In the United States we get trainloads of illegal aliens , but in Europe the intrusive moochers often come by the shipload across the Mediterranean.

The latest influx of invasive boat people has come on a basic freighter and they number around 700 (pictured below).

We shouldn’t think too harshly of the illegal invaders since they are responding rationally to Europe’s rescue and potential offer of a home in the first world. Elite Europeans became overly generous with governmental services after a particularly terrible loss of life when hundreds of boaters drowned in attempting to reach the continent in October 2013. The EU decided that somebody needed to rescue the Africans and Middle Easterners and that duty fell on the Italians because of geography. But a year later, Italy declared that it would end its navy’s Mediterranean rescue operations, because the policy enticed more to come.

This week’s boatload approached from the east (Turkey) rather than the southern route starting in north Africa. Perhaps the boaters hope the Greeks will be more hospitable than the Italians — at least for the time being.

The NPR story below includes an audio version at the link.