A member of my small, mostly expatriate Christian church in the north African nation of Tunisia became a boat person. He was a destitute Nigerian, a Christian, and found his way to Tunis to wait until he could pay a smuggler to take him to Italy. One Sunday he did not appear in church. Word came that he had reached Italy safely. He had broken the law, yet how could we not rejoice for our friend’s safety and hope for a new life?

Boat people appear in our news every few years. After the Vietnamese war, multitudes of boat people rushed to escape. Cubans took to boats to reach Florida. Haitians came, too. Recently, many Central American children flooded across the southern border of the United States on foot.

Now Europe is in the news as growing numbers of boat people from North Africa and the Middle East attempt to reach Europe. Thousands drown when crowded, unsafe boats capsize.

The best way to deal with the problems of mass migration is obviously to reduce the circumstances that lead people to risk their lives in hope of a better life.

Wars almost always produce refugees. The first lesson might be: Do not go to war unless the war is unequivocally caused by a threat to the nation. The war that the United States fought in Iraq is not the only reason for the following turmoil in the Middle East, but it certainly contributed.

Corrupt governments ruled by elites, where ordinary citizens barely survive, feed mass migration as well. Rich nations have an obligation to consider carefully their development and military aid to such regimes. Supporting them comes at a steep price.