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The Global Refugee Wave and Migrant Crisis

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TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#3376: Mar 20th 2018 at 11:41:22 PM

Fuck you Japan.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#3377: Apr 11th 2018 at 4:51:31 AM

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43721394

Some maybe good news. Myanmar has announced arrests of soldiers who were involved in the murder of Rohingya refugees after conducting an investigation last year.

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
SlavetoTropes Since: Nov, 2017
#3379: Apr 13th 2018 at 4:45:20 AM

https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/04/12/602022877/the-u-s-has-welcomed-only-11-syrian-refugees-this-year

Well, the headline is in the link. The US has further decreased it's intake of refugees and resettled only 11 from syria in the current year.

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#3380: Apr 17th 2018 at 6:38:36 PM

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43794909

Great difference on the status of peeps seeking refugee status in Japan between pro-refugee assistance and the MOJ, the latter insisting that no problems are found despite a confirmed suicide.

rmctagg09 The Wanderer from Brooklyn, NY (Before Recorded History) Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
The Wanderer
#3381: Apr 23rd 2018 at 2:40:54 PM

By Stifling Migration, Sudan’s Feared Secret Police Aid Europe:

At Sudan’s eastern border, Lt. Samih Omar led two patrol cars slowly over the rutted desert, past a cow’s carcass, before halting on the unmarked 2,000-mile route that thousands of East Africans follow each year in trying to reach the Mediterranean, and then onward to Europe.

His patrols along this border with Eritrea are helping Sudan crack down on one of the busiest passages on the European migration trail. Yet Lieutenant Omar is no simple border agent. He works for Sudan’s feared secret police, whose leaders are accused of war crimes — and, more recently, whose officers have been accused of torturing migrants.

Indirectly, he is also working for the interests of the European Union.

“Sometimes,” Lieutenant Omar said, “I feel this is Europe’s southern border.”

Three years ago, when a historic tide of migrants poured into Europe, many leaders there reacted with open arms and high-minded idealism. But with the migration crisis having fueled angry populism and political upheaval across the Continent, the European Union is quietly getting its hands dirty, stanching the human flow, in part, by outsourcing border management to countries with dubious human rights records.

In practical terms, the approach is working: The number of migrants arriving in Europe has more than halved since 2016. But many migration advocates say the moral cost is high.

To shut off the sea route to Greece, the European Union is paying billions of euros to a Turkish government that is dismantling its democracy. In Libya, Italy is accused of bribing some of the same militiamen who have long profited from the European smuggling trade — many of whom are also accused of war crimes.

In Sudan, crossed by migrants trying to reach Libya, the relationship is more opaque but rooted in mutual need: The Europeans want closed borders and the Sudanese want to end years of isolation from the West. Europe continues to enforce an arms embargo against Sudan, and many Sudanese leaders are international pariahs, accused of committing war crimes during a civil war in Darfur, a region in western Sudan.

Mohamed Atta Abbas al-Moula, center left, Sudan’s security chief, in Khartoum last year. The Sudanese officers who patrol the borders have been accused of torturing migrants. Credit Ashraf Shazly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images But the relationship is unmistakably deepening. A recent dialogue, named the Khartoum Process (in honor of Sudan’s capital) has become a platform for at least 20 international migration conferences between European Union officials and their counterparts from several African countries, including Sudan. The European Union has also agreed that Khartoum will act as a nerve center for countersmuggling collaboration.

While no European money has been given directly to any Sudanese government body, the bloc has funneled 106 million euros — or about $131 million — into the country through independent charities and aid agencies, mainly for food, health and sanitation programs for migrants, and for training programs for local officials.

“While we engage on some areas for the sake of the Sudanese people, we still have a sanction regime in place,” said Catherine Ray, a spokeswoman for the European Union, referring to an embargo on arms and related material.

“We are not encouraging Sudan to curb migration, but to manage migration in a safe and dignified way,” Ms. Ray added.

Ahmed Salim, the director of one of the nongovernmental groups that receives European funding, said the bloc was motivated by both self-interest and a desire to improve the situation in Sudan.

“They don’t want migrants to cross the Mediterranean to Europe,” said Mr. Salim, who heads the European and African Center for Research, Training and Development.

But, he said, the money his organization receives means better services for asylum seekers in Sudan. “You have to admit that the European countries want to do something to protect migrants here,” he said.

Critics argue the evolving relationship means that European leaders are implicitly reliant on — and complicit in the reputational rehabilitation of — a Sudanese security apparatus whose leaders have been accused by the United Nations of committing war crimes in Darfur.

Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.
Grafite Since: Apr, 2016 Relationship Status: Less than three
#3382: Apr 23rd 2018 at 3:24:16 PM

[up] Well, the deal with Turkey was absolutely vital to manage the situation when it reached its peak, that it turned into a pseudo-dictatorship under Erdogan should have no bearing in it. The Sudan deal, however, is unacceptable and shows how some people prefer to pay others to do dirty work instead of finding a good solution themselves.

Life is unfair...
Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#3383: May 2nd 2018 at 2:04:41 AM

Anyone following the situation at Myanmar regarding the arrest of two Reuters journalists for investigating the death of male Rohingya refugees, the courts accepted the testimony of an officer accused of breaking laws in the Official Secrets Act.

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#3384: May 18th 2018 at 7:22:30 AM

Belgian Federal Police is investigating the death of a Kurdish toddler who was shot during a car chase with a van full of Kurdish refugees.

Brussels is going to check if an officer did the fatal shot on purpose or not.

Reports are in that the toddler was held by her mom near a window to make officers think twice on using force.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#3385: May 18th 2018 at 9:27:11 AM

Meanwhile we now have people drowning because they decide to leave Germany in order to go back to Turkey (partly because it is more difficult to let their families follow them than they expected, partly because Turkey is simply more familiar to them). Because they can travel legally to Greece once they are recognized as refugees, but once they are there, they can't go legally to Turkey.

I am frank here: I am torn on this issue. On the one hand I get the logic that the males take the risk to go on the boat because they don't want their wives and children dying. On the flip-side though, if it is save enough to leave their respective families behind wherever they are, they are obviously not in direct danger of dying, and it is not like there aren't any refugee programs which allow people to apply for with their families for resettlement. But then on the flip-side again, those refugee programs have taken less and less people and the chance to actually get anywhere this way are slim, unless you have some special skills to offer.

One thing for sure though, the whole this is one giant mess, and I frankly can't remember it being that bad during the Balkan wars...correct me if I am wrong, but back then the refugees were simply spread out over Europe and taken care off until the war was over and they could go home again. It wasn't always easy, but I can't remember there being suddenly droves of people being forced into a permanent legal grey area.

[up] Huh, the German press writes that the family had been deported to Germany, but then went back to Belgium because they wanted to travel to the UK. Can anyone explain to me this obsession of refugees with the UK? I get it if their family is living there (but then there is a chance of being reunited through legal channels), and I also get Refugees not being keen on staying in country in which they aren't allowed to work, but if they truly just want a chance of a new live, they can get this in Germany just as well as in the UK.

edited 18th May '18 9:36:12 AM by Swanpride

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#3386: May 18th 2018 at 10:06:55 AM

The UK obsession is partly family based, partly cultural community based, partly language based and partly based on international media having hyped up the UK more as where they should go.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Zarastro Since: Sep, 2010
#3387: May 18th 2018 at 11:13:38 AM

[up][up]

If that is true, I'd have very little sympathy for the family unless there was clear misconduct from the police. The family would have been perfectly safe in Germany, yet they instead chose to do some "asylum shopping". I could understand this if they had been in some country in the Balkans, but there is no good reason to leave Germany if you are here for asylum.

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#3388: May 18th 2018 at 11:24:25 AM

[up] We will have to wait and see I guess. It is early, there might be new information coming to light within a week.

But just in general, this is why I have little sympathy with the people in Calais. I get why they don't want to stay in the camps, there is no future for them there. I get why they don't want to stay in Turkey or another country which forces them to life at the edge of society by preventing them to work legally. I even get why the Balkan states aren't the best option either. But once they have reached a country which is ready to at least allow them to stay and work until their home country is save, which provides their children with education aso, why not stay there? Why does it have to be a specific country?

FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#3389: May 18th 2018 at 12:06:44 PM

If the US' experience with ironically European immigrants during the early 1900's is anything to go by, it's likely because these immigrants' poor to mediocre education on average and genuine lack of knowledge results in them having a memetic understanding of how European countries and societies work. Basically "Britain/France/Germany was an empire that ruled my country in the past, therefore it is stronger than other European countries and is more likely to provide for me than the other weaker countries".

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#3390: May 18th 2018 at 9:33:05 PM

Belgian prosecutors investigating the incident mention that the fatal shot that killed the girl is not due to Federal Police gunfire... There’s looking into whether the driver or someone else inside the van had a weapon.

The girl died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

This came out a few hours ago.

edited 18th May '18 9:35:23 PM by Ominae

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#3391: May 19th 2018 at 1:50:31 AM

Considering that in their first statement they claimed the child didn't die by a gun shot wound at all, I take all their explanations with a grain of salt for now.

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#3392: May 30th 2018 at 3:32:16 AM

Hungary has passed laws that states anyone trying to help refugees, even giving them information on what to do to survive is liable for an arrest.

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#3393: May 30th 2018 at 3:55:08 AM

I see Orban and his cronies continue to be unrepetant dicks.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Zarastro Since: Sep, 2010
#3395: Jun 2nd 2018 at 7:57:39 PM

I do not agree with the behaviour of the Kurdish family since it looks like they have been abusing the asylum system.

That being said, the police has obviously some explaining to do. Why would they start firing at a vehicle without provocation? The only explanation I can think of is that the fleeing vehicle was too much pf a danger to other car, but still... .

Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#3396: Jun 3rd 2018 at 9:25:59 PM

Yeah...on the one side, there is a need to look into what looks like abuse of power or gross misconduct by the police. On the other hand, though, there is a lot of BS in the story the lawyer tells. So, Iraq Kurdistan wasn't an area to raise children...fair enough, but what speaks against any other country between there and the UK? Why did it HAVE to be the UK? So the parents were holding up their children to caution the police...but neither did the car slow down in order to avoid an escalation of the situation, nor did they pull the children down and covered them with their bodies once it was clear that the police had noticed them. So they were basically using their children as shield.

I am feeling very, very sorry for the little girl and her brother, but I honestly have a hard time to feel for the parents.

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#3397: Jun 3rd 2018 at 9:30:12 PM

[up]Agreed, the adults in that vehicle have a lot to answer for. That said, there are very few situations in which firing on a fleeing vehicle makes sense. I would assume that standard procedure would be to keep the car in sight and start setting up roadblocks, rather than forcing it off the road or even blowing the heck out of it GTA style...

edited 3rd Jun '18 10:07:19 PM by Rationalinsanity

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#3398: Jun 4th 2018 at 4:04:10 AM

[up] I honestly can't think of any situation in which it would make any sense. And considering how much BS we have heard from the police so far, I doubt that there is true will to investigate.

edited 4th Jun '18 4:04:52 AM by Swanpride

Zarastro Since: Sep, 2010
#3399: Jun 4th 2018 at 6:18:32 AM

[up] My uncle is a retired police officer and he told me once that using guns is only permitted to avert immenent danger against yourself or others. Shooting on an escaping drug dealer is for example forbidden. Assuming that laws in Belgium are similar, it should be difficult to justify this. Unless they can argue that the escaping vehicle was too much of a danger to others.

Ominae Since: Jul, 2010
#3400: Jun 9th 2018 at 11:50:04 AM

Police in the Iraqi side of Kurdistan announced the arrest of Ali Bashar, a failed asylum seeker in Germany who murdered a girl after he raped her.


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