Now around 70.
Meanwhile, barely ranking lower on the scale of crimes against humanity, the Mail laments "we are experiencing an unprecedented upheaval in the make-up of a country once united by ties of language, history, creed and patriotism." ... also intolerance, xenophobia, myopia, self-interest, hypocrisy.
― ledge, Friday, 28 August 2015 08:06 (eight years ago) link
on top of the Austrian horror: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34082304
― Neil S, Friday, 28 August 2015 08:19 (eight years ago) link
The most popular newspaper in Austria published pictures of the bodies but pixelated the name of the Hungarian company on the truck.
― Three Word Username, Friday, 28 August 2015 09:23 (eight years ago) link
what i learned today is that most EU governments have a list of "safe" countries of origin deemed not too overtly horrible, for fast-tracking deportations. but no two lists are the same. hungary et al are in full Trump mode, vowing to defend their borders if the EU refuses
but facts on the ground appear to be overwhelming policy - the estimate on overall net migration now to the EU is almost 100K / month
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 21:00 (eight years ago) link
i'm not sure i buy al-J's contention that "refugee" is better than "migrant", it seems to buy into cameron's "illegal economic migrants" schema he wants everyone to adopt
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 21:01 (eight years ago) link
idk, talking exclusively about "migrants" plays into the idea that a high proportion of the people concerned are not fleeing in terror. "Migrant" as a term needs to have the poison taken out of it but if the vast majority of people making their way to Europe are war refugees by all normal metrics, it makes sense to refer to them as such and not conflate them with people moving for other reasons.
Not sure the Czech police have thought through the 'optics' of writing numbers on the forearms of the refugees they arrest:
http://blisty.cz/art/78732.html
The Hungarian response to the crisis might stop other European leaders from jovially referring to Orban as "Herr Diktator" to his face. Not sure how Germany can expect to get agreement on a quota system given the grim blend of ethnonationalism, religious bigotry and neoliberalism that dominates Central and Eastern European politics, particularly given how indifferent Spain and the UK are to forcing the issue:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/01/europes-migration-response-tempers-frayed-insults-traded-results-absent
― I wear my Redditor loathing with pride (ShariVari), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 08:29 (eight years ago) link
the name is a tricky issue; I know some people&charities that work with refugees in the UK like to make the distinction between asylum seekers and refugees
― ogmor, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 09:22 (eight years ago) link
Well, it isn't that these people&charities "like" to make this distinction: it is already a legal one. Someone is an asylum seeker until they reach a positive decision from the UK courts and are granted refugee status. The funding of many charities means that they are only able to help one or other of these categories of people, and of course the rights and restrictions (and consequent help needed) of the two statuses are very different.
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 10:00 (eight years ago) link
good for the greeks for treating the refugees like human beings even though the rest of europe (germany) is demanding blood money from greece (which is a stupid policy for many reasons, not least of which is greece is the doorway to europe from the middle east)
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/greece-kos-refugee-crisis-ferry-syrians-150819194335100.html
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 10:17 (eight years ago) link
yes, should have said like to make clear the distinction
― ogmor, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 10:55 (eight years ago) link
That wouldn't be accurately worded either.
― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 11:01 (eight years ago) link
http://media.salon.com/2014/07/Screen-Shot-2014-07-15-at-12.03.22-PM1.png
― niels, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 12:29 (eight years ago) link
The pictures are now getting so bad (especially the little toddler drowned on the beach) that even the Mail comments are sympathetic. OK, they're pre-moderated and some of them blame the socialist liberal open-door policy for it all, but the "ach let 'em drown" lot have finally shut the fuck up. Cameron of course using today to say he's against taking "more" refugees, like we're taking any.
Feeling particularly impotent and outraged rn.
― stet, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 16:09 (eight years ago) link
I see Cameron's planning to bring peace to the Middle East instead of taking any refugees. At least Orban is honest.
― I wear my Redditor loathing with pride (ShariVari), Wednesday, 2 September 2015 17:51 (eight years ago) link
worked out well for Tony B. Liar, if that is in fact his real name
― Neil S, Wednesday, 2 September 2015 18:02 (eight years ago) link
Does anyone know the best place(s) to donate to that will help these people directly? Google is throwing up news links and nothing else.
― franny glasshole (franny glass), Thursday, 3 September 2015 00:11 (eight years ago) link
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/5-practical-ways-you-can-help-refugees-trying-to-find-safety-in-europe-10482902.html
― ailsa, Thursday, 3 September 2015 00:16 (eight years ago) link
^ don't read the comments
http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/jungle-books-calais-migrant-library
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Thursday, 3 September 2015 00:18 (eight years ago) link
Thanks, some of those look very good.
― franny glasshole (franny glass), Thursday, 3 September 2015 00:57 (eight years ago) link
Meanwhile here we're capturing and locking up our asylum seekers on remote islands or in the PNG jungle where theyre getting beaten up and raped and killed and no one is doing anythign to stop it.
― I checked Snoops , and it is for real (Trayce), Thursday, 3 September 2015 01:01 (eight years ago) link
Yes, Australia is very much a world-leader in abusing refugees and treating them like shit and genuinely hoping they'll go somewhere else and die so as not to inconvenience us
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Thursday, 3 September 2015 01:13 (eight years ago) link
really having a hard time w this today, in my own head
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:09 (eight years ago) link
i have no doubt that cameron's exact lines were trotted out in the 1930s
"europe" is really proving a comprehensive failure when it comes to responding to big problems
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:10 (eight years ago) link
i have a three year old of my own and even just the thought of that photo is a wormhole, i go into the whole history - who put those shoes on him, and what were they thinking when they did, and what was he thinking, and what hopes did they have, and how scared they must have been. i'm sorry. none of this needs repeating. i really am finding it hard to deal
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:12 (eight years ago) link
Dunno about "europe" failing and what the scare quotes indicate, but the Dublin Treaty is just a big ball of awfulness and needs to be declared dead quickly by a few more heads of state before anything at all helpful can be done on the European level.
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:15 (eight years ago) link
scare quotes indicate states working together as a political entity rather than a geographical collection of countries - maybe i don't need them
i don't think it's very controversial to say that europe's failure to handle trade imbalances has been comprehensive
and europe has also been massively failing to deal AT ALL with the massive inflow of refugees/migrants/whatevs from the middle east. it's understandable to a degree that systems are not designed to cope with ~100K people per month but this has been going on awhile now. in an era of historically low interest rates and massively high unemployment surely europe could, like, build entire fucking towns for people to live in
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:25 (eight years ago) link
That sounds suspiciously Keynesian.
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:26 (eight years ago) link
didn't that happen in the 50s and 60s? governments just looked at a problem and were like "well obviously we need to build about 100 new buildings, MAKE IT SO"
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:34 (eight years ago) link
Where have you been for that last 30-odd years? Are you some sort of Socialist?
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:36 (eight years ago) link
i swear this is the most pissably impotent set of governments i can ever remember, america considers it a generational victory to force people to sign up for back-breakingly expensive health care and europe allows entire truckloads of people to die by the roadside because they're worried about what pensioners in hendon might do in a marginal seat in 5 years' time
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:36 (eight years ago) link
Chunks of Europe that had property boom already have mostly-built now-empty towns, ffs.
Finding it pretty hard to deal with myself, TH. The pictures of him smiling and playing with his brother, who also died, are almost as difficult to see.
(I feel pretty shallow that it takes photographs to turn the sort-of academic anger I had before into this visceral outrage, but it is what it is)
― stet, Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:37 (eight years ago) link
Pissably impotent government preferable to BIG GOVERNMENT, I imagine.
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:42 (eight years ago) link
(I feel pretty shallow that it takes photographs to turn the sort-of academic anger I had before into this visceral outrage, but it is what it is
And I feel callous that the concentration by the media on the death of just one child is irritating me.
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:43 (eight years ago) link
(24 hour news is on at my work all the time, by way of explanation)
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:44 (eight years ago) link
It takes one child photo to generate empathy.
― Mark G, Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:52 (eight years ago) link
hey i've got an idea, why not let people LIVE WHERE THEY WANT TO?!?!?!!! CRAZY I KNOW, IT'LL NEVER WORK, THIS IS MUCH BETTER
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:52 (eight years ago) link
Back in the day, they tried to dissuade people from moving to London from Bolton.
― Mark G, Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:53 (eight years ago) link
I don't know what to think about this. I'm a new European arrival working/struggling with immigration offices daily, but in the position of having a permanent state functionary job, social capital, privilege out the wazoo. My kids have spent two of the last five years in French schools in FLE (français langue étrangère) with immigrants mostly from Africa; so I see integration happening, or not happening, every day, with their classmates and their classmates' families.
So I guess I don't know what to do. Obviously stop the dying. But is the right thing to do to allow everyone in Syria, Libya, Eritrea, etc. to immigrate freely to the European country of their choice? I feel rage at the horrors these people are going through now; and at what they're going through in their home countries. But I don't know: is the right thing to think as a European trying to be moral in 2015 to open the borders? I really don't know! I'm not asking as a question of what's politically "possible", but as a question of: what is the right thing for European nations to do? Is having any limit moral?
Nothing about *that* question is obvious to me; the only thing that's obvious is that we have to stop the dying, stop the suffering. But where does this go after that?
― droit au butt (Euler), Thursday, 3 September 2015 10:58 (eight years ago) link
It's always worth remembering that the vast majority of refugees from those countries stay in neighbouring countries. The increase in numbers from Syria to Europe started when the refugee shelters in Turkey (2m Syrian refugees, Lebanon 1.1m, Jordan 620k and Iraq 250k) either became too crowded to take any more or came under attack themselves. There's no expectation of open borders but you can't build a wall around the sea and do have moral and legal responsibilities to the people who are here now.
― I wear my Redditor loathing with pride (ShariVari), Thursday, 3 September 2015 11:12 (eight years ago) link
^yes. but alas there’s no end in sight to the horror, chaos, disaster engulfing syria, libya, iraq etc...
― drash, Thursday, 3 September 2015 11:16 (eight years ago) link
"There's no expectation of open borders but you can't build a wall around the sea and do have moral and legal responsibilities to the people who are here now."
Doesn't "you can't build a wall around the sea and do have moral and legal responsibilities to the people who are here now" entail open borders though? Unless you're maintaining also that:
1) legal responsibilities don't entail long-term residency in the European nation of the refugee's choice2) the flow of refugees will not continue...indefinitely? for long? for much longer?
― droit au butt (Euler), Thursday, 3 September 2015 11:19 (eight years ago) link
don't economists wring their hands that there will not be enough workers to support an aging population? hey guess what I FOUND SOME
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 September 2015 11:28 (eight years ago) link
There is no legal expectation of permanent residency. However long the flow of refugees lasts, it won't change the relevant UN conventions on not sending people back to war zones. xp
― I wear my Redditor loathing with pride (ShariVari), Thursday, 3 September 2015 11:29 (eight years ago) link
In Hungary: https://twitter.com/jamesmatesitv?lang=en-gb
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 3 September 2015 11:53 (eight years ago) link
(nothing graphic btw..but if you are having a tough time to deal then might be best not to look)
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 3 September 2015 11:54 (eight years ago) link
Wee boy picture made me cry at work today (in a pub). But, on a plus side we have a right wing customer group, and they've all been very pro helpin people. Surprisingly so - every time it came up I was bracing myself for nonsense.
― inside, skeletons are always inside, that's obvious. (dowd), Thursday, 3 September 2015 13:04 (eight years ago) link
UKIP twat:
Peter Bucklitsch@bucklitschThe little Syrian boy was well clothed & well fed. He died because his parents were greedy for the good life in Europe. Queue jumping costs.
The little Syrian boy was well clothed & well fed. He died because his parents were greedy for the good life in Europe. Queue jumping costs.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 3 September 2015 14:43 (eight years ago) link
Bucklitsch? That goes back to pre-Norman times, I assume?
― Fields of Fat Henry (Tom D.), Thursday, 3 September 2015 14:48 (eight years ago) link
there are few things more dispiriting in the world than the European reaction to the refugee crisis and the consequences - new found hegemony of the xenophobic right in multiple countries - it will have for, the rest of our lives, i suppose?
― -_- (jim in glasgow), Monday, 25 April 2016 19:06 (eight years ago) link
The other thing that is wildly different about Austrian politics for people who know German politics: in Austria, a Grand Coalition always means failure and stagnation -- neither of the major parties wants it to be successful, so no coherent ideas come out of it. This has meant with this particular government in this crisis a Socialist Chancellor who talks about tolerance and openness vis-a-vis refugees with a black (I can't say Christian Democrat, the words get stuck in my mouth) Minister of the Interior who sets acts like she's part of Orban's cabinet and nobody does anything, no elections aren't called, and Austria just moved to a longer five-year cycle for standard terms of office.
― Three Word Username, Monday, 25 April 2016 19:31 (eight years ago) link
Kenya has announced it is going to close the Dadaab refugee camp, the biggest in the world, and force the more than 300k people either back to their country or onto somewhere else
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/kenya-close-worlds-biggest-refugee-camp-dadaab
― ogmor, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 12:17 (eight years ago) link
Run-off elections in Austria today: 50-50 results. Going to the absentee ballots. (Vienna did not vote for the Nazi, nor did, to my happy surprise, my tiny town.) Am cautiously optimistic as absentee ballots favor better educated voters, and clearest demographic trend here has been O-Levels Green, no O-Levels, extreme right.
― Three Word Username, Sunday, 22 May 2016 17:25 (eight years ago) link
Nazi loses.
― Larry 'Leg' Smith (Tom D.), Monday, 23 May 2016 14:34 (eight years ago) link
NOW it's official 50.3 -- 49.7. The FPÖ are screaming -- keep your eyes on Austria in the coming months.
― Three Word Username, Monday, 23 May 2016 14:45 (eight years ago) link
they're claiming fraud etc? else the usual indignation when the silent majority has failed to summon itself into existence
― “bad” mothers, rebel mamas, and other radical/transgressive moms (nakhchivan), Monday, 23 May 2016 16:10 (eight years ago) link
http://www.zugespitzt.at/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/csm_aufderuni2_a95509a9b0.jpg
― “bad” mothers, rebel mamas, and other radical/transgressive moms (nakhchivan), Monday, 23 May 2016 16:16 (eight years ago) link
Yes, they started hollering fraud yesterday, at which point I started relaxing a little.
― Three Word Username, Monday, 23 May 2016 16:37 (eight years ago) link
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/05/25/why-are-so-many-muslim-refugees-in-europe-suddenly-finding-jesus.html
― Mordy, Wednesday, 25 May 2016 16:45 (eight years ago) link
In Denmark it's apparently illegal to help refugees now. One politician let two immigrants sleep at her place for a night, after which they left for Norway. She's probably going to jail for it.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 13:00 (seven years ago) link
wtf
― Mordy, Tuesday, 16 August 2016 14:55 (seven years ago) link
so i found a link, here: http://cphpost.dk/news/danish-politician-on-trial-for-harbouring-refugees.html
Where it says:
The charge sheet accuses the two defendants of allowing two African refugees to stay overnight at their home and then arranging transport and ferry tickets so they could travel on to Norway the next day.
You'll also notice that the informer was a conservative politician.
The Danish Alien Act says:
(7) Any person is liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to 2 years if he –(i) intentionally assists an alien in illegally entering or transiting Denmark;(ii) intentionally assists an alien in illegally staying in Denmark;(iii) intentionally assists an alien in entering Denmark for the purpose of entering another country illegally from Denmark
― ælərdaɪs (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 16 August 2016 16:20 (seven years ago) link
the act is 3 years old
Australia is closing their refugee detention camp in PNG - or rather has been told to close it by the PNG supreme court and has agreed:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/aug/17/manus-island-detention-centre-to-close-australia-and-papua-new-guinea-agree
― On a Raqqa tip (ShariVari), Wednesday, 17 August 2016 07:45 (seven years ago) link
But also: '“Both Papua New Guinea and Australia are in agreement that the centre is to be closed,” O’Neill said, but offered no time frame, only stating that the process should not be rushed." and "offered no detail on the future of the 854 men held there – except that Australia remains adamant it will accept none of the detainees for resettlement."
― 🐸a hairy howling toad torments a man whose wife is deathly ill (James Morrison), Thursday, 18 August 2016 02:06 (seven years ago) link
This is absolutely horrific.
The Greek government is taking migrants from detention centres, including babies, putting them on overloaded inflatable life rafts and abandoning them at sea for the Turkish Coast Guard to rescue https://t.co/qxgKcgksj8— Abi Wilkinson (@AbiWilks) August 16, 2020
― Scampo di tutti i Scampi (ShariVari), Sunday, 16 August 2020 09:30 (three years ago) link
Christ.
― Monte Scampino (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, 16 August 2020 09:32 (three years ago) link
It really, really is...
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 16 August 2020 09:34 (three years ago) link
right wing on twitter already advocating for the uk to do the same, not going to link to it, nobody needs to see that
― Anti-Cop Ponceortium (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 16 August 2020 09:45 (three years ago) link
What can one say to this kind of evil? I think we’re way down a very dark path and I can’t see the way back.
― caută tu singur (gyac), Sunday, 16 August 2020 10:15 (three years ago) link
no market or supranational body could unite europe like ethnic cleansing does
― Your original display name will be displayed in brackets (Left), Sunday, 16 August 2020 10:16 (three years ago) link
the remainers who shouted down any attempt to raise this issue are as bad as everyone else
― Your original display name will be displayed in brackets (Left), Sunday, 16 August 2020 10:18 (three years ago) link
otm
Sadly, this is who 'we' are and who 'we' always have been. It's just another milestone in the Grand History of Humanity.
― pomenitul, Sunday, 16 August 2020 15:56 (three years ago) link
death to europe
Happy Easter 🐰 🐣 🌼 to all who celebrate it today, especially those who help to make Europe’s borders more secure!This holiday weekend there are hundreds of people in Frontex operations far from home. They support countries around Europe to protect our borders. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/lKrwLJMze6— Frontex (@Frontex) April 4, 2021
― #YesAllCops (Left), Sunday, 4 April 2021 12:48 (three years ago) link
This is what a world of hard borders looks like, with its citizens employed as prison guards.
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/fortress-greece
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 14 July 2022 21:53 (one year ago) link
#EU states are spending ludicrous sums of money on dystopian technology to deter #refugees and #migrants.#Europe #HumanRights #Morocco #Syria #Turkey #Libya @JustinSalhani https://t.co/DwFfR73zju— Fanack (@FanackMENA) July 15, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 16 July 2022 15:16 (one year ago) link
potentially stupid question from an American:
how much of the xenophobia / racism against refugees is centered around these people being "violent and dangerous" and if so, do the citizens of European countries find this rhetoric credible? (e.g. Trump's dog whistle campaign comment about Mexicans being bad hombres)
― sarahell, Saturday, 16 July 2022 17:24 (one year ago) link
most of it, though at this point the necessity for ethnic cleansing is seen as so self evident that the case often doesn't need to be made. most of this stuff goes unreported and to question it is inherently politically extreme, unserious, elitist, antisemitic (somehow) and maybe treasonous. so people believe it (or pretend to) including most prominent liberals and leftists
― Left, Saturday, 16 July 2022 18:17 (one year ago) link
Sarah - as the report in the NLR says, Islamophobia is playing a part in turning sections of the Greek population against refugees.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 16 July 2022 18:34 (one year ago) link
that's just horrible. ugh.
― sarahell, Saturday, 16 July 2022 19:15 (one year ago) link
right-wing eejit P Hitch once wrote that the EU is a de facto continuation of the German Empire, it's probably not at all in the sense that he meant it, but not that far off from being that either if you look at the wider picture.
― calzino, Saturday, 16 July 2022 19:33 (one year ago) link
it's depressing in that one wants to think that civilizations and governments and people learn from mistakes and horror and get better ...and this just reminds me, 1945 wasn't that long ago.
― sarahell, Saturday, 16 July 2022 19:37 (one year ago) link
also that America doesn't have a monopoly on egregious behavior like that
― sarahell, Saturday, 16 July 2022 19:38 (one year ago) link
if the Cleves-Jülich crisis of 1609 taught us anything it’s that refugees streaming into your territory boost the economy, this is basic stuff
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 16 July 2022 20:26 (one year ago) link
Mass deaths at sea are to the EU what mass shootings are to the US. - It keeps happening. - And every time, politicians pretend to be concerned. - And every time, politicians keep in place the government policies at the root of the problem. - And it keeps happening.— Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) June 15, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 15 June 2023 16:35 (eleven months ago) link
https://jacobin.com/2023/09/europe-migration-tunisia-humanitarian-disaster-italy-asylum-seekers/
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 27 September 2023 12:54 (eight months ago) link