At least 72 people are believed to have died last week, most of them drowned or crushed while trying to swim from Moroccan waters to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. That's the kind of tragedy that might normally dominate headlines, but apparently we're too busy watching Donald Trump decry an 'invasion' and European politicians trip over each other to weaponise the crisis for their own agendas. If you needed proof that the radical right is increasingly setting the terms of the migration debate in the EU, the last few days have delivered it in spades.

What actually drove this shocking episode? We're still figuring that out, but misinformation on social media - orchestrated or otherwise - seems to have played a starring role, following a Spanish supreme court ruling that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily turned back. Moroccan authorities apparently did little to stop the chaotic exodus, which echoed earlier smaller incidents and put a spotlight on a territory whose sovereignty Rabat contests. And if there were online hints that something like this was brewing, no one bothered to sound the alarm.

Instead of pointing fingers at Madrid, mainstream EU leaders might try showing some solidarity with Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. But that would require actually addressing the root causes of migration rather than scoring cheap political points. We're not holding our breath.