Shameful European Politics against Imigrants

[Klaus]

BBC News

A group of 37 African migrants were rescued on Jun 20. by a german aid ship "Cap Anamur" close to Italy's coast.

Today they were allowed to leave "Cap Anamur".
Several cities said they would take care of the refugees but some european politicans (Pisano and Schily) are affraid that this could become a precedent case.

The government of italy decided to promise what the Captain and the Refugees wanted to hear and later confiscate the Ship, put the Refugees in a deportationcamp and sue the captain because he helped illegal immigrants

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

European countries policies regarding asylum seekers get more authoritarian every day. We've even had Blair saying he wants Britain to opt out of the UN convention on refugees.

What bothers me most about this example is that most of these refugees are from Sudan and yet politicians are still trying to claim they don't have the right to seek asylum. Apparently the fact that tens of thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands been forced to flee their homes isn't sufficiently serious to justify a person seeking asylum.

Really though, the UK's behaviour towards asylum seekers is nothing short of disgusting. Less than 2% of all the world's refugees seek asylum in this country and yet our politicians are constantly claiming we're being "flooded" with "illegal immigrants." Asylum seekers contribute billions to the UK economy, London's economy would likely collapse without them, and yet our newspapers still run headlines calling asylum seekers "scroungers" and "lazy." It's nothing more than racism and xenophobia.

 

[melon]

I'm reminded of an episode of "South Park." The solution isn't to have them all immigrate to where the grass is greener; the solution is to make their places inhabitable. Of course, SP also most cynically showed why that would never happen; it was "more gay" to clean up the planet than to have gay sex in a gigantic orgy.

That aside, I hope you see my point.

Melon

 

[Laura M]

European countries policies regarding asylum seekers get more authoritarian every day. We've even had Blair saying he wants Britain to opt out of the UN convention on refugees.

What bothers me most about this example is that most of these refugees are from Sudan and yet politicians are still trying to claim they don't have the right to seek asylum. Apparently the fact that tens of thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands been forced to flee their homes isn't sufficiently serious to justify a person seeking asylum.

Really though, the UK's behaviour towards asylum seekers is nothing short of disgusting. Less than 2% of all the world's refugees seek asylum in this country and yet our politicians are constantly claiming we're being "flooded" with "illegal immigrants." Asylum seekers contribute billions to the UK economy, London's economy would likely collapse without them, and yet our newspapers still run headlines calling asylum seekers "scroungers" and "lazy." It's nothing more than racism and xenophobia.

I think what is also worrying is other countries opinions about immigration. I would hate to see LePen running France.

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

I'm reminded of an episode of "South Park." The solution isn't to have them all immigrate to where the grass is greener; the solution is to make their places inhabitable. Of course, SP also most cynically showed why that would never happen; it was "more gay" to clean up the planet than to have gay sex in a gigantic orgy.

True, in an ideal world nobody would need to seek asylum. However as long as we live in a world where millions of people face systematic abuse and repression at the hands of governments, armed forces or other agents, the right to seek asylum is vital. There's often a tendency for people to assume that an individual's decision to leave their home and seek asylum elsewhere is taken lightly. In reality it's likely to be one of the hardest decisions any individual could make: people are forced to leave their families, their jobs, their homes, their culture, with no guarantee they'll ever be able to return. Their journey to the country where they seek asylum is often extremely expensive, dangerous and uncomfortable, nobody should forget the numerous examples of refugees dying in their attempt to reach a safe country.

Given all those factors, the reception refugees receive in many western countries is an absolute disagrce. In this country refugees are forced to live on just ?37 per week, they are forbidden to work, and the government's "dispersal" policy means that they are often forced to move away from their support networks and live in areas of the country where they face a terrifying level of racism and violence. And still the Daily Mail runs it's "all asylum seekers are scroungers" headlines.

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

I think what is also worrying is other countries opinions about immigration. I would hate to see LePen running France.

Absolutely. The rise of far-right parties across Europe is frightening. I'm just glad the BNP failed to get an MEP last month, but it's still worrying that they got over half a million votes in the North West.