One of the more horrific stories to come along in years was that of a group of a dozen asylum seekers, mostly women and children, who last month were taken from a locked van on the coast of Greece, loaded on to a Greek Coastguard vessel, hauled to the middle of the Agean Sea, and then put into an inflatable raft where they were abandoned.
Yes, the Greek government left these people in the middle of the sea in a small dinghy with no power, knowing they would likely die.
Fortunately the immigrants were rescued by the Turkish Coastguard and were taken to that country for processing.
Then yesterday an overcrowded fishing boat capsized in the Mediterranean with hundreds more refugees on board. Most are presumed dead.
These are just 2 examples that illustrate the desperate situation many people find themselves in.
The United Nations Refugee Agency estimated that by the end of last year, over 108 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes.
This number is now increasing exponentially with the added effects of climate change.
