I was touched by this story about a boat load of immigrants who washed up on a beach in Spain’s Canary Island’s today – tourists sunbathing on the beach came to their aid.

Having spent the day cataloguing horrendous pictures of people killed and homes destroyed in Lebanon and Israel, it really made my day to see footage of tourists helping out stricken immigrants.

Eighty-eight guys from Mauritania (early reports supposed) landed on a Tenerife beach in a seriously rickety looking wooden boat. They were buggered: shaking, dehydrated, hungry. Chicks in bikinis and guys in Hawaiian shorts saw them arrive, helped some of them the last little way to shore, and then took care of them, giving them water and food, wrapping them in blankets.

They were all migrants on the beach: those who Spain welcomes gave their own welcome to those who Europe isn’t so keen on. It was nice to see.

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