Refugee Death Scenes Are West's Moral Failure

The exact death toll resulting from several families’ attempts to flee Syria and several other countries for Europe, on two boats, remains unknown. The latest reports indicate this one catastrophe has left approximately 150 people dead while at least another 40 remain unaccounted for. At the same time that search and rescue efforts continued on the Mediterranean, authorities discovered an abandoned truck filled with 71 refugees, including at least four children, on an Austrian highway. The majority were likely Syrian refugees and every single person inside was dead. Photos from the macabre scene show body fluids seeping out of the truck’s back doors, spilling onto the ground. They died under conditions so grim it likely compared to the horror the refugees managed to escape in Syria. Only two days later, Austrian security forces once again intercepted yet another truck packed full with refugees; at least three severely dehydrated children were among the 23 other people.