Doing the wrong thing for the right reason?

Last October I expressed my agreement with our government's decision to stop supporting the rescue operations in the Med - the theory being that if they knew there was less chance of rescue if they got into trouble, the would-be migrants wouldn't be so keen to set off.  Well, we got that wrong, didn't we?  So what do we do now?  It's been suggested that we destroy the smugglers' boats - but I think that may be simply repeating our mistake.  If these people are so desperate to leave Africa and get to Europe then they're going to use whatever means they can - so maybe this would simply mean forcing them onto even less seaworthy craft with an even greater probability of dying at sea.  The problem of course lies with the conditions from which they are seeking to escape in their native countries, but whether we can do anything about that is doubtful - certainly not in the short term.  It's a real mess!