What happens with the refugees now?

‘Refugees are welcome’ is the new slogan chanted from Dublin to Berlin, Stockholm to Madrid. Refugees disembarking trains in Bavaria were greeted with cheers and chocolates, people waved ‘Welcome’ signs along the Dublin docklands and marched in solidarity with the Syrians and other displaced people have been organised all over Europe.

The lynchpin of all this outpouring of sentiment and humanist action is hard to pinpoint, stemming as it does from a continuous worldwide reaction to years of conflicts and one harrowing image after the other. Yet, no one can deny that the impetus has picked up after the photo of the Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body was washed up on a beach in Turkey circulated worldwide. Unpixelated, stark and unforgiving, the image was but a brief of a snapshot of the crisis that is continuing to unfold before our eyes in Syria. But, what happens now?

In response to the tragic image, EU countries like Germany and Austria waived visa travel for refugees. Others like Ireland decided to help relocate people from countries such as Greece and Italy to temporary relocation centres throughout the country. The UK has relaxed its borders. However, we must be mindful that this cannot be considered a lasting solution to the larger problem.

I am not talking about anything new here, this view has been advocated by many people before me and will be advocated long after you read this, but the point remains the same.

While we dither and argue about the best course of action, we are seeing in real-time this vacuum in leadership being filled by groups less amenable to a humanitarian solution. All the while, the numbers of those seeking asylum rise, and will continue to rise.

In the end, we cannot say we weren’t told. We were told every day, but the deciding factor will be when we choose to listen. It won’t be solved overnight, or in a few weeks or months, it may take years. But if it takes a swallowing of pride here, a compromise there, let this be the final price to pay for peace.

— The reader is an Irish journalism graduate based in Dublin, Ireland