The death by suffocation of 71 refugees found in a locked truck in Austria and the drowning of hundreds making the perilous journey from Libya to Italy are only the latest reminders of the catastrophic human tragedy occurring in Europe. With these fatalities, the death toll of migrants headed to Europe exceeds 2,500 for the year. This humanitarian disaster is due to refugees coming in waves to Europe to escape their war-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The failure of the European Union (EU) to be on the same page on how to resolve the issue, let alone tackling the problem prudently, is shaking the idea of the European project to its core. There appear to be as many approaches to dealing with refugees as there are countries, without any centres for screening, rehabilitation, or housing. Compounding the issue is a conflation of refugees seeking asylum and economic migrants looking for better opportunities, with only the former supposed to be granted entry and stay. The fashion of having tough policies on accepting refugees does little to dissuade people from leaving their torn apart countries. Thus these policies only encourage smugglers and traffickers to profit off this human misery.One has to be sympathetic to the plight of countries like Italy and Greece who are themselves in financial trouble but have to bear the brunt of screening and housing the refugees landing on European shores, while Germany has to deal with the most number of applicants, highlighting the lop-sided response to the crisis. With the huge number of people entering Europe, the ugly head of xenophobia and racism rears itself as well. These political problems for the governments are understandable and only make the need to implement Germany’s proposal to equitably distribute refugees across the EU, have a common list of acceptable countries of origin and a coordinated rehabilitation programme all the more necessary. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s lead on this issue despite potential political pushback is to be commended. Europe as a whole is economically strong enough to provide them resettlement and a viable future, and pressure needs to be exerted to make it so. However, merely accepting refugees is hardly going to abate the migrant wave and its root causes. The EU and the UN both need to invest in properly funded and maintained refugee camps in the neighbouring regions of Syria and Iraq, like Lebanon and Jordan, so that the need to move further towards Europe does not seem as compelling. Most importantly, the mess in Syria and Libya that compels people to seek asylum is partly to be blamed on the major European countries and thus they have a moral responsibility to address these conflicts. *