Who would have thought the tragic photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body was washed up on a Turkish beach last September, would have been the image that made political leaders and European citizens stop and think about the migration crisis that dominated 2015?
Along with his five-year-old brother and father, Abdullah, little Aylan was fleeing a war-torn country and risking life and limb in search of a better life elsewhere.
His planned destination was Greece but – as portrayed by an image that gave the impression of a fully clothed little boy asleep on a beach – his journey ended prematurely in Turkey.
The three-year-old was not doing anything thousands of others had not done before him. Indeed, the Times of Malta had – after agonising over the rights and wrongs of doing so – published a graphic photo of a dead African migrant boy on its front page some months earlier.
But for whatever reason – cynics would say because he was white and people could therefore identify with the tragedy – Aylan pricked European consciences, or at least enough of them to push the migration issue to the top of the EU agenda.
As thousands more Syrians poured into Europe mainly through Greece, and the pressure became intense, European leaders finally reacted to a problem that has been staring them in the face for at least a decade.
Angela Merkel, herself no stranger to adversity, came into her own, throwing open Germany’s doors to around one million asylum seekers.
Within the EU she found opposition, not least from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who took the diametrically opposed decision to seal his country’s borders and make alarmist statements about the dangers of allowing so many, mostly Muslim, migrants to enter Europe.
Ms Merkel responded in the following manner: “In many regions war and terror prevail. States disintegrate. For many years we have read about this. We have heard about it. We have seen it on TV. But we had not yet sufficiently understood that what happens in Aleppo and Mosul can affect Essen or Stuttgart. We have to face that now.”
The German Chancellor hit the nail squarely on the head. Here she was not making an emotional appeal, but a rational one – urging Europeans to understand the connection between the migration crisis as we have come to know it, and the modern day scourge of terrorism.
France has certainly learned all about the effects of terrorism this year – with the murder of journalists at the satirical Charlie Hebdo publication last January and, more recently, with the gruesome attacks in Paris which claimed 130 lives.
While events of this nature understandably make news as well as generate justified outrage and debate, what we tend to miss out on is a discussion about the causes: principally the creation of vacuums that can be exploited and a lack of inclusion of different races and religions in European society.
Yet, especially during this festive season, as human beings we also have a duty to show emotion and to express solidarity through our words and deeds.
In recent days, Aylan’s distraught father made a heartfelt appeal: “At this time of year I would like to ask you all to think about the pain of fathers, mothers and children who are seeking peace and security. We ask just for a little bit of sympathy from you.”
It is incumbent on all of us to heed it.