Population growth and the threat this represents to the 'developed' world

In any event the 'developed world' is tackling the problem from the wrong end; 'stopping the boats' will in the long run, turn out to be a fruitless exercise. Trying to stop the flow of refugees once people have made the life changing decision the move to a 'developed country' is not a viable strategy.

The only viable strategy is to start at the point where people are making the decision to leave their homeland and move to a 'developed country'.

So what is the solution, if there is one?

The value of Aid to Africa is about US$60 billion a year. Much of this is wasted because the 'developed world's' Aid programmes are competitive amongst themselves and are often self-serving: e.g. the Aid is tied to using or buying the Aid-giver's goods or services. See also Boris Johnson's latest quote: 'The UK's aid budget will be shifted to projects that promote its interests, the foreign secretary has said.' (Ref BBC NEews Dec 31^st 2017) Also, it is not enough. Some Aid serves to encourage corruption (Ref: Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo)

The third world (in particular Africa) needs to be persuaded that untrammelled population growth is not in anyone's interests.

There are probably many ways of achieving this, but the aid needs to be pooled and focussed on reducing population growth. One of the ways of achieving anything in this regard is to focus on the education of women. There are examples round the world, such as the Indian State of Kerala, where women's literacy is about 95% and the population growth rate is zero.

The 'developed world's' aid programmes should be pooled, should probably be tripled and should just focus on this issue. The 'developed world' needs to make a combined and coherent effort to persuade the third world that population control is very much in their own interests.

Just trying to 'stop the boats' will in the end be counterproductive and sooner or later the dam will burst and the 'developed world' will be flooded with unwanted, uneducated, unskilled people who will eventually destroy our societies.

Most Governments in the 'developed world' understand the problem, perfectly well. They are, however, all focussed on the relatively short-term goals of trying to improve living standards in order to win the next election and stay in power.