I read with interest Ray Azzopardi’s letter titled ‘Another tragedy’ (June 7) and he is to be commended for his humane attitude and his call for ‘action’. However, I was puzzled as to what action he wishes our European leaders to take.

If I interpret his thoughts correctly – and I apologise if I misread him – he advocates navel and other vessels to be sent to the various ports of embarkation in Libya and elsewhere to collect migrants. At this time, with the tide of opinion (absolutely no pun intended) being against further undocumented migration, his wish is unlikely to bear fruit.

We must face a certain and perhaps unpalatable truth that there is no way in which Europe can absorb the numbers of migrants who wish for whatever reason to come here. It is simply a matter of pragmatism versus humanitarianism.

An attempt to escort what might, indeed has, become hundreds of thousands of people to Europe would lead to an even more chaotic situation than we have already.

The present situation is seen at Calais on the English Channel. The UK government will not allow the 6,000-7,000 people in camps there to be resettled in UK.

The country should possibly cope with the relatively small number but what needs to be borne in mind is the ‘full-factor’. If the UK allows the people to resettle they will be replaced with another 7,000-8,000 but probably many more. They would argue that if the UK had admitted the previous migrants then why not them?