Update October 10th: Brits to French: don’t offload your problem on us, here.
Update October 6th, here.
Are they “refugees” or invaders?
That’s a question that comes to my mind as I read the many reports coming out of France over the last two days about Syrians demanding entry into the UK even after France relented and offered asylum there. Hat tip: pungentpeppers who has been following the demonstrators’ demands closely.
I’m also reminded of Kilian Kleinschmidt at Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan saying that the Syrians were the most difficult refugees he had ever seen. Their attitude, that the West owes them something, is not going to endear them to the citizens of first world countries who are frankly sick of the angry squabbling Middle Eastern migrants.
Here is NBC News yesterday:
Some 60 Syrian refugees – many of them on hunger strike – are in a standoff with police at a ferry terminal in northern France.
The group has occupied a footbridge at the port of Calais, a popular crossing point into Britain, and is demanding the British government grant them asylum into the U.K.
Between 20 and 40 of the group have not eaten for two days, activists and protesters said.
Katie Wellington, an activist with the Calais Migrant Society who is at the port, said some 70 riot police attempted to clear the site on Friday morning. In response two Syrians climbed onto a roof and threatened to jump if their asylum demands were not met.
Wellington said the group has effectively given the British government an ultimatum: “Let us into the U.K. or we will die here.”
“These people have different reasons for wanting to come to the U.K.,” she said. “Many of them have family or communities there, and they feel they will get better protection from the [British] government than in France.”
Denis Robin, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, told Sky News he has offered the Syrians, currently illegal migrants, asylum in France.
Mohammed: “We are ignored.”
One of the protesters, 25-year-old Mohammed al Kayd, said he was an economics student studying in Damascus before he was forced to flee Syria one year ago.
“In Calais we sleep in the streets and no one asks us what we need or what happened to us. We are ignored,” he told NBC News via telephone. [Well, Mohammed, apparently a good community organizer, managed to not be ignored by NBC.—ed]
Check out Mohammed’s travel route:
“I left Syria with a little bit of money which I had to spend on food and travel,” he said of his 2,000-mile journey across Europe. “I went through Jordan and from there through Egypt and to Italy by boat.
“The journey by boat lasted for 10 days [What? Was he in a rowboat?—ed] and the last three of these I went without food. From Italy I went to France and traveled to Calais by train.” [Sounds like he had a pretty easy time traveling across Europe which no longer has border checks on each country—ed]
At France 24 we learn that some of the poor and destitute travelers spent $13,000 to reach the port of Calais and they unleashed their anger at the French President where even the Socialist Hollande now apparently knows that an invasion is on.
Ali, a 38-year-old, can barely hide his anger, saying although French President Francois Hollande had taken a strong stand against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons, the French were not welcoming at all.
“Why does the president say one thing and the police another?” Ali said, adding that he had spent $13,000 (9,500 euros) to come to a country where the “president said ‘we must help Syrians.'”
“Here even animals are better treated than us,” he said.
$13,000! $13,000! Where the h*** is all that money coming from?
Does no mainstream investigative reporter ever ask? I believe young Muslim activists are being paid to lead these demonstrations, the question is, who is funding them?
I hear Al Azraq calling! That is the state-of-the-art UN refugee camp in Jordan that sits empty. How about packing all of the demanding Syrians up and taking them there (including the ones now plaguing Bulgaria). Such action would send a message and other Syrians would think twice before heading off to Europe. It is a simple solution, but too sensible for the UN.
For more information: We never did make a special category for Syrian refugees (a mistake), but if you use our tags you should be able to find the dozens of posts on the topic. (See tags in right hand side bar).