Clifford Hill discusses the Europe-wide refugee crisis.

The whole of Europe is now being drawn into what is rapidly becoming a continent-wide crisis eclipsing that of the Euro and the Greek banking problems. More than 100,000 migrants are flocking into Europe per month, crossing perilous seas with inevitable loss of life. So far this year over 2,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in numbers that have been overwhelming the authorities in Italy: last year that number was over 3,000.

TV news, websites and newspapers have been full of pictures of angry crowds in Budapest where the main railway station has been besieged by thousands of migrants and many others have been stranded in a train. Most of them have escaped from war-torn Syria. Hungary has been building a fence stretching the length of its eastern border in an attempt to keep migrants out, but their determination to reach Northern European nations has stretched EU laws to their limit. Hungary has been attempting to enforce the rule that migrants must register in their first country of entry into Europe but EU's borderless policy is in total disarray as the numbers coming in every day simply overwhelm authorities.

Shocking Pictures

The recent sight of a little boy's body washed up onto the beach in Turkey has shocked people right across Europe. It reminds us that these thousands of people on the move whom we label as 'migrants' are real people; boys and girls, men and women like us: and the majority of them (over 70%) are refugees fleeing from the horrors of conflict in war-torn areas.

The little boy was Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old refugee from Kobani in Syria, who died with his mother and five-year-old brother while attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos.

The recent sight of a boy's body washed up onto the beach in Turkey reminds us that these thousands of 'migrants' on the move are real people, like us.

Frank Augstein/AP/Press Association ImagesGermany expects to settle up to 800,000 refugees this year, while Sweden has declared 'open borders' to all those fleeing war zones. Austria has welcomed trainloads of refugees coming in from Hungary; but by contrast, of the 4 million refugees who have fled Syria Britain has so far taken only 216 – barely enough to fill two carriages of a train! But David Cameron seems to be bowing to public opinion and agreeing to take a share of the refugees.

Britain's Immigration Policy

The plain fact is that our immigration policy has for the past 50 years been in chaos. Ever since the great parliamentary debates of the early 1960s on what to do with the worker migrants coming in ever-increasing numbers from former colonial territories in the British Commonwealth, our politicians have not known what to do. The first Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 set the tone by simply restricting numbers, which sent out the xenophobic message that all non-white immigrants were a social problem.

Ever since the parliamentary debates about worker migrants coming in from the Commonwealth in the early 1960s, British politicians have not known what to do about immigration.

The greatest mistake was to say that any Commonwealth migrants who settled here had the right to bring in their spouse or other close dependants. This regulation is still in force today which allows migrants from the Indian subcontinent to send their young people back home for a marriage partner which doubles their migrant population each generation.

Hangovers from Colonialism

Our immigration policy has not been based upon offering a home to refugees or caring for those in need, but upon an outworn colonialist ideology of Britain being the 'Mother Country' who has an obligation to open her borders to all her children. This is regardless of the fact that many of those who have come from, say, Pakistan, have no love for Britain, make no attempt at integration, and share a long-term ambition of turning Britain into a Muslim country.

Now our politicians are scared of opening our borders to genuine refugees because of the social consequences of already having whole areas in some of our cities where English is hardly spoken and where health, welfare and education already present enormous problems. To bring in thousands more (mainly Muslims) from the Middle East exacerbates the problems we already have. Unless there is a radical change in public opinion, politicians do not want to make unpopular decisions - particularly in the run-up to the Referendum on Britain's relationships with the European Union. But even if there is a change in public opinion towards the refugees, will this affect our attitudes toward the EU?

Prosperity Threatened

Britain is not alone in fearing to open its borders to all-comers. There is already social unrest in Germany and a number of other nations within the Eurozone, where 18 million people are unemployed and youth unemployment is running at nearly 22%.

After centuries of European economic dominance where much of the wealth and prosperity has been derived through colonial exploitation, that prosperity is now under threat. With the Chinese market shrinking as their shares bubble bursts, the fears of economic collapse in Europe increase.Frank Augstein/AP/Press Association Images

What Does The Bible Say?

Does the Bible have anything to say about what is happening today? Way back in 1986, Prophecy Today began warning about a great shaking of the nations that was first prophesied by the Prophet Haggai in the sixth century BC, just after the return of the first wave of Jews from captivity in Babylon. Haggai foresaw a time coming when there would not only be tumultuous events in nature, the shaking of earth and sea, but there would be social and economic turmoil in all nations (Hag 2:6-7).

That prophecy was believed to be still in the future by the writer of the Book of Hebrews, near the end of the first century AD (Heb 12:26f). Of course, prophecies can have more than one fulfilment, but there are so many indicators today that something along these lines is actually happening in our lifetime. The increased frequency of earthquakes, storms and natural disasters plus the social, economic and political upheavals among the nations in every region of the world, surely have some significance! The reference in Hebrews says that when these things happen, God will use them to shake human confidence in our own cleverness and ability to solve every problem. This will prepare the way for the second coming of Jesus. Maybe that event is not so far in the future.

Is there anything that Christians can do to help in this situation with thousands of desperate people on the move across the world? Of course we can pray; and prayer does have a practical effect! We can also give to genuine charities that are working among refugees – particularly those on frontline camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Turkey. But maybe we should also be offering accommodation in our home to genuine refugees to enable them to have a good experience of starting life again in a safe environment. Here is an opportunity for some trusted Christian group to organise this.