root cause of the world’s seething conflicts, poverty and illiteracy, otherwise the migrant crisis triggered by the flow of refugees, which leads to these terrible tragedies, will continue.

Atul M Karnik