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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 07:12 AM Mar 2016

Opinion: Raise the drawbridge! EU refugee policy

http://www.dw.com/en/opinion-raise-the-drawbridge-eu-refugee-policy/a-19129452

Refugees from Syria will soon no longer be able to reach the European Union. An inhumane success for the bloc, writes Bernd Riegert.

Opinion: Raise the drawbridge! EU refugee policy
Bernd Riegert
19.03.2016

Fortress Europe is secured. Beginning at midnight on Saturday, refugees arriving in Greece are to be sent back to Turkey after a legally dubious fast-track procedure. Overnight, Turkey has been elevated to the status of a safe third country, something that had previously been unimaginable. With this tactic of deterrence and closure, the European Union is blatantly contravening both the spirit and the letter of the UN Refugee Convention and the much-cited European values. If the plan succeeds, the number of refugees and migrants coming over the Aegean is meant to sink to zero. Because the land border of the EU to Turkey has already also been closed to refugees and migrants for years, it is now de facto impossible to reach the EU via this route at all. The right to asylum still exists on paper, but there is no way anymore of applying for it.

The advocates of the fortress mentality have mercilessly asserted themselves over the past few months. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has followed them by executing a radical turnaround in her refugee policy. The EU has agreed only on defending itself against refugees, not on taking them in and distributing them. The former is the only true "European solution" that Merkel has achieved. Because the EU itself was incapable of resolving the crisis, a dubious pact with Turkey had to be made. The fate of the refugees and migrants is the last thing to matter here. The German chancellor and her European colleagues should stop trying to disguise their ice-cold calculation as a humanitarian gesture. That is pure hypocrisy.

A last, even more dangerous route remains

There were not and are not any legal ways for refugees and asylum-seekers to travel into the EU anyway. The last "irregular" route is now the dangerous one via North Africa to Italy, which had lost some of its importance over the past year. Despite all attempts to make it impossible to use this route by deploying EU naval task forces off the Libyan coast, however, some 10,000 people still arrived in Italy this way in the first months of this year alone. The EU strategists would all too gladly declare Libya a safe third country as well so that an expulsion model along the lines of the one with Turkey could be established. But at the moment, this is not possible owing to the fact that Libya has no government with which to negotiate. In the view of the fortress keepers in the EU, many things were better while Libya was still being ruled by the dictator Gaddafi. Gaddafi used to detain refugees in return for EU money, and prohibited the journey over the Mediterranean.

Incidentally, Spain has been practicing this perfidious method to "success" in conjunction with Morocco, Western Sahara and Senegal for years. Refugees and migrants from North Africa that are picked up by joint coastal patrols are taken directly back to the North African coast. Currently, only a few hundred people per year manage to make their way to Spain via this route. As an advance preventive measure, Bulgaria would already like to be given permission to also send back refugees who will now perhaps land on its shores after coming directly over the Black Sea from Turkey.
6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Opinion: Raise the drawbridge! EU refugee policy (Original Post) unhappycamper Mar 2016 OP
it's absurd EdwardBernays Mar 2016 #1
I agree...but what's even more absurd is the inaction of the oil-rich Gulf states Glorfindel Mar 2016 #2
Welllll EdwardBernays Mar 2016 #3
Post removed Post removed Mar 2016 #4
Ok EdwardBernays Mar 2016 #5
REASON FOR ALERT MisterP Mar 2016 #6

Glorfindel

(9,706 posts)
2. I agree...but what's even more absurd is the inaction of the oil-rich Gulf states
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 08:50 AM
Mar 2016

why are they not taking in their Arab brothers and sisters? Why is this exclusively Europe's problem? Couldn't they spare just a LITTLE of the petro-wealth they possess and help a bit? Or would that interfere too much with their kilometer-high buildings, their artificial islands, and their indoor ski slopes?

EdwardBernays

(3,343 posts)
3. Welllll
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 09:12 AM
Mar 2016

The vast majority of Syrian refugees ARE living in neighboring Arab countries.

90% give or take are not in Europe, but are in Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

The entirety of Europe should be able to take 10% or even 20% considering its largely the West's fault.

Response to unhappycamper (Original post)

EdwardBernays

(3,343 posts)
5. Ok
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 10:23 AM
Mar 2016

It's not millions of mostly young men.

"According to recent statistics gathered by the United Nations and updated Nov. 17, there are 4,289,792 registered Syrian refugees, and about 22 percent of those refugees are men between the ages 18 and 59. The hypothetical young male “fighting age” range is most likely narrower in reality. Also contrary to common belief, the majority (50.3 percent) of refugees are female, and an even higher majority (51.2 percent) are children under 17 years of age. "

We haven't seen a rape epidemic either. We have seen some pretty extreme headline-grabbing events but there's refugees all over Europe that aren't raping en masses.

Basically your entire post reads like it came from Donald Trump. It's not backed up by any facts on the ground. I live in Europe and know some refugees personally. They're fleeing a war the west started. The West owes them help.

MisterP

(23,730 posts)
6. REASON FOR ALERT
Sun Mar 20, 2016, 02:38 PM
Mar 2016

no, Syrians aren't all rapists
Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: De-islamization? Yeah... No.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: AgerolanAmerican urges "de-Islamization" for refugees. I suggest de-DUization for AgerolanAmerican as a more easily achievable goal.
Juror #7 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given

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