The arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn regions of Africa and the Middle East, as well as economic migrants from Africa and Asia, is testing the European Union as no other recent crisis has. As the human toll mounts — more than 2,500 have died so far this year — so does the moral pressure on Europe to act.

The roots of this catastrophe lie in crises the European Union cannot solve alone: war in Syria and Iraq, chaos in Libya, destitution and brutal regimes in Africa. But the European Union’s failed asylum policies cannot escape blame for the suffering of thousands of people seeking to escape these crises. As things stand now, Europe offers few legal avenues to refugees, and in their absence, criminal human-smuggling gangs have flourished, promising passage in a rickety boat or a refrigerated truck for a price that too often includes the lives of those they transport.

Something must be done, and soon, not only for the refugees but also for the political stability of the European Union. The human tsunami and the absence of a coherent response to it has fueled Europe’s xenophobic right and caused discord among the union’s 28 member states.

bbabo.Net