Summer: the season for sun, sea and sand.

Of course the Irish weather can be a bit of a hindrance to quality beach time, and in light of that many of us opt to jet to various stunning resorts on the Mediterranean to ensure those guaranteed high temperatures in beautiful surroundings.

The Mediterranean is nonetheless the backdrop to a very different reality in summertime, one which could not be further removed from our sunbathing and cocktails.

Amnesty International’s Europe Director, John Dalhuisen, has warned that 2017 could see the highest death toll year yet for refugees embarking on the perilous Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Europe.

“If the second half of this year continues as the first, 2017 looks set to become the deadliest year for the deadliest migration route in the world,” he warned.

According to Mr Dalhuisen this is a direct result of EU policies. To understand why, we must trace the story back a couple of years.

In 2015, sparked principally by the war in Syria, the flow of migrants into Europe reached an all-time high thus gaining widespread public and media attention, some of which was memorable for its sheer disdain for those undertaking the painstaking journey.

It is hard to forget, for example, The Sun article in which Katie Hopkins branded those fleeing their home countries ‘cockroaches,’ who were after nothing but our benefits, and finished off by calling for gunships to deal with them.

That same year it is estimated that over 1 million people entered the continent of Europe by two main routes: by land via Turkey, then on to Greece and Bulgaria, and by sea from the north coast of Africa, mainly from Libya and Morocco, to Greece, Italy and Mediterranean islands such as Cyprus.

The vast majority of migrants took the land route, aware of the risks involved in crossing by sea; risks evidenced by that year’s number of deaths in the Mediterranean which amounted to more than 3,700 people.

The EU was notably inert and divided on the issue, leading to inaction which bears at least part of the responsibility for the Mediterranean death toll. However, it eventually did take action and the consequences are being felt.

In late 2015 EU leaders struck a deal with Turkey whereby unsuccessful asylum-seekers arriving in Greece would be returned to Turkey.

Looking merely at the numbers, this deal has been skewed by some as a triumph, given that it has in fact reduced the entry of refugees into Europe significantly.

However, if we recognise that each number is a human life, this agreement is a blight on European values.

An effective limbo has ensued for many people already in the midst of uncertainty, having left everything behind for an unknown future.

Thousands of refugees await decision on their asylum status in squalid conditions on Greek islands, meanwhile many more are sent back to even worse conditions in Turkey.

Having become aware of the blockade against them in Greece, more people than before are choosing to risk their own lives and often those of their children to cross by sea to Europe with people-smugglers. Hence Mr Dalhuisen’s fears that 2017 will be the worst year yet in terms of drownings.

Once more the EU has decided that the best policy is to send people back and has offered funding to the at times corrupt Libyan coastguard to round up those in boats off its coast and bring them back to Libyan soil, where many testify to being treated as subhuman.

In a political vacuum on the Mediterranean, NGOs have assumed the bulk of the responsibility of rescuing refugees in trouble on fiercely overcrowded boats in the high seas, rescuing at times as many as 10,000 within a matter of days.

Instead of praising the lifesaving mission which these organisations have undertaken, some critics have accused them of enticing more migrants to set sail, belying the truth that desperate individuals will risk the crossing regardless of the presence of rescue boats.

The trauma for both those crossing and the volunteers working to help them, cannot be underestimated.

Dr. Conor Kenny from Sligo, is one such volunteer who has spent several months this year working with Médecins Sans Frontières. Talking to The Irish Times he described one of many tragedies he has had to confront on the mission, attempting to treat a young woman in her twenties: “We tried to resuscitate her. The skin on the right side of her face had dissolved in the fuel and she was burned down the right side of her body. She had drowned in the gasoline in her rubber boat. She did not drown at sea.”

This graphic account is but one of too many travesties arising from this crisis.

Immigration continues to be a divisive political question – it arguably decided the UK’s referendum on EU membership, after all.

But wherever you lean on immigration, this must be distinguished: a choice to abandon everything and put your life in jeopardy for the chance of bettering it, is not a choice that is taken lightly.

It is disheartening and shameful that a continent so relatively prosperous, as Europe, is not able to reach a political consensus to share the responsibility of giving these people the shelter and dignity which they deserve.

History will judge this as one of the EU’s biggest failures.