Refugee Reflections

There were only a few refugees still on the seafront when I arrived in Bodrum (Turkey), and there were even fewer of them by the time I left a number of days later. Where and how they had all gone I do not know. The Greek island of Kos, only two and a half miles away, had apparently been similarly cleared of many of the refugees who had landed there.

Normality has returned to Bodrum: That is to say, the contest was resumed for the soul of the local inhabitants between the muezzin and rock music, often audible at the same time (I hope neither wins). The volume and length of the muezzin’s call certainly seems to have increased of late years, either from renewed confidence or from desperation. At any rate, I saw no signs of religious fervor in response to his loud and long call.

The refugee crisis has confirmed one of the only real laws of political science, namely that fine words butter no parsnips. Openhandedness and moral exultation have been quickly replaced by recrimination, border controls, and barbed-wire fences. The categorical imperative has met particular circumstances, and it is the latter which, as ever, have proved the more compelling. The German authorities say that they are going quickly to sort the wheat from the chaff, that is to say the true asylum seekers from the mere economic migrants, to which I can only say that I wish them luck.

Toward the end of my medical career I had quite a lot to do, one way and another, with asylum seekers, although they were then a steady trickle rather than a flood. I had often to examine them medically and try to estimate the truth or otherwise of their story. This was by no means easy, for it required the kind of detailed knowledge of their home countries (of which there were many) that I did not have. Consistency was not much of a criterion, for to achieve it a liar had only to have a good memory and an understanding of what kind of thing would arouse the sympathy of his interlocutor. Nor did inconsistency prove entire falsehood: After all, very few people can give utterly consistent accounts of themselves.

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