I don't know what the view is like in Ireland (or Europe) right now, some of the Russian media is reporting with a tinge of delight with what is happening in Europe right now. For over a year we've had actual refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine (to Russia and other parts of Ukraine) with politics being played by all sides. In Kiev the far right have zero interest in devolving power to the regions, as was agreed back in 2003/4, and I think everybody saw what happened in Maidan. Yet the media, especially tabloid ones, are breathlessly reporting from Syria, Hungary, France, Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey.
My own feeling is that there is a massive political game going on with the usual suspects. The "ngo/taxpayer funded" egomaniacs who need such crises to earn their money, and those further down the food chain who need the aid game to survive and line their pockets. The politicians who are trying to keep a positive spin on everything. The criminals (arms companies, financiers, people smugglers, corrupt officials) who are earning off the mess in Libya and Syria. The media who are lapping it up and putting the tragic images on a gif loop. The public who are caught between asking questions, being horrified/scared and worried, and asking questions.
Many of those who overran police in Macedonia were not Syrian but Afghani, Pakistani, Turkish, African and "other Asian". In Serbia and Hungary there are places offered to assist refugees with international groups already on the ground and providing assistance, yet last night on Euronews a woman claiming to be fleeing Syria said "The Hungarian people are very nice and friendly, but I want to go to Germany."
It brings back the old question of when Nigerian "refugees" were arriving in Ireland. They were coming from EU countries so not directly from a war zone. Maybe I am wrong in thinking that once people land at their first safe haven, they can be processed and then with a visa system be allocated a place in, for example, Ireland, Germany etc?
Having worked alongside genuine refugees in Croatia, recently in Russia and even in my current work, there is a massively uncomfortable element to what is happening.
03/09/2015, 1:20 PM
nigel-harps1954
Have a slight feeling that there'll be thousands of people taking advantage of the whole thing to get a foot up in a developed country. But still, the crisis out there can't be avoided at present. The people floating on rubber dinghys in the Med, the poor children drowning genuinely fleeing war and opression, they simply cannot be ignored and need all the help they can get.
The picture of the small child washed up on the beach in Turkey almost tore me to shreds. He's no older than my own son and looking at that image made me want to hop in the car, head off to the nearest port and jump on a boat to help save those poor souls. Heartbreaking stuff, only serving currently to make me appreciate just what I have here and how different life could be in a country torn apart by war.
03/09/2015, 2:53 PM
Spudulika
I only saw that today, on a gif. I thought of my 5 year old in the same situation, then froze.
I have a terrible feeling that very, very soon this will be a non-story and the situation is going to get far, far worse. I was in Libya in 2010, and while it wasn't perfect, it worked and was stable. And when the French didn't get their companies in for contracts (oil, gas and rail) they drove the country to war. When the slaughter of black african Libyans was in full swing, the western media denied it and refused to report it. When the reprisals began against Gadaffi's tribe, nothing. Now the country is in open civil war, yet the French, British and US oil and gas (and support) companies operate under mercenary and official armed forces. And from the beaches of Benghazi and Tripoli boats go to meet tankers who then drop off the unfortunates. Same is happening in Syria and Turkey now.
I know it sounds callous and has been said many times, but it has to start at source. Seeing pictures from Keleti shocked me, I was only there in January and it's full on chaos. For a country which relies quite a bit on tourist income (especially in Budapest), it is a disaster.
