PARIS (AP) — The 3-year-old boy could have been dressed for preschool. Instead he was lying face down in the surf.
Suddenly offers of money, meals and refuge are pouring in to help the hundreds of thousands of migrants surging into Europe. A single photo of a lifeless boy did more to galvanize public sympathy for Europe's migrants than thousands of drownings in the Mediterranean or four years of Syrian civil war.
Whether Aylan Kurdi's drowning death marks a turning point in Europe's migration crisis depends on what European politicians do in response. So far, no dramatic new solutions have emerged.
Given the EU's cumbersome structure and powerful national interests among its 28 members, any political change will be slow — if it happens at all. Ideological divides run deep, and suspicion of immigrants simmers.
Yet for many people from London to Athens to San Francisco, something clicked Thursday. There will be a before and an after, a collective memory of the image of a 3-year-old on a Turkish beach, that moment when the migrants' plight became tangible and unjustifiably cruel.
Sweden's foreign minister cried on national television. So did Australia's most popular TV personality.They were not alone. Tweets in a dozen languages shared pain and anger elicited by viewing the photo of Aylan, taken by a Turkish news agency and spread to cellphones and front pages the world around.
Many have taken action, too.
Parisians unexpectedly packed a meeting hall to offer rooms to refugees. A little-known French grassroots group trying to find housing for asylum applicants had 200 room offers Tuesday; by Thursday night it had 500.
Donors from around the world flooded the U.N. refugee agency with offers of aid.
"The image ... has started a movement of civil society, of private individuals, and even of the tabloid press, to say: 'Governments, we need to do more,'" said agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.
"Our private-sector fundraising people are inundated with requests, 'How can we help? How can we donate money?'" she said, adding that she didn't have a precise figure yet but "it's in the millions."
European decision-makers heard the calls, convened meetings and insisted they are not soulless bureaucrats. Germany and France urged faster action on a relatively modest plan to force all EU members to take in a certain number of migrants.That's how many view Europe's failure to take bold steps amid its worst refugee crisis since World War II — especially as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon have taken in more than 3.7 million Syrians while European governments argue about where to put 40,000 refugees.
After hundreds of migrants died in an overcrowded boat that capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013, European officials swore such horrors must stop.
This year, after another 800 people drowned in the Mediterranean in April, European Parliament President Martin Schulz had a sense of deja vu.
"Every single life lost off our coasts is a stain on Europe," he said. "Each time a refugee boat sinks, with people screaming, shouting and drowning, we swear 'Never again.' We hold minutes of silence. We lay wreaths. We promise that this time must be the turning point. And then ..."
And then, five months later, a boy's small body washes up on a Turkish beach.
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