The political response to what is undoubtedly the biggest European refugee crisis since the Second World War has been lamentable. Only Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, with France’s François Hollande somewhat hesitantly by her side, has shown a real grasp of the issues. What is taking place is a humanitarian catastrophe on an ever-growing scale, not just on Europe’s borders but in its midst. Yet European political institutions have stumbled from one ad hoc solution to another, searching not for better answers but for better excuses. The statistics of this unprecedented mass migration are relatively simple, even if the causes are not. Unparalleled barbarism in Syria and Iraq has driven several million people into exile in neighbouring countries, where conditions in h