Migrant Chaos Mounts While Divided Europe Stumbles for Response
Source: New York Times
LONDON — The struggle among European leaders to develop a coherent response to the spiraling migrant crisis intensified on Thursday as fresh calls for a blocwide plan were met with recriminations about the Continent being swamped with Muslims.
Even as wrenching photographs of a drowned 3-year-old Syrian boy riveted world attention and galvanized public demands for action, the leaders’ first fumbling efforts seemed only to highlight Europe’s divisions, as they bickered over who should take responsibility for the migrants rather than unifying around a new policy.
The chaos was searingly illustrated by a daylong standoff in Budapest and its outskirts, where hundreds of migrants crammed into trains they thought were bound for Austria and Germany, only to be herded into camps.
The hundreds of thousands of migrants pouring into Europe this summer have posed a third great challenge to the Continent in the last decade. Yet, neither of the first two, the still smoldering euro crisis and the war in Ukraine, posed the same degree of divisiveness — between left and right, rich and poor and east and west. And both, for all the anger and debate they sparked, seemed ultimately manageable.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/world/europe/hungary-train-station-migrant-crisis.html?_r=0
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leveymg
(36,418 posts)under the 1951 UN Convention and 1967 Protocols. This is lawless behavior by receiving states.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)There's people from Syria, people originally from Syria who came from UAE or Turkey, people from Nigeria, people from Somalia, etc.
Figuring out who is who isn't easy.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)under binding treaty. Bonafide refugees come from all those countries.
branford
(4,462 posts)and as a practical matter, treaty compliance is more a matter of domestic will and voluntary adherence. The very large and ever increasing number of individuals, many of whom are in fact economic migrants and not actual refugees, the more domestic constituencies are unsurprisingly demanding stricter controls.
Castigating countries that have already expended significant resources and taken innumerable individuals is counterproductive, and more likely to harden negative attitudes than engender reasonable solutions.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Last edited Fri Sep 4, 2015, 01:40 PM - Edit history (1)
acquaintance with my old friend, Form I-589, and working internationally in a related field as a US agency contractor.
Once a refugee claimant reaches your territorial water or territory and claims asylum, all of the 150 or so state signatories to the UN Protocols on the Status of Refugees have a duty under international law to protect them and process them for asylee status. The US along with some countries such as Sweden, do their own refugee processing abroad. The US has resettled a scant 1,000 or so Syrians, mostly women with small children, an extraordinarily small number of the 4 million or so displaced outside the country. The main reason for this is our security screening system takes years to complete.
There is a third group of countries that accept refugees for resettlement who have had their status determined by UNHCR. A fourth group of states are immediate receiving countries who coordinate temporary shelter with UNHCR and Volags.
Many countries, though signatories to the treaty, do not presently meet international norms for aid and protection to refugees, and that includes most of the EU.
Regions with significant populations
(Numbers do not include foreign citizens who left Syria)
Turkey 2,138,999 estimated (April 2015)[2]
1,938,999 registered (April 2015)[2]
Lebanon 1,196,560 estimated (April 2015)[3]
1,185,241 registered (April 2015)[3]
Jordan 628,427 estimated (April 2015)[4]
628,427 registered (April 2015)[4]
Iraq 247,861 estimated (March 2015)[5]
247,861 registered (March 2015)[5]
Egypt 133,862 estimated (April 2015)[6]
133,862 registered (April 2015)[6] inspirit
Germany 105,000 estimated (March 2015)[7]
Greece 88,204 (2015 only)[8]
Algeria 25,000 estimated (Aug 2012)
10,000 "asylum seekers"[9] (Jan 2013)
Sweden At least 40,000 (2015) [10][11][12][13]
Austria At least 18,000 (2015)[11][14]
United Kingdom 5,102 (2015)[15]
Armenia 3,248 applied for visas (July 2012)
16,000 (Jan 2014) [16]
Bahrain 5,000 estimated (September 2012)[17]
Libya 4,716 estimated (February 2013)[18]
Italy 4,600 estimated (Sep 2013)[19]
Bulgaria More than 4,500[20] (Sep 2013)
As many as 10,000 expected by the end of 2013[21]
Canada 2,374 (August 2015)[22]
Brazil 1,740 (January 2015)[23]
Romania 1,300 (July 2014)[24]
Argentina 300+ families (Aug 2013)[25]
Russia >1,000 (Feb 2014)[26]
Gaza Strip 1,000 (Dec 2013)[27]
France 500 estimated (October 2013)[28]
Macedonia 255[29]
Poland >150 (July 2015)[30]
Colombia <100 (September 2014)[31]
Uruguay <100 (October 2014)[32]
United States <100 (December 2013)[33]
Mexico <30 (October 2014)
Language: Arabic, Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic
Religion: Sunni Islam, Christianity, Shia Islam
Refugees of the Syrian Civil War, widely referred as the Syrian refugees,[34] are Syrian nationals, who have fled Syria with the escalation of the Syrian Civil War.[35] To escape the violence, more than four million Syrian refugees have fled the country to neighboring Turkey,[36][37] Lebanon, Jordan,[38] and Iraq,[39] while thousands also ended up in more distant countries of the Caucasus, the Persian Gulf, North Africa and Europe. As of February 2015, Turkey has become the world's biggest refugee hosting country with 2.1 million Syrian refugees and had spent more than US$6 billion on direct assistance to refugees.[40][41]
branford
(4,462 posts)Most importantly, you implicitly acknowledge that refugees do not have a choice of ultimate destination once they reach a "safe" country, one of the big issues in Europe, and the fact that treaty or otherwise, compliance or enforcement is still mostly a matter of political will within the relevant countries, no less the fact that many of the people are economic migrants and not actual refugees.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)There is inadequate support flowing from the US and Europe to countries of initial reception and international agencies caring for refugees in the region. The wealthy Gulf states and Saudi Arabia have the resources but little or no will to aid refugee populations, choosing instead to put their substantial funding behind armed militias, such as ISIS and al-Nusra, and groups that are allied with the Jihadi movements. See, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/04/the-arab-worlds-wealthiest-nations-are-doing-next-to-nothing-for-syrias-refugees/
The Green Manalishi
(1,054 posts)Are not some of the wealthy oil states doing very little? Doesn't Saudi Arabia as both a rich state and one supposedly Muslim to it's core have a little more obligation to such refugees than say Italy?
Just wondering.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)They're not about to waste precious petrodollars on useless women and children who won't carry out Jihad.
They know their priorities, and feeding refugees isn't one of them. There's a holy war to win.
branford
(4,462 posts)or even transverse third-party countries to get to other countries that will accept them. Refugees are supposed to claim the status in the first "safe" country, with "safe" liberally interpreted, and can be removed to such safe country if they leave and enter another. These pressures and violations are precisely why the Schengen accord is under threat.
pampango
(24,692 posts)The 10-15% who are not need to be weeded out but we should not punish the vast majority for the sins of a few.
branford
(4,462 posts)Last edited Fri Sep 4, 2015, 04:17 PM - Edit history (1)
More importantly, the logistical, resource and integration demands of the destination and transit countries is immense, and failing to acknowledge and properly deal with these issues, both economically and politically, will ensure opposition to the migrants continues to steadily grow in Europe, where their democratically elected leadership will unquestionably prioritize the needs and desires of their actual constituents over even clearly legal refugees.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Liberals have to be smart about implementing liberal programs and policies or they risk a conservative backlash against them. The RW anti-immigration forces were strong and growing even before this refugee crisis began.
I certainly appreciate Germany's willingness to allow huge numbers of refugees to stay there but that should be a temporary situation. The US, Canada and other European countries need to work together to deal with the problem in the long run. The German economy is strong and their government is being very generous, as are the governments of Sweden and a few other countries, but it would be too big a burden to rely on Germany generosity indefinitely.
liberals are highly anti immigrant.
msongs
(67,438 posts)jtuck004
(15,882 posts)7962
(11,841 posts)Why must they flood into the EU when they have other countries right next door?
Why are the Saudis, UAE, Egypt, et all, doing nothing?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/04/the-arab-worlds-wealthiest-nations-are-doing-next-to-nothing-for-syrias-refugees/
leveymg
(36,418 posts)political exiles and affluent emigres who can afford to stay as visitors or business travelers.
Regions with significant populations
(Numbers do not include foreign citizens who left Syria)
Turkey 2,138,999 estimated (April 2015)[2]
1,938,999 registered (April 2015)[2]
Lebanon 1,196,560 estimated (April 2015)[3]
1,185,241 registered (April 2015)[3]
Jordan 628,427 estimated (April 2015)[4]
628,427 registered (April 2015)[4]
Iraq 247,861 estimated (March 2015)[5]
247,861 registered (March 2015)[5]
Egypt 133,862 estimated (April 2015)[6]
133,862 registered (April 2015)[6] inspirit
Germany 105,000 estimated (March 2015)[7]
Greece 88,204 (2015 only)[8]
Algeria 25,000 estimated (Aug 2012)
10,000 "asylum seekers"[9] (Jan 2013)
Sweden At least 40,000 (2015) [10][11][12][13]
Austria At least 18,000 (2015)[11][14]
United Kingdom 5,102 (2015)[15]
Armenia 3,248 applied for visas (July 2012)
16,000 (Jan 2014) [16]
Bahrain 5,000 estimated (September 2012)[17]
Libya 4,716 estimated (February 2013)[18]
Italy 4,600 estimated (Sep 2013)[19]
Bulgaria More than 4,500[20] (Sep 2013)
As many as 10,000 expected by the end of 2013[21]
Canada 2,374 (August 2015)[22]
Brazil 1,740 (January 2015)[23]
Romania 1,300 (July 2014)[24]
Argentina 300+ families (Aug 2013)[25]
Russia >1,000 (Feb 2014)[26]
Gaza Strip 1,000 (Dec 2013)[27]
France 500 estimated (October 2013)[28]
Macedonia 255[29]
Poland >150 (July 2015)[30]
Colombia <100 (September 2014)[31]
Uruguay <100 (October 2014)[32]
United States <100 (December 2013)[33]
Mexico <30 (October 2014)
Language: Arabic, Kurdish, Armenian, Aramaic
Religion: Sunni Islam, Christianity, Shia Islam
Parts of this "News" story is a sham, Western media manipulation at its best.
Case in point. The current inhumanity of A refugee with his wife and baby lying on the railway tracks in Hungary.
The truth according to the FULL video on YouTube is of this victimized refugee throwing his wife and baby onto the tracks in front of the gullible media who lap it up.
What do i see on TV? A seriously edited video making them the victim. The opening frame was of him throwing her to the ground, very very easily missed.
Notice the Hungarian police restraining him and their concern for the woman and baby.
romanic
(2,841 posts)to confront ISIS, then I don't know what will.
fingrin
(120 posts)David Cameron has already blamed ISIS and Syria for this mess. Kind of ironic since it was the West who supplied the Matches.
Game on, time to finally send Syria the same way as Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq.
WOOT WOOT
