Refugees are freezing to death in the Mediterranean. Politicians must show moral and political leadership

With thousands are facing death from drowning and hypothermia over the coming winter months, our politicians are duty-bound to act now – however complex the world in which they work has become

Refugees jump into the Med from a crowded wooden boat as they are helped during a rescue operation north of Sabratha, Libya (AP)

The tragedy that has unfolded across the Mediterranean Sea is among the biggest humanitarian disasters that the Western world has witnessed in recent years. Thousands have drowned in a desperate quest to reach the safety and opportunity of Europe, many embezzled for all have while at their most vulnerable. Homeless and many having lost all family members on the way, those who make it to Europe have done so to find it irrevocably divided and often hostile to those who still consider it a promised land. Those who survive the brave journey have found themselves lifted from one torn civilisation to another.

In normal times, the flow of refugees across the waters is stemmed somewhat during the most dangerous winter months. The poet Warsan Shire wrote: “No one puts their child in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.” In December, the seas are too rough and the risks too high for even those with nothing left to take a punt on a new life.

But in the past 12 months things have changed. Now we learn that refugees fleeing Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa are setting sail for Europe despite the cold weather, and are failing to meet their destination because they are freezing to death in the process. It the first time that large numbers of refugees are attempting the journey at this time of year, and many of them are reportedly not doing so by choice.

People traffickers are understood to be forcing hundreds of migrants on to boats and out to sea through brute force. Journeys are being made not only out of desperation but also under duress. Traffickers are, there can be no doubt, profiting from misery, pain and loss of human life. But continuing to offer sanctuary to those they seek to exploit, as well as being morally right, does not in itself create this terrible situation.

Pressure on the British Government to act to solve the refugees crisis has waxed and waned along with public sentiment. Earlier this year politicians announced they would take 3,000 of the most vulnerable child refuges from the Calais Jungle camp, which was later destroyed by authorities. After the Brexit vote, however, attitudes on immigration have hardened. But responding to negative views about immigration by attempting to shut off migrant routes is too simplistic an answer to the ongoing tragedy in the Mediterranean.

When The Independent boldly printed the devastating image of young Alan Kurdi’s lifeless body on a Turkish beach in September 2015, this title urged Government to find a fast and humane solution to the refugee crisis. Now that call must be made yet again – but, this time, with an additional caution to take seriously the sheer complexity of the situation that now presents.

This is a time for both moral and practical leadership. Until now, our Government has only found it necessary to respond to the refugee crisis when public sentiment has meant it is politically expedient to do so. When thousands are facing death from drowning and hypothermia over the coming winter months, our politicians are duty-bound to act now – however complex the world in which they work has become.