DROWNING AT SEA
An article from Kathimerini on the plight of migrants and asylum seekers at sea entitled Human Rights drowning at sea
Kofi Anan's attack on Fortress Europe in 2004 as reported in the Guardian.
"Your asylum systems are overburdened precisely because many people who feel they must leave see no other channel through which to migrate," he said. "Many others try more desperate and clandestine measures, and are sometimes injured or even killed - suffocating in trucks, drowning at sea, or perishing in the undercarriage of aircraft."
As he spoke, news emerged of another accident in which two people drowned and at least 17 were missing after a boat carrying dozens of illegal immigrants, apparently Kurds, sank off the Greek island of Evia. A small wooden ship trying to smuggle 70 illegal immigrants to Greece sank last month off the Turkish coast. Only one person survived.
"It is the sovereign right of all states to decide which voluntary migrants they will accept, and on what terms," he said. "But we cannot simply close our doors or shut our eyes to this human tragedy."
For full story read here
Technorati Tags: immigration
posted by deviousdiva @ 9/20/2005 07:26:00 PM
7 comments
Immigrants are also being killed by landmines on the Greek borders...an estimated 40 have been killed and another 30 injured since 1996. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3149744.stm)Knowing the reliability of Greek stats...the number is probably a lot higher.
It's an absolute disgrace that this is happening. The Greek government should be ashamed of itself.
Yes, this is truly unbelievable. It is unbelievable that this extortionist and crook, Kofi Anan, has the unmitigated gall to force Europe to accept an endless stream of "asylum seekers" with his guilt driven mewlings. Here's a suggestion Kofi, how about doing something that is directed AT the countries that have no human rights and force them to step into the 21st century? How's that for a world shattering idea. Sorry, I have no sympathy whatsoever for this story. The problem is in the countries involved and Europe, nor North America, need not import the problem. They have enough of their own.
I'll get to your question in the comment section of "sickened" tonight.
Actually, ethnocentrist, I think you misunderstood what Kofi Anan said "It is the sovereign right of all states to decide which voluntary migrants they will accept, and on what terms," he said. "But we cannot simply close our doors or shut our eyes to this human tragedy."
He is not forcing Europe to accept "an endless stream" of migrants. He is talking about the "dehumanising policies" of Europe that is leading to the deaths of hundreds of people. How Europe deals with it's immigration problems is one thing but if the policies in place are leading to deaths that is a human rights issue.
I think Greece does fairly well at rescuing drowning boats, when they can. Unfortunately, this is going to happen, as obviously officials don't have a way of knowing exactly when a boat is coming in.
What I would like to see in the E.U. is a very systemized network amongst the governments - ones that have listings and areas for each country, so, one country has provisions for 10,000 immigrants, another for another amount, in a way that each country has the ability to rehabilitate, send children to schools, find jobs, etc. And so whenever these immigrants land in one country (often Greece, Spain and Italy in the E.U.) the network is available and, after the immigrants are checked out and healthy (ie. if they have sustained any injuries before or during their trip) they are sent to countries for rehabilitation and asylum. This would have to be done in a way that the "available" spots rotated out, so once an immigrant found employment and got themselves set up in the host country, they are "removed" from the rolls and a new spot opens.
It is going to take a whole lot more than just a couple of countries bearing the burden of all the immigrants, and words and treaties and proclamations. There really needs to be a unification amongst EU countries to get these people taken care of and put into society in a way that doesn't overburden one country or another.
FYI, I made a post on the "sickened" thread that answered some of people's questions.
I am not sure if I understand what you mean by
"They turn around and blame whites for their misery in the western nations. It's all racism, don't you know?"
Who is blaming the whites for what? I have not referred to "the whites" in any of the articles I have posted. I have referred to countries, administrations, political parties and governments. As far as I know, that does not mean "whites".
I would just like to remind you ethnocentrist, that my blog is about Human Rights, Racism and Xenophobia. I take these issues very seriously and personally. Again, to repeat, I am black and I am a foreigner. I have never deleted any comments from you (and some of them are extremely painful to read, believe me and I have been tempted) because I believe that dialogue is the way only forward.
BUT, I ask you to try not to fall into the trap of only hearing and reading what fits into your sphere of thinking and then spreading it around here. I am all for discussion but regurgitating racist statistics and "facts" I find is abbhorrent.
Please do not read anymore into this than is there. I am simply asking you to be more careful about which "facts" and statistics that you choose to post. There is no threat of censorship here.
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