It’s easy to say that Aylan Kurdi died due to our lack of compassion. But the reality is far more complicated

Just a thought: what if Aylan Kurdi, the poor drowned three year old child whose picture changed Europe – we are told – when it comes to the fate of Syrian refugees, had been, say, Afghan rather than Syrian? Or Eritrean, or indeed Pakistani? Quite possible, you know. Perhaps half of the migrants coming to Europe across the Mediterranean are not actually Syrian. Many of them are now arriving in German towns, expecting, and receiving, welcome and the promise of residency but may in fact be sent packing if the Germans stick to the letter of their bending of the Dublin Agreement. Would our entire foreign and asylum policy been changed, as we are told it has been, as a result of the PM’s response to this little boy’s fate, or – as some observers suggested – SamCam’s response, if he’d been from one of those less favoured nations? Would the public have felt moved to offer, like Bob Geldof, rooms in their homes for a refugee family if he hadn’t been Syrian? I think not.