Syria’s growing number of refugees have found some unlikely champions in the form of British actors Emma Thompson and Colin Firth. The British Hollywood stars have demanded David Cameron offers a safe haven for those fleeing from the civil war that has engulfed the country for almost three years.
Other celebrities to sign a letter demanding action from Number 10 include Monty Python star Michael Palin, fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, Firth’s wife Livia, artist Grayson Perry and actress Juliet Stevenson.
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“We’re ashamed that Britain isn’t one of them [countries “welcoming” Syrians].
Actress Emma Thompson “ashamed” of the UK
They clearly don’t understand that there is nothing temporary about refugee resettlement via the UN.
“We’ve done it before, offering temporary resettlement places to Kosovan, Bosnian and Vietnamese people in their hour of greatest need.
As for “vulnerable” Syrians, as far as I can tell they don’t mention the word Christian.
One commenter tells us what the average citizen of the UK (or USA) is thinking—-how about if you rich celebrities take care of them yourselves!
Dibber D:
I doubt they will let them live in their own properties, pay for their clothes, bills and food, until they’re ready to put THEIR own money and properties where their mouths are i would suggest they stop flapping their gums.
No farm work for these ‘asylum seekers’ or they will kill themselves!
Iranian hunger strikers in Cyprus. Do they look like they haven’t eaten in 52 days?
Sheesh, do you believe this one! From Cyprus Mail (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):
AS THEY enter day 52 of their hunger strike and the fourth day without water, Iranian political refugees who are camped outside the Interior Ministry asking to be granted citizenship or residency, warn that they won’t back down.
All the petitioners are political refugees, having fled their countries out of fear for their lives and that of their family members.
“I’d rather die here than give up. We can’t live like that anymore”, one of the strikers told the Cyprus Mail, pointing out that they just want what they are entitled to by international law. “We are recognised political refugees. We fled our countries, some of us over ten years ago. We have been trying to get long term residency status or citizenship for years, so we can move legally to other European countries.We have friends and family in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and other countries. Some of us just want to leave, not stay here. We don’t want money. We are qualified, we want to work and contribute”, he said.
The four hunger strikers are Muhammad Altaf and Asadollah Panahimehr, who have been camped out at the Ministry of Interior for over a month, and friend Salah Chanim who joined them recently. [I guess they aren’t Christian Iranians.—ed]
Surprise (NOT!) They got the attention of the UNHCR which expressed sympathy for the extortionists!
The strikers were visited yesterday by Damtew Dessalegne, representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, who expressed his sympathy and support for their cause.
No farm work for me said Muhammad Altaf:
The minister also commented on the fact that one of the refugees, who has been out of work for three years, hasn’t registered with the unemployment office. Hasikos claims that the man refuses to register because the office won’t find him a job fitting his qualifications. “The Interior ministry cannot ensure that anyone, local or immigrant, would be given a job according to his qualifications”, he remarked.
The man in question, Altaf, is a software engineer and said he was told he could only work on farms.
Check out the comments! Several suggest they don’t look like they are starving. One suggests they go back to Iran and fight to save their country from the fanatics. Here is a good one from ‘Almostbroke’ wanting answers to some questions:
Did they arrive at immigration at the airport ? Did they present documentation? Did they comply with the Dublin Convention ! or are they like a lot of other so called refugees ,egged on by self appointed NGOs like KISA, to ´make it up as they go along´as usual ! Flout a countries immigration laws and then expect specialist treatment, its happening in every EU country where there are generous Social Welfare benefits.
Let’s see, farm work? or kill myself? farm work? or kill myself? What would a logical and legitimate refugee choose?
We have reported on the rise of the rightwing in Bulgaria, the poorest of the 28 European Union countries, as it struggles to deal with thousands of Muslim “refugees” (not only Syrians) coming across their border from Turkey. Why isn’t Turkey stopping them when they get to Turkey’s border? That is what we want to know?
Blogger Ruslan Trad
But, this story in theStandart (and reprinted from the International Business Times) looks to me like it’s designed to whip-up a frenzy of anti-right sentiment linking the Bulgarian right to Greece’s controversial Golden Dawn. And, they rely on a blogger they describe as a Syrian/Bulgarian, founder of theForum for Arab Culture(in Bulgarian language we presume), who produced these pro-Palestinian youtube clips (here and here). He would hardly be an unbiased source. Emphasis below is mine:
Bulgaria nationalist groups have launched civil patrols to round-up migrants in the country in a hate attack strategy that is reminiscent of Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group, The International Business Times reports.
The Balkan country has seen a surge in xenophobic attackssince a wave of refugees escaping from the horrors of the civil war in Syria, 2,000 km south of the capital Sofia, has entered via the Turkish border.
From June 2013, more than 10,000 refugees reached Bulgaria and human rights organisations expect tens of thousands to make the journey in the coming months.
The surge of nationalist sentiment, which led to the creation of the new Nationalist Party of Bulgaria, is fuelled by the government’s lack of preparation, information and adequate response to the refugee crisis, according to Ruslan Trad, Syrian-Bulgarian blogger and founder of Forum for Arab Culture.
“Lack of information leads to aggression and fears. And these fears are used by nationalist factions,” he told IBTimes UK.
“We have no clear information for the refugees: who are they, what’s their ethnic and religious composition.
Wouldn’t that last bit concern you no matter what your home country is that is being overrun?
Read it all. Trad appears to be the source for the whole piece.
Where they could face “inhuman or degrading treatment” say the UN bullies.
If you are wondering what this is all about, the European Union has this dumb thing called the ‘Dublin Regulation’ which says if ‘asylum seekers’ trek across some poor border country—like Bulgaria, Greece, or Malta—and seek asylum in some other European country then they can be sent back to the poor border country and apply there. You can see how this might deter the migrants who are asylum shopping, but imagine what it does to the poor border country that couldn’t handle the influx in the first place.
Bulgaria’s rightwing Ataka Party is expected to do well in May EU elections.
BERLIN – The United Nations’ refugee agency is urging European countries to hold off returning asylum seekers to Bulgaria, citing problems with access to basic services and with asylum procedures.
Under the “Dublin procedure,” European Union countries return illegal migrants to the first EU country they entered. Bulgaria is on the bloc’s eastern edge and has seen increasing numbers of asylum seekers in recent months, among them people fleeing Syria’s civil war.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees urged other countries Friday to suspend returning migrants to Bulgaria because of risks they could face “inhuman or degrading treatment”; it plans to review the situation in April.
April! More likely Mayafter the EU Parliament elections so they don’t tick-off the rightwing so much that they defeat some of the socialists who now run the EU!
It says Bulgaria has made progress but problems remain with asylum seekers’ access to food and health care, registration delays and risks of arbitrary detention.
You can see that my sympathies are with Bulgaria. For more on Bulgaria’s “refugee crisis,” click here.
What would we do without readers who help us do our work by finding good stories for us? Again, ‘pungentpeppers’ has been busy reading.
Pretty much the same story we’ve been reporting for years except, of course, the pace has increased and the number of foundering boats and passengers seems to be growing exponentially. I guess they didn’t hear about the 300 plus who drowned only a few months ago.
The Italian navy has rescued more than 1,000 migrants in the 24 hours to Friday from boats trying to reach Europe, as an immigration crisis that killed hundreds in the last year showed no signs of easing.
Navy helicopters spotted four overcrowded boats struggling to stay afloat south of Sicily on Thursday and ships were sent to save them, the navy said in a statement.
The 823 men, women and children aboard the four vessels were from countries including Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Tunisia.
The navy also rescued 233 migrants from Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Zambia, Mali and Pakistan in a separate operation and took them to a port near Syracuse on Sicily’s eastern coast.
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Over the past two decades, Italy, Greece and the Mediterranean island of Malta have the brunt of the migrant flowsand have urged a coordinated European Union response.
Type ‘Malta’ into our search function and learn about how the Bush Administration, and now the Obama Administration, have helped make Malta a magnet for illegal aliens hoping to get a ticket to America as we have turned hundreds of mostly Somali economic migrants to Malta into legitimate refugees for America.
