50,000 Syrians wait in a Turkish hotels to be smuggled into Germany, Sweden, Finland and Belgium.
There is so much news today, I don’t know what to write about first! But, be sure to see my previous post about the US Justice Department letting a Somali (refugee) terrorist leave the country with vital information about the DC area.
This is one more in our ‘Invasion of Europe’ series—this time the invasion is being aided and abetted by Turkey (no surprise!).
From Al-Jazeera:
MERSIN, Turkey — During summer months, Turks and Arabs on holiday crowd the Turkish port of Mersin, a town of 1.5 million people on the Mediterranean Sea. Stores lining the seafront sell Armani handbags and Turkish women sit unveiled in coffee shops, texting on their smartphones.
But in the last few years, hotels on Mersin’s waterfront have become home to a different kind of traveler.
Upper-middle-class refugees fleeing the violence of Syria’s civil war have used Mersin as an early waypoint – a safe harbor of sorts – on their way to new lives in countries like Germany, Sweden, Finland and Belgium.
In fact, Mersin’s tourist hotels, built recently but already showing signs of aging, serve as home to at least 50,000 Syrian refugees.
In the race to house them all, Green Tower hotel is ground zero. Here, Turkish has been replaced with Arabic, and some 300 Syrians wander the property aimlessly, waiting in limbo between the hell of war and an uncertain emigration to Europe. Rarely do they leave the hotel complex, in fear of missing the call that could very well represent the beginning of their new lives.
The one-way trip to Western Europe is organized by the Syrian and Turkish mafias and managed in detail by smugglers. Charging about $6,000 per person, the journey is accessible only to those who have put money aside — Syrians who have sold their homes and shops and managed to scrape together just enough to move their families away from danger.
In the past, most migrants who’ve found their way to the shores of Mersin were from African countries, rescued from small, waterlogged crafts. But this migration is different.
Smugglers transport refugees from Mersin to points throughout Europe on large ships, capable of squeezing up to 800 people into their hold.
[….]
According to Abu Hasan, a Syrian smuggler from Aleppo, the refugees used to be sent to Italy and Greece, but now head to Germany, Sweden, Finland and Belgium.
There is a lot more, with many photos, here. Learn why Italy and Greece are not desirable landing sites any longer.
Why doesn’t the government of Turkey clean up the smuggler business? I would guess two reasons—money, and because the government of Turkey is likely very happy to see Europe increase its Muslim population and thus bring about an Islamic state in Europe sooner than later.
And, come to think of it, where is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees?