British tourists are worried about refugees and ISIS ruining their vacations

Foreign editors have a tough job condensing world affairs into a few hundred words and, at the same time, making them relevant to the lives of their readers. 

Which might explain why the two most read British newspapers, the Daily Mail and The Sun, recently resorted to using the UK's summer holidays as the context for stories about the well-documented Mediterranean migrant crisis and the Islamic State.

Because anything that might interfere with British holidaymakers' plans to sunbathe and drink is bound to get their attention, right? Well, we assume that's what the papers were thinking. 

The Daily Mail story, which appeared last week, grabbed readers' attention by describing the “nightmare” conditions endured by British tourists on the Greek island of Kos where thousands of migrants, many of them from Syria and Eritrea, are also living while they seek asylum. 

The article talks about the misery of the tourists who are having to share the island with "straggly migrants" sleeping on cardboard boxes with their belongings "strewn on the pavement." One tourist described the situation as “disgusting.”

“We have been coming here for almost ten years. We like to eat, drink and relax. But this time the atmosphere has changed,” she complained.

“It’s really dirty and messy here now. And it’s awkward. I’m not going to sit in a restaurant with people watching you.”

So bad are the conditions on the popular holiday destination that some vacationers have vowed not to return to Kos next year if it remains a “refugee camp” — a choice most of the migrants staying on the island can only dream of making. 

This excerpt from the article gives you a sense of what the tourists are dealing with:

"Barefoot toddlers in filthy clothes play among debris while mustached men sit staring out to sea as they plan the next stage of their journey to Athens and the rest of Europe — including some heading for Britain.

"Young Afghan mothers in head scarves, changing their babies and washing their children’s clothes in the sea, share the promenade with tourists who sit uncomfortably on the beachfront.

"The harborside has become an unofficial washing line with baby clothes and grubby-looking scarves laid out along the shoreline. Baby bottles and towels litter the area."

Not to be outdone, rival newspaper The Sun this week published a helpful guide for its readers planning their summer holidays in the Mediterranean where the Islamic State fighters are bearing down on "tourist hotspots."

Under the headline “Will ISIS ruin your Mediterranean holiday,” The Sun advises readers where they should go to enjoy a “trouble-free trip” away from the “jihadis.”

But The Sun doesn't just offer vacation advice to its readers; It also comes up with solutions to global problems that might affect their holiday plans.

In a column published in April, right-wing columnist Katie Hopkins compared migrants making the often-deadly journey across the Mediterranean Sea to a “norovirus on a cruise ship” and suggested "gunships" were the best way to deter them.  

"Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad. I still don't care," Hopkins wrote.

According to the UN, more than 46,000 migrants have made the journey into Europe this year — and the death toll has now climbed past 1,800. EU leaders were called upon to address the situation after a ship carrying migrants sank, drowning 800 migrants in April.

Her column sparked outrage with Twitter users condemning Hopkins for her "vile hate speech" and UN Human Rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein criticizing her "vicious verbal assault." 

It also triggered a petition calling on The Sun to sack Hopkins, whose controversial views on current affairs regularly rile up readers and draw hundreds of complaints to Britain's Independent Press Standards Organization, which has rejected them.

Who knows which headline story will be ruining British holidays next? Hopkins managed to remain a columnist for The Sun, so maybe she'll be the one on the lookout.