Tragedies of migrants in lorries must not be repeated

Alfonso holds a picture of 13-year-old Pascual Melvin Guachiac who died in a tractor-trailer along with other migrants in San Antonio, Texas, in a village in Nahuala, Guatemala, on June 29. Reuters

The UAE's future of energy-efficient air conditioning

With reference to the editorial The UAE is gearing up for an air conditioning revolution (June 30): insulating the houses could help also.

Leifur Thorberg Saemundsson, Dubai

Palestine is different from Ireland

I write in regard to James Zogby's opinion piece What Palestinians can learn from Irish successes (June 16): I beg to disagree with Mr Zogby on this point. What worked for the Irish will not work in the Arab world. Having said that, we should admire and learn from the courage of the Irish people in fighting against the colonialists.

Angabeen Ahmad, Karachi, Pakistan

Was Lebanon designed to fail?

In reference to Michael Young's opinion piece How Lebanon's gas fields might become a curse in disguise (June 21): when failure occurs in a system designed for success, that is tragedy; when failure occurs in a structure designed to fail, such as in Lebanon, that seems to be the natural order. The issue will be avoiding war with Israel if Lebanon acts as if the Karish gas field is part of the disputed territory of Shebaa Farms on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Arnold Rosen, New York City

Fatal lorry tragedies must not be repeated

With reference to the story San Antonio migrant deaths: 51 people found dead in back of abandoned lorry in Texas (Jan 28): this is just horrific. What the people in the lorry must have felt in their last hours is unimaginable. Sixteen of these people, including four children, were extremely dehydrated and had to be taken to hospital, where some of them died.

I hope swift investigations lead to accountability and whoever has a hand in this case of people smuggling is arrested. Last year there was a similar case in the UK where a man was arrested for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in another tragic case in Essex.

As the US President Joe Biden said about this tragedy, they "need to shut down the multibillion dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants”.

This is why there are rules put in place to follow to enter a country. To avoid situations like this. Nothing good can come from these deaths. But I hope more people don't endanger their lives in similar circumstances, travelling in these dangerous ways, looking for better opportunities than the countries they escape from. The risks are too high. Even those that make it have to hide in fear of being without papers. My prayers for the families in mourning.

Stacy Brown, Philadelphia, US