'Open brief aan iedereen die zegt dat ze niet welkom zijn'

'Genoeg is genoeg'. De Independent on Sunday plaats vandaag een korte, krachtige open brief aan de eigen premier, aan die van Hongarije en aan al die andere die proberen de vluchtelingen verdacht te maken of uit te leggen dat het ons probleem niet is. Je kunt in de aanhef zo de Nederlandse namen invullen. Enough is enough. Attitudes have to change. See the human and not the imagined danger that anything is under threat apart from these people's lives. A refugee crisis unlike any other since the Second World War is unfurling on our doorstep and now is the time to help people who need it the most. Over the past few weeks and months you've been responsible for spreading anti-migrant and anti-refugee sentiment. Some of you have . Some of you have reacted to this language by misunderstanding why people are trying to reach Europe. Some of you have hauled refugees off trains and . Some of you have simply . Somehow you've lost sight of the simple fact that our fellow humans are in dire need of help, having fled death and destruction in their homelands only to face an even more perilous journey into Europe. Somehow you've stopped seeing refugees, , for what they are, and tried to deny them the assistance they are legally, and morally, entitled to. But it has to end, and end now. It has to end because people are , because Europe's reputation as a champion of human rights is disintegrating, because if we don't act now we will regret it for the rest of our history. It has to end because dead refugee children are being washed up on Europe's beaches. Our sister site published these pictures . They show a small boy, thought to be Syrian, face down in the surf of a beach in Turkey. We republish them for the same reason; if these pictures don't change attitudes, what will? Enough is enough. Attitudes have to change. See the human and not the imagined danger that anything is under threat apart from these people's lives. A refugee crisis unlike any other since the Second World War is unfurling on our doorstep and now is the time to help people who need it the most. Yours faithfully,