DAILY MAIL COMMENT: MR Cameron and the rising migrant crisis
Today, the Mail publishes astonishing pictures of migrants who have illegally entered the Greek island of Kos mingling with bemused British holidaymakers.
They are among thousands from the Middle East and Africa who, in the past week alone, have made the journey across the Mediterranean to Europe in an ever-deepening crisis.
The EU, struggling ineffectually to cope, has responded by requiring its member states to share a quota of 40,000 of the recent new arrivals.
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![Bemused British holidaymakers on the Greek island of Kos are mingling with migrants who have illegally entered the Greek island](http://web.archive.org./web/20170714182735/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/05/30/00/291E762600000578-0-image-a-50_1432941568748.jpg)
Bemused British holidaymakers on the Greek island of Kos are mingling with migrants who have illegally entered the Greek island
Britain has opted out of this programme – which the Government rightly judges will encourage still more people to risk their lives on rickety boats (such as the 350 who had to be rescued from a hideously overcrowded wooden vessel by HMS Bulwark on Thursday).
But many will end up heading for Britain in any event – as the increasing numbers massed at Calais, trying to sneak into the country illegally, testify.
Meanwhile, legal migration to the UK continues to rise – adding 318,000 to our population last year, the second highest total in history, and putting further strain on already creaking public services.
David Cameron’s partial solution is to reduce the pull factor for Eastern European migrants, by limiting their access to in-work benefits.
But, in comments that hardly bode well for his attempt to renegotiate with Europe in the run-up to the in-out referendum, this idea was yesterday rejected as discrimination by his Polish counterpart.
During the election, all the main parties (except Ukip) were desperate to avoid discussing immigration – with Mr Cameron only doing so after being urged to speak up by this paper.
However, as events once again show, it remains the burning issue of our time. How the Prime Minister responds will define his second term – for good or ill.
Stain on US justice
There is much to admire about the US justice system – not least its ruthless pursuit of the bankers who triggered the global financial crisis.
The guilty men have been named, prosecuted and their employers hammered with massive fines.
British banks have been doggedly held to account in a way that puts our own toothless regulators to shame.
Last week, the £1.25billion fine levied on Barclays in the US, for rigging the foreign currency markets, dwarfed the £285million penalty imposed in the UK.
Similarly, on the eye-watering sleaze and rampant corruption at Fifa, it has again been the US taking the moral lead – with its Attorney General bringing charges against more than a dozen officials accused of taking bungs.
![Terror suspect, Shaker Aamer, 48, has spent 13 years in custody without charge or trial](http://web.archive.org./web/20170714182735/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/05/30/00/29308A8A00000578-0-image-a-51_1432941581867.jpg)
Terror suspect, Shaker Aamer, 48, has spent 13 years in custody without charge or trial
Which brings us, bewilderingly, to the deeply immoral case of Shaker Aamer – the last British resident to be held in Guantanamo Bay, where he has been kept in inhuman conditions for 13 years.
As our heartrending report on Pages 26 & 27 explains, Aamer’s case file has been vetted by six US government departments of state, including Defence and Homeland Security, all of which have cleared him for release.
Yet, for reasons no one will disclose (though his supporters suspect it is to stop him revealing what he knows about torture), the US authorities continue to stall – subjecting Aamer and his wife and four children in Britain to the most appalling mental trauma.
This paper has always accepted that Aamer may be a bad man. But every day that he remains in Guantanamo without having his innocence or guilt tested in a court is a grotesque affront to justice.
It’s also a shameful stain on an American legal system from which we are entitled to expect so much better.
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