Writing at World Review, economic analyst Bernard Siman asks whether Europe could handle a new wave of “refugees” escaping Egypt this time.
Greece and Cyprus are the closest European countries to Egypt in Africa.
There has been little, if any, public discussion of possible scenarios, let alone serious crisis planning, whether politically, economically, administratively or militarily.
This is potentially a huge scale multi-dimensional problem.
Egypt’s 82.5 million population is separated from the Schengen area’s most eastern point of entry at Cyprus by 500 kilometres of Mediterranean Sea.
Any mass population movement fleeing Egypt’s violence – and in extremis civil war – will potentially be a game-changer at a time of serious and combined financial and economic crisis across Europe.
Austerity, deep financial cuts, widespread and vocal populist discontent about multiculturalism and immigration are affecting the eurozone and Cyprus and Greece in particular – the two Schengen members closest to the north Egyptian coast.
It is hard to say whether any naval crisis-planning exists to deal with such a sudden mass influx of Egyptian boat-people in the eastern Mediterranean.
Civil War in Egypt?
Egypt is descending into prolonged instability at best and civil war at worst. Both are likely to lead to increased migration through normal individual arrangements or mass exits.
The impact will not just be Europe’s to suffer….
See all of our posts on Malta (and Italy) going back almost 6 years and the problems they face with migrants arriving from Libya to get an idea of what Cyprus and Greece might face. The US State Department has already set a dangerous precedent by transforming Malta’s illegal alien Africans into refugees being resettled now in your cities. What is to stop them doing the same for (Muslim Brotherhood???) Egyptians arriving on Cyprus?
The Telegraphhas a detailed article on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s plan to try to stem the tide of illegal aliens arriving on Malta, and getting stuck with them, because the EU rules they must abide by are really screwy.
“Refugees” hanging around in Malta waiting for a ticket out—to the US maybe!
We told you about the plan here and here the other day. If no changes are made Malta will eventually become a Muslim country, and the US will have played a role.
The tiny island of Malta has received 17,743 mainly African migrants this decade – the equivalent, in Britain, of 2.5 million people. And it is struggling to cope, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says.
[….]
Perched on a tiny but strategic set of islands between Europe and Africa, the Maltese have long prided themselves on their ability to repel unwanted invaders. In the 1500s, their resident Knights of St John were the heroes of Europe after seeing off the Ottoman Turks, and in the Second World War, they won the George Cross for helping Britain to keep Hitler at bay.
Their latest efforts to turn back a foreign armada, however, are unlikely to win such plaudits. Or not from the European Union, anyway, which last week was embroiled in a bitter row with Mr Muscat’s government over its plans to return Mr Abdi [a newly arrived Somali from Libya] and his ilk to Libya, from where they came in a people-smuggling boat 12 days ago.
Malta the doormat:
….the row has highlighted how Malta – and nearby Italy – is struggling to reconcile their obligations as EU states with their unsought role as the doormat for illegal migrants from Africa seeking entry to Europe.
EU rules keep them in Malta:
….few African immigrants seek to put down roots down in Malta, preferring instead to head to mainland Europe, where job prospects are better, and where they can legally go under the Schengen arrangements.
But that creates another problem. The rules insist they must return to the country where they first claimed asylum within three months, and while the majority simply overstay, every year hundreds are caught and forcibly returned to Malta from other Schengen countries.
The US to the rescue!
For new readers this is why we follow closely the controversy with illegal aliens (yes, The Telegraph calls them that in this piece) arriving on Malta—we are taking the largest share to America in a perversion of international refugee law.
Katrine Camilleri with Jesuit Refugee Services
A transfer scheme is already in place, but over the past decade other European nations have taken only 700 of Malta’s arrivals, with the US taking 1,300.
* Photo above is from this storywhere an immigration lawyer, Katrine Camilleri, (we mentioned herhere) got an award for her stellar work with the migrants arriving on Malta. This is what we want to know:
How many “refugees” has Ms. Katrine Camilleri welcomed to live in her home?
One more thing, Muscat represents the Center Left party in Malta and they are ticked-off at being labeled “xenophobes” by the immigration industry advocates.
Type ‘Malta’ into our search function for our many years of coverage of the Malta mess.
LOL! I’m thinking they used the wrong photo to illustrate their point—this guy looks a little rough to be “vulnerable.” Don’t you think?
Frankly, I can’t tell if the Malta Independent has published a news article or an opinion piece with this title: Are asylum seekers illegal immigrants?
What alien entering a country such as Malta would enter with any other story than he/she was seeking asylum? They are not stupid. So, I say they are illegal aliens until proven otherwise.
There must be a lot of people who agree with me and thus the Open Borders word-police are trying to regain control of the language with this below.
Asylum seekers who arrive in Malta by boat are neither engaging in illegal activity, nor are they immigrants. [Aliens then?—ed]
The UN Refugee Convention (to which Malta is a signatory) recognises that refugees have a right to enter a country for the purposes of seeking asylum, irrespective of how they arrive or whether they hold valid travel or identity documents.
The Convention, to which Malta is legally bound, stipulates that what would usually be considered as illegal actions, such as entering a country without a visa, should not be treated as illegal if a person is seeking asylum.
This means that it is incorrect to refer to asylum seekers who arrive without authorisation as “illegal”, as they in fact have a right to enter the country to seek asylum.
In line with Malta’s obligations under the Convention, Malta permits unauthorised entry into the country for the purposes of seeking asylum. Asylum seekers do not break any Maltese laws simply by arriving on boats or without authorisation. [Let’s see—five paragraphs say the very same thing in each one, do you dummies get the message now?—ed]
Such allowances are made because it is not always safe or practicable for asylum seekers to obtain travel documents or travel through authorised channels.
For new readers, here is our archive on Malta. We follow the illegal alien issue there regularly because the US State Department has brought thousands of illegal alien men, like the one in the photo, to your towns and cities as “refugees” in a perversion of international refugee law.
Update July 17th: 7,500 Germans have been killed by aliens since the Berlin Wall came down—hmmm! Guess it’s xenophobic to mention that. See TheMuslim Issue for the news.
Of course they are—how else does one explain that the German people are getting anxious about the extreme numbers of asylum seekers pouring into Germany when jobs are scarce and they fear crime from the mostly Muslim migrants coming in from war zones.
Charming “refugees” demand that Germany take them in! At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in 2012.
Here is a story from Deutsche Welle explaining that residents of Berlin and also of former East Germany have had enough. (LOL! How many times in this story is the word ‘xenophobe’ used?)
Residents of Berlin are fighting a new home for asylum seekers with xenophobic rhetoric, while refugees in Munich are staging hunger strikes. Both sides of the asylum debate are becoming more vocal in their protests.
Some residents in Hellersdorf, a district in Berlin, have been increasingly worried of late: about home and property values, about peace on their streets, and about the well-being of their children.
They don’t want asylum seekers to end up living in their neighborhood, and their arguments against a new residence for asylum seekers are becoming increasingly xenophobic.A few weeks ago, residents of another Berlin neighborhood collected signatures against establishing emergency accommodation for refugees. Such buildings are desperately needed, because the number of refugees in need of help in the German capital has increased since last year and now stands at around 6,000.
A study says that a quarter of Germans (20 million) harbor deep dark secret xenophobia:
It is well known that in Germany, asylum policy is a touchy subject and xenophobia is on the rise. According to a study conducted in 2012, more than a quarter of Germany’s 80 million people harbor xenophobic tendencies.
Maybe they just have concerns for the economic well-being of their families:
He [Social scientist who conducted the study] said more than half of Germans in the former East Germany wish that foreigners would get sent home, because jobs are hard to come by there.
Asylum seekers are getting more aggressive (Gee, maybe that is why the xenophobics are so upset):
But it’s not just the Germans whose resentment about the country’s asylum policies is growing. The other side is also developing a harsher tone. Refugees are raising public awareness about limitations on their personal freedoms, and protest initiatives are becoming bolder.
There are just too many invaders demanding a piece of the German pie!
Mesovic believes the explanation for the tense situation is clear: Germany has underestimated the number of asylum seekers.
“Plans were made for a very low number of asylum seekers on the basis of historic data,” he said. “These were accurate as of four years ago. Back then, there were about 30,000 to 40,000 asylum seekers per year. But this year it could climb to 90,000.”
Then this morning there is a story from All Africa reporting that Egypt is turning back Syrian refugees, but funny thing is that there is not a word about Egyptians being xenopobes!
The United Nations refugee agency said today it is concerned about reports of a number of flights carrying Syrians being turned back from airports in Egypt, and reiterated its call on all Governments to admit and protect Syrians who have fled the conflict in their country.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Syrian nationals that were turned back were returned to where their flights originated, including Damascus and Latakia.
This follows a decision on 8 July imposing new visa requirements, under which Syrian nationals are required to apply for a visa and security clearance prior to their travel to Egypt. UNHCR noted that the Egyptian Embassy in Damascus does not currently have the capacity to issue visas.
The Egyptians are traditionally hospitable (not so those German xenophobes):
“I appeal to the Egyptian authorities, as I have to all other Governments in the world, to admit and protect all Syrians seeking refuge in their country,” High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said.
“I fully understand the challenges faced by Egypt at the present moment. But the traditional hospitality of the Egyptian people should not be denied to Syrians trying to fleethe most devastating and dangerous conflict in the world today,” he added.
I guess you can tell I get annoyed by the double standard when a largely “unwelcome” Muslim country is treated with kid-gloves while largely Christian and Western countries are filled with a bunch of haters if they don’t want their country to collapse.
“Refugee” camps on the streets of Amsterdam. Will this happen to America one day? Photo: ‘bloggers without borders.’
I’m telling you, it would be cheaper in the end for Holland to just pay each of the failed asylum seekers (and the Iraqi government) to get them out of tents and off the streets in the Netherlands and back to Iraq. Same goes for Malta and the Somalis!
Iraq will not help the government in its efforts to deport Iraq nationals who have failed to become officially recognised as asylum seekers, junior justice minister Fred Teeven told Nos television.
Teeven has just returned from a visit to Iraq, but the country is refusing to accept failed asylum seekers who are being deported against their will, Teeven said. Only Iraqi nationals who volunteer to go back are accepted.
[….]
The group of failed refugees who have been living in tents and former churches in the Netherlands include many Iraqis. They cannot be deported because they don’t have the proper paperwork but are not entitled to official accommodation from the Dutch state.
Teeven’s predecessor Gerd Leers offered Iraq €5m in development aid to accept deportees but Iraq demanded $10,000 per person instead, Nos said.
It will ultimately cost the Netherlands more than $10,000 per person to house and feed the jobless migrants.
By the way, we reported the other daythat Australia was having the same problem with Iranians they wish to deport—Iran doesn’t want them back.
