Indonesia would send people already assessed to be refugees to Australia and Australia would send unauthorised maritime arrivals back to Indonesia.
Nor did another, abortive plan to fly arrivals back to Malaysia to "join the queue"—nor did a regional advertising campaign, warning about the dangers of the journey and the risk of drowning.
With safe routes to claim asylum, alongside these official paths to work, the number risking death in the Mediterranean would drop – and Europe could, morally, get tough on those still attempting to cross by boat, turning them back in the sea, or immediately taxiing arrivals back across.
One of the early arrivals, back in 2007, was Sundaram Tagore, a gallerist with outposts in New York and Beverly Hills who focuses on the intersection of Western and non-Western art and shows pieces that further a global dialogue.
Thursday also saw a Dutch strategy aimed at tackling the migrant crisis put forward by Labour party leader Diederik Samsom, which suggested the European Union (EU) should begin sending sea arrivals back to Turkey from Greece.
On Lesbos, the latest official attempt to stem the influx of refugees has seen the EU begin sending new arrivals back to Turkey, a policy that critics have claimed is a violation of international law.
