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Volkerball
Oct 15, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
Saudi Arabia is pretty pissed off. According to them, they have 500,000 Syrians inside the country who weren't there prior to the war, all of whom have healthcare. 300,000 of them were given scholarships to universities. But they don't have a formal refugee program, so they call these people "visitors." Now they're probably stretching the truth a little bit, but the people tossing around this "0 refugees in KSA" factoid likely are as well.

https://soundcloud.com/sarah-y-bn-ashoor/bbc-news-hour-mohammed-khalid-alyahya-on-the-syrian-refugee-crisis-and-the-efforts-of-gulf-states

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computer parts
Nov 18, 2010

PLEASE CLAP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=493pL_Vbtnc

PerpetualSelf
Apr 6, 2015

by Ralp

ungulateman posted:

You had me up to this point :laffo:

You know that Interstellar is a documentary right?

I think South America and Central America could potentially take some of the refugees.

PerpetualSelf fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Sep 8, 2015

Freezer
Apr 20, 2001

The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot stay in the cradle forever.

PerpetualSelf posted:

You know that Interstellar is a documentary right?

I think South America and Central America could potentially take some of the refugees.

Welp, It's not SAmerica but certain parts of Mexico are just as bad as Syria at times. I'm thinking of applying for my German Government provided flat, pension and blonde any day now if this drug war keeps up.

osker
Dec 18, 2002

Wedge Regret
I listen to NPR 'er day and I still don't understand why when a refugee is intercepted, they are not fingerprinted and processed and instead the intercepting country is all 1930's American Depression "keep walking."
Help me DND, I feel like a fucktard on this subject.

Loving Africa Chaps
Dec 3, 2007


We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already.

osker posted:

I listen to NPR 'er day and I still don't understand why when a refugee is intercepted, they are not fingerprinted and processed and instead the intercepting country is all 1930's American Depression "keep walking."
Help me DND, I feel like a fucktard on this subject.

They are doing that in Italy but plenty of the refugees try and escape the camps because the conditions are horrible and they don't want to get processed in Italy as they'll be sent back there if caught trying to get to Germany or the UK.

The arriving countries arent all that bothered about this because Greece and Italy can't deal with the numbers coming over on their own.

Inferior Third Season
Jan 15, 2005

Tias posted:

Our government is literal racist scum. I pray this does not kick off another round of diplomatic crises :sigh:
On top of the Lebanese newspaper ads, the Danish government yesterday also issued a warning that motorists who picked up any of the hundreds of refugees that are now walking on the Danish highways, trying to get to Sweden from Germany, would be charged with human smuggling and risk huge fines and up to two years in prison (with the exception that they drove them directly to the nearest police station, for "processing").

And, of course, it turns out that Sweden doesn't want them, either (sorry, in Danish): http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/sverige-siger-nej-til-modtage-flygtningestroem-fra-danmark

SaltyJesus
Jun 2, 2011

Arf!
Were they planning to swim across the sea to Sweden? Surely they have to identify themselves somewhere to get on a boat?

Saros
Dec 29, 2009

Its almost like we're a Bureaucracy, in space!

I set sail for the Planet of Lab Requisitions!!

Denmark and Sweden have some sweet bridges/tunnels between them. No idea if its walkable but you can get from Copenhagen to Sweden on a train in less than half an hour with no border checks.

Honj Steak
May 31, 2013

Hi there.

SaltyJesus posted:

Were they planning to swim across the sea to Sweden? Surely they have to identify themselves somewhere to get on a boat?

I'm sure they weren't planning it that thoroughly, but there is a bridge between Sweden and Denmark.

SaltyJesus
Jun 2, 2011

Arf!
Sweet, didn't know that.

Dusty Baker 2
Jul 8, 2011

Keyboard Inghimasi

Inferior Third Season posted:

On top of the Lebanese newspaper ads, the Danish government yesterday also issued a warning that motorists who picked up any of the hundreds of refugees that are now walking on the Danish highways, trying to get to Sweden from Germany, would be charged with human smuggling and risk huge fines and up to two years in prison (with the exception that they drove them directly to the nearest police station, for "processing").

And, of course, it turns out that Sweden doesn't want them, either (sorry, in Danish): http://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/sverige-siger-nej-til-modtage-flygtningestroem-fra-danmark

Some people in Denmark really don't like the refugees. Well, one man in particular.

http://www.bt.dk/danmark/mand-spyttede-paa-flygtninge-og-bad-dem-skride-hjem-det-er-ynkelig-opfoersel

It's in Danish, but if you have a translator on your browser you can get a good idea of the story. A friend of mine in Denmark who is also a goon (though I think he stopped posting on the forums) showed me that link and translated it as an old guy among a crowd of hundreds of people welcoming refugees and handing out food who was spitting on and harassing said refugees. Talk about a contrast of emotions. On one hand I'm warmed by what is clearly a majority of Danes trying to help their fellow human beings, but on the other hand I'm disgusted by the actions of this one man. It's so needlessly cruel, it goes beyond the passive violence of letting people starve/freeze to death and becomes an active violence against them.

Honj Steak
May 31, 2013

Hi there.

(percentages of total refugee influx, proposal on the left, actual numbers on the right)

EU proposal would heavily disburden Germany, Sweden and Austria and the border states Hungary, Italy and Greece (who would be exempt from the quota, along with the UK, Denmark and Ireland) while demanding a lot more from most other countries.

SorcerousHam
Apr 8, 2011
As a complete outsider to Europe, how is this distribution meant to work with the Schengen (sp?) agreement or whatever allows people to move freely through the EU?

I mean, if they can be distributed elsewhere and then immediately pack up and go back to Germany... how is this going to work? Are they going to force them to stay put? Are they going to reintroduce border controls?

kikkelivelho
Aug 27, 2015

SorcerousHam posted:

As a complete outsider to Europe, how is this distribution meant to work with the Schengen (sp?) agreement or whatever allows people to move freely through the EU?

I mean, if they can be distributed elsewhere and then immediately pack up and go back to Germany... how is this going to work? Are they going to force them to stay put? Are they going to reintroduce border controls?

I was about to ask this too. Won't the refugees just go back to Germany? Or are we just going to lock them up in secured apartments to make sure they stick?

Also how does the distribution work? why does refugee A get to go to Germany but refugee B has to go to some Eastern country?

willemw
Sep 30, 2006
very much so

kikkelivelho posted:

I was about to ask this too. Won't the refugees just go back to Germany? Or are we just going to lock them up in secured apartments to make sure they stick?

The way I understand it:

Refugees don't apply for asylum in Europe, they apply for asylum in a specific country. If they get asylum, they get the same social rights as any other inhabitant in that specific country. There are also no European rules that determine how an application should be judged, and the percentage of granted asylums differ widely between countries.

Of course a refugee that got asylum in say Greece could move to Germany, but he'd have to start a whole different (longer) procedure to get the same social rights as a "native" German.

kikkelivelho posted:

Also how does the distribution work? why does refugee A get to go to Germany but refugee B has to go to some Eastern country?

It doesn't work, that's the whole problem :)

Glah
Jun 21, 2005

SorcerousHam posted:

As a complete outsider to Europe, how is this distribution meant to work with the Schengen (sp?) agreement or whatever allows people to move freely through the EU?

I mean, if they can be distributed elsewhere and then immediately pack up and go back to Germany... how is this going to work? Are they going to force them to stay put? Are they going to reintroduce border controls?

I'd guess that the refugees will get registered in their host countries and they'll get social benefits from there. Leaving the host country would mean forfeiting them. They could move to Germany but they wouldn't have money, apartment or work permits etc there.

kikkelivelho
Aug 27, 2015

willemw posted:

It doesn't work, that's the whole problem :)

Even without the flaws this proposal seems like a too little too late kinda deal. Shuffling a few migrants around probably won't help when thousands more enter Europe every week.

Honj Steak
May 31, 2013

Hi there.

kikkelivelho posted:

Even without the flaws this proposal seems like a too little too late kinda deal. Shuffling a few migrants around probably won't help when thousands more enter Europe every week.

The quota isn't meant for ending the refugee crisis but for alleviating the immediate strains a few countries experience currently while the rest of Europe isn't bothered by it that much.

willemw
Sep 30, 2006
very much so

Honj Steak posted:

The quota isn't meant for ending the refugee crisis but for alleviating the immediate strains a few countries experience currently while the rest of Europe isn't bothered by it that much.

But how can you enforce it? If you have 100 refugees who want to go to Germany, how do you force 4 of them to go to Hungary?

team overhead smash
Sep 2, 2006

Team-Forest-Tree-Dog:
Smashing your way into our hearts one skylight at a time

Are there any charities which stand out as especially effective with helping refugees? Preferably ones active in the UK as I'm thinking of doing some volunteering but if not then there are always donations.

ufarn
May 30, 2009

osker posted:

I listen to NPR 'er day and I still don't understand why when a refugee is intercepted, they are not fingerprinted and processed and instead the intercepting country is all 1930's American Depression "keep walking."
Help me DND, I feel like a fucktard on this subject.
The Dublin Agreement states that the recipient country is obligated to register the refugees. More important, it also states that refugees can only seek asylum in ONE country.

If you are Hungary or a refugee in Hungary, you wouldn't want refugees to be formally processed there, because that makes them asylum seekers (formerly refugees) in that country.

Hence the distinction as a "transit country", ie a country whose government hates refugees and vice versa.

ufarn fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Sep 8, 2015

mlmp08
Jul 11, 2004

Prepare for my priapic projectile's exalted penetration
Nap Ghost
CNN US has a live correspondent joining refugees in running through a breach in Hungarian border security in a cornfield.

I don't think having a reporter chasing you helps with being inconspicuous.

Volkerball
Oct 15, 2009

by FactsAreUseless

team overhead smash posted:

Are there any charities which stand out as especially effective with helping refugees? Preferably ones active in the UK as I'm thinking of doing some volunteering but if not then there are always donations.

I would recommend the UNHCR, because the vast majority of refugees don't have the means or the ability to attempt to come to Europe, and they typically only get 20-30% of their requested budget. No matter what Europe does, we're going to see a situation like Lebanon in 1948 where a substantial number of refugees will not be able to return home, and over decades, these UNHCR camps are going to evolve to become permanent cities. The more aid the UNHCR gets in adapting to that, the better off a lot of refugees are going to be. Can't help you with volunteering.

http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general

GABA ghoul
Oct 29, 2011

kikkelivelho posted:

I was about to ask this too. Won't the refugees just go back to Germany? Or are we just going to lock them up in secured apartments to make sure they stick?

Also how does the distribution work? why does refugee A get to go to Germany but refugee B has to go to some Eastern country?

People already mentioned it, but technically you are not even allowed to seek asylum in Germany if you entered the country from another "safe" state. If you already applied in a different EU member you are definitely out.

Also, for the duration of the asylum court process(around a year on average) Germany gives you a residence permit for the region where you applied. You are only allowed to stay in that area and if police catches you outside you get a fine or you can even go to prison for it. This residence permit does absolutely not allow any border crossings. While there are no systematic border controls in the Schengen area, there are still random controls going on that might catch you. The police on the other side of the border will probably also send you back to Germany for punishment if you get caught there.

VitalSigns
Sep 3, 2011

Just make the EU one country, this isn't even the first dumb problem Europe has that this would solve.

chessmaster13
Jan 10, 2015

VitalSigns posted:

Just make the EU one country, this isn't even the first dumb problem Europe has that this would solve.

No thank you. This wouzld bring many many more problems then it would solve.

breadshaped
Apr 1, 2010


Soiled Meat

VitalSigns posted:

Just make the EU one country, this isn't even the first dumb problem Europe has that this would solve.

Yeah sure. I'd love for my nice little socialist state to be run by Angela Merkel and the rest of her centre-right ilk.

VitalSigns
Sep 3, 2011

Bedshaped posted:

Yeah sure. I'd love for my nice little socialist state to be run by Angela Merkel and the rest of her centre-right ilk.

Most Americans didn't want George W Bush running our country either but you know what, we manned up, used the world's dumbest system of electing a head of state, and did it anyway.

Baloogan
Dec 5, 2004
Fun Shoe
Europe just needs to man the gently caress up.

fade5
May 31, 2012

by exmarx

mlmp08 posted:

CNN US has a live correspondent joining refugees in running through a breach in Hungarian border security in a cornfield.

I don't think having a reporter chasing you helps with being inconspicuous.
You are not VICE, CNN, please stop trying to be and embarrassing yourselves.

tsa
Feb 3, 2014
Yea how dare CNN actually report news instead of live tweets.

XMNN
Apr 26, 2008
I am incredibly stupid
This came up in the UKMT, but it's worth bringing up here.

It's important to remember when Cameron talks about accepting "up to" 20,000 children from camps around Syria's borders, that we won't be granting them refugee status, we will in fact be granting them leave to remain until just before their 18th birthday at which point they will be deported to their country of origin.

Noxville posted:



There's not even a good rationale for this, it's just evil.

The Independent posted:


Syrian child refugees 'to be deported at age 18', says Paddy Ashdown

Syrian refugee children who are allowed into to the UK under new measures announced by David Cameron could be deported when they reach 18, it has been claimed.

Britain will resettle up to 20,000 refugees who have fled from the conflict in Syria, the Prime Minister announced, but some may not arrive until the end of the decade and could face deportation after they have been in the UK for five years.

Refugee groups and opposition politicians lined up to criticise the announcement made by Mr Cameron for being “pitifully short of what’s needed” to tackle the crisis. The Speaker of the Commons has granted an emergency debate on the issue today.

Mr Cameron claimed the UK’s new resettlement scheme would ensure that vulnerable children – including orphans – are a priority, following in the tradition of the Kindertransport programme that helped Jewish children escape from Nazi Germany.

But it later emerged all those accepted under the scheme will only be given the right to remain in the UK for five years. This, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats Lord Ashdown suggested, could mean orphans and children being deported at age 18 having made a new life in Britain. A government spokesman said that after the five-year period refugees could apply for indefinite leave to remain.

...
If you think this is such a pointless, cruel and inhuman measure that it can't possibly be actual government policy, the joke's on you, because it's already being done to Afghans.

The BBC posted:


The young people sent back to Afghanistan

Many unaccompanied children who have fled Afghanistan and had their asylum claim rejected in the UK are given until they are 18 before being sent back. For the past seven months the BBC has followed some of these young men. They face life in an unfamiliar and dangerous country, write Chris Rogers and Sue Clayton.

Najib makes his way nervously through the streets of Kabul. At 20, he is alone in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. On every corner heavily armed solders guard communities and government buildings. It is a city on the edge - there has been a surge of Taliban attacks in Kabul in recent weeks. "You can see it's dangerous," he says as army helicopters fly low across the city skyline, "It is getting worse here. There are bombs and explosions everywhere."

As an Afghan, you might expect Najib to be used to the Taliban violence, but the city is as strange to him as it would be to any foreigner.

He spent much of his childhood in the UK. Originally from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, when his father and brother went missing his mother arranged for him to be got out of the country by agents. He spent months on the journey including walking through the mountains between Pakistan and Iran.

But Najib was deported by the Home Office back to his country of birth two years ago.

"I don't belong here, I wasn't educated here and I don't know the culture. Britain is my home," he says in a strong Midlands accent. Najib still sports a hairstyle that wouldn't be out of place on David Beckham and is wearing a trendy shirt, jeans and trainers.

He couldn't look more British, but he says that is a problem. "The Taliban attack the West here, people who work for the British government or even people who just come from Britain and America, It is dangerous here."

He looks on at the hopelessness around him - dozens of war widows are begging for money and food on their knees, while gangs of young Afghan men scrape a living offering their labour on street corners. There is 40% unemployment in a country struggling to recover from an endless war, and Najib wants out.

"I will leave Afghanistan and go to another country as a refugee," he says. "There is nothing for me here. Even if I get sent back I will just keep trying to leave Afghanistan."

Najib later jumps on to a bus out of Kabul with just a rucksack of belongings. He is heading to the border and plans to make his way back to Britain with the help of traffickers. It's the same 4,000-mile journey he made as an 11-year-old boy.

Since 2006, 5,500 unaccompanied Afghan children have reached the UK and claimed asylum. More than 80% of those who claimed persecution by the Taliban had their cases rejected.

But rather than send them straight back, the Home Office offers them a temporary life in Britain, usually with a foster family until the age of 18, when they must leave the country voluntarily or be deported.


The vast majority of the Afghan children who come to the UK are male. Families believe their daughters are too vulnerable to be sent alone on the path to Europe.
Najib spent most of his childhood in Southam near Leamington Spa with foster parent Linda.

"It was wrong to send him back, they are just pawns in a political process," she sobs as she flicks through an album of photos showing Najib's first day at the local school and the Christmases and birthdays they shared together. "He is a number so that anybody who wants to get political gain can say, 'We have sent this many people back'.

"How can they justify sending someone to a country they hardly remember when they have made a life for themselves here?"

Another former child asylum seeker placed in Linda's care faces deportation any day now. Faisal, now 19, can appeal against his deportation, but he is taking no chances after seeing what became of Najib. He has been in the UK since he was 14.

In a tower block several miles from his foster home, Faisal is making a bed on the floor of a friend's flat. He has gone on the run, moving addresses every few days. "I'm so scared the Home Office are going to pick me up," he says as he heads out on to the balcony, scouring the streets below. "I check for them every 20 to 30 minutes during the night. Early in the morning I'll leave and go and sleep somewhere else."

According to research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Home Office has deported more than 600 failed child asylum seekers to Afghanistan since 2011. Nearly 500 more are earmarked for removal. Yet the government advises its own citizens not to travel to Afghanistan because of the threat of terrorism and kidnapping.
In a statement, the Home Office says it is proud of its history of giving asylum. "Where people establish a genuine need for protection, or a well-founded fear of persecution, refuge will be granted. Every case is carefully considered on its individual merits."

Refugee campaigners accuse the Home Office of effectively warehousing Afghan children - dismissing their claims of persecution in Afghanistan with the sole intention of deporting them when they become adults - to keep migrant numbers down.

Juliette Wales, of Kent Refugee Network, has tried to help hundreds of young Afghans appeal against their deportation. "It's tragic to see these kids who believe they are safe, working really hard and going to college, turn 18 years old and turn into the state they turn into, it's a waste of life."


Many of the former child asylum seekers we met are convinced they will be killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, but their greatest fear is often losing the life they have made for themselves in Britain.

The Home Office does not monitor what becomes of deportees once they arrive in Kabul, but human rights campaigners do. According to a study of 200 failed child asylum seekers, they tend to turn to two options - escape Afghanistan by fleeing back to Europe, or escape reality by taking drugs.

Under a notorious bridge on the River Kabul, where a community of around 300 heroin users live in stream of rubbish and sewage, we find 23-year-old Ahmed. He claims he lived in Manchester for eight years - he's been back in Kabul living with his mother for 18 months.

"This is not a situation I am proud of. Today I promised my mother this would be the last day I take drugs," he say. But he admits it's a promise he has made many times.

"It eases the pain, this is my escape, I had a life in Manchester, but not here. I pray to God to get me out of this situation."
His thin, dirty face and soulless eyes suggest months of drug abuse, and he's not ready to quit escaping reality just yet. He waves goodbye as he makes his way back under the bridge for his next hit.

Another more detailed article here.

I genuinely never thought I would be quite this embarrassed and disgusted by my country.

Nonsense
Jan 26, 2007

tsa posted:

Yea how dare Geraldo Rivera actually report news by giving away where U.S. Soldiers were.

IronDoge
Nov 6, 2008

XMNN posted:

This came up in the UKMT, but it's worth bringing up here.

It's important to remember when Cameron talks about accepting "up to" 20,000 children from camps around Syria's borders, that we won't be granting them refugee status, we will in fact be granting them leave to remain until just before their 18th birthday at which point they will be deported to their country of origin.

Christ that's like saving a wounded man, rehabilitating him, then shooting him in the leg and tossing him in a ditch.

Klaus88
Jan 23, 2011

Violence has its own economy, therefore be thoughtful and precise in your investment

IronDoge posted:

Christ that's like saving a wounded man, rehabilitating him, then shooting him in the leg and tossing him into a pool full of ravenous bull sharks.

ftfy.

lmaoboy1998
Oct 23, 2013
Forced repatriation certainly doesn't happen to every refugee who turns 18, to be clear. As with any asylum application its dependent on circumstance and most refugees turning 18 get to remain in the UK. Even doing this to one child is awful though. http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/09/08/the-deportation-game-what-happens-when-refugees-turn-18

lmaoboy1998 fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Sep 8, 2015

Luigi Thirty
Apr 30, 2006

Emergency confection port.

Personally I don't see anything wrong with taking disaffected youths and throwing them back into the warzone they came from. This is because instead of a heart I have a black hole.

XMNN
Apr 26, 2008
I am incredibly stupid
I suppose it's slightly better that they're not doing it to literally every single one, but doing it to even one person is too many. It's just barbaric on a level that I don't know how the people doing it sleep at night or even begin consider themselves to be moral human beings. It's so lacking in humanity and compassion that it's difficult to articulate.

Like, I could maybe see it if Afghanistan wasn't still such a terrible place to be and the outcome of shipping a bunch of teenagers with no local knowledge and few connections to an underdeveloped warzone wasn't so obvious.

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PerpetualSelf
Apr 6, 2015

by Ralp
Maybe the goal is to put better people back in the country with the goal of stabilizing it? Brain drain is going to be a serious issue when you start accepting all these refugees.

I have has this feeling that there are solutions to these countries issues. But all the people who have the ability to solve things and make their country a better place end up leaving, making their countries a worse place and perpetuating a vicious cycle of ever decline that only ensures things will get worse not better.

We've certainly seen that happen in Cuba and Venezuela before.

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