European countries want to close borders, send refugees back

In my previous two posts I told you about those refugees—young fellows hungering for a better life—who threw a few of their competitors for that better life into the sea as human sacrifices, here. Then I told you that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) lectured European leaders telling them to allow those African men—just yearning for freedom—into Europe, here.

Europe to the Leftwing:  NO way Jose’ (or Abdi, Hamid, Mohammed, or whoever you are)

The UK Guardian (hat tip:  Janet) reported yesterday that many leaders were in no mood to hear squishy talk from the likes of UN Socialists like Antonio Gutteres (emphasis mine):

European nations moved to reverse decades of unfettered travel across the continent when a majority of EU governments agreed the need to reinstate national passport controls amid fears of a flood of immigrants fleeing the upheaval in north Africa.

In a serious blow to one of the cornerstones of a united, integrated Europe, EU interior ministers embarked on a radical revision of the passport-free travel regime known as the Schengen system to allow the 26 participating governments to restore border controls.

They also agreed to combat immigration by pressing for “readmission accords” with countries in the Middle East and north Africa to send refugees back to where they came from.

The policy shift was pushed by France and Italy, who have been feuding and panicking in recent weeks over a small [?–ed] influx of refugees from Tunisia. But 15 of the 22 EU states which had signed up to Schengen supported the move, with only four resisting, according to officials and diplomats present.

“Fortress Europe” mood led by Denmark!

The move to curb freedom of travel came as the extreme nationalist right, which is increasingly influencing policy across Europe, chalked up a notable victory in Denmark, which announced it would unilaterally re-erect controls on its borders with Germany and Sweden

The centre-right minority government in Copenhagen capitulated to the fiercely anti-immigrant nationalists of the Danish People’s party to secure parliamentary backing for long-term budget, welfare and retirement policies. “I have worked hard for this,” said Pia Kjaersgaard, the far-right leader.

Despite the ‘fortress Europe’ mood gripping EU leaders, the Danish decision stunned many because it was taken just hours before an emergency EU meeting devoted to immigration and the Schengen regime.

Gaddafi’s ultimate weapon—hordes of African young men descending on Europe

The policy shift has also been triggered by acute nervousness about the impact of the Arab spring. “There are hundreds of thousands on the shores of north Africa. Something extraordinary could happen any day,” said a senior EU diplomat. “If Gaddafi uses this weapon, he can create a lot of problems for Europe.”

The Guardian revealed this week that the Gaddafi regime is allowing thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants on to overcrowded, unseaworthy ships in an apparently calculated attempt to use migration to pressure Nato and the EU countries against backing Libya’s rebels. [ LOL!  Give me a break!  Are we to believe that Antonio Gutteres didn’t know about this when he talked of those young fellows just seeking a brighter future in Europe?—ed]

Read the whole Guardian piece—you will laugh!  The reporter can barely contain himself, his bias against the right just oozes from his pen.

UNHCR: Europe! let them take advantage of their sudden liberty!

As I mentioned in my previous post about human sacrifices at sea, Antonio Gutteres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees recently lectured Europe (via an op-ed in the New York Times) about welcoming the African refugees.

Among a bunch of other junk, he said in ‘Look who’s coming to Europe’:

Refugees fleeing conflict and persecution have so far been only a small proportion of the people crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, and to Italy and Malta in particular. The vast majority have been young Tunisian migrants. Overwhelmingly male, single and in their 20s, they have sought to take advantage of their sudden liberty to pursue brighter prospects in Europe.

And, besides, Europe you need cheap labor!

This is understandable. And it can be argued that Europeans’ self-interest is best served by allowing them to remain, given the need for migrant workers in Europe and migrants’ remittances to families bolstering the economies back home.

No fear or populism allowed!

But in the end, European states have the right to define migration policies and manage their borders in a responsible manner, provided they do so consistent with their international obligations, namely in regard to refugees. It is my hope that they will be guided by their enlightened self-interest and not by narrow, short-term interests driven by fear or populism.

Gutteres also attempts to make the connection between revolution in Portugal* when he was young and the “Arab Spring” and in a subsequent letter to the editor a reader argues that the big difference is that the democracy movement activists in Portugal stayed to change Portugal and did not take advantage of their “sudden liberty” to run to another country and ask for a handout.   Read the letter here.

*I have to admit, I wondered what the heck socialist Gutteres is talking about since Portugal today is an economic mess too—just less of a mess than North Africa!

Lovely, just lovely, “refugees” offer human sacrifices at sea

I wonder how White House operative Samantha Power’s theory about the “responsibility to protect” fits the reality of what is happening in North Africa as “refugees” flee the continent.

From World News Italy:

Rome – Italy opened an inquiry on Wednesday into allegations by a refugee fleeing Libya that some people on the boat he arrived on threw other refugees into the sea as a human sacrifice during a storm.

The 16-year-old Ghanaian spoke to a volunteer from the charity Save the Children after arriving on the island of Lampedusa earlier this month and his disturbing allegations against a group of Nigerians were reported to police.

“As soon as we received the testimony we opened an investigation as required,” the local chief prosecutor, Renato Di Natale, said.

[….]

Italian newspapers quoted the teenager’s chilling testimony directly.

“The sea was getting stormy and a group of Nigerians on board suddenly decided the only way to calm the weather was to sacrifice some of us,” the unnamed boy was quoted as saying by La Repubblica daily.

“It was like a rite of sacrifice,” La Stampa quoted him as saying, adding: “The captain pointed them out and the others threw them overboard.”

The Ghanaian, who is now in a refugee centre in Italy, said his brother was one of the victims and also spoke of women being raped on the boat.

The news reports said other refugees had confirmed the Ghanaian’s story.

Thousands of refugees fleeing Libya – almost all of them migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia – have been arriving in Italy in recent weeks as the conflict in North Africa has escalated.

Hey Europe!  Good luck with your new and charming residents!

Next:  UN High Commissioner for Refugees (a socialist friend of Samantha Power!) lectures Europe about “welcoming” the poor and downtrodden African.

Geert Wilders speaks the truth in Tennessee

Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders spoke in Nashville last night—fitting that it was Nashville as we have written often about the growing Muslim (mostly Somali) population in that city.  Note we have a whole category on Nashville, here, and two years ago I attended a meeting there and the conference hotel which originally booked our meeting threw us out—free speech indeed!

From American Thinker (Hat tip: Scott):

Dear friends from Tennessee. I am very happy to be in your midst today. I am happy and proud to be in this impressive church.

My friends, I am here to speak words of truth and freedom.

Do you know why America is in a better state than Europe? Because you enjoy more freedom than Europeans.
And do you know why Americans enjoy more freedom than Europeans? Because you are still allowed to tell the truth.

In Europe and Canada people are dragged to court for telling the truth about islam.

I, too, have been dragged to court. I am an elected member of the house of representatives in the Netherlands. I am currently standing in court like a common criminal for saying that islam is a dangerous totalitarian ideology rather than a religion.

The court case is still pending, but I risk a jail sentence of 16 months.

Last week, my friend Lars Hedegaard, a journalist from Denmark, was fined because in a private conservation, which was recorded without his knowing, he had criticised the way women are treated in islamic societies.

Recently, another friend, Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, a human rights activist from Austria, was fined because she had criticised islam’s founder Muhammad. She had said that Muhammad was a pedophile because he had married a 6-year old girl and raped her when she was 9.

Read it all.  Use our search function for “Geert Wilders” for more posts on this brave man!

Geert Wilders will be in Tennessee

Geert Wilders, the outspoken defender of free speech in Europe as he calls for a halt to Muslim immigration to his homeland, the Netherlands, will be in Nashville next week.  This according to the excellent website Gates of Vienna, here.

The Canadian chapter of the International Free Press Society is bringing Geert Wilders to North America next week. After visiting three Canadian cities (Toronto, London, and Ottawa), on May 12 Mr. Wilders, along with Sam Solomon and Bill Warner, will appear at the Cornerstone Church in Madison, a suburb of Nashville. This event is being held under the auspices of the Tennessee Freedom Coalition.

Mr. Wilders, who initiated his discussion of “The Failure of Multiculturalism” in Rome on March 25, will continue his battle against cultural relativism and Islamization, beginning in Canada on May 8 and ending in Nashville on May 12. Canada is famous for having invented Multiculturalism under Pierre Trudeau in the late 1970s, so it will be ironic for Canadians to be lectured by Geert Wilders on this modern disease, and to receive a warning from the rising political star in the Netherlands.

Mr. Wilders will continue his lectures in Nashville, where the current legislature is contemplating “anti-sharia” legislation. Nashville’s neighboring city of Murfreesboro is famous for its battle over a planned mega-mosque. The Cornerstone Church is a large church in the Nashville area, where several thousand Christians are expected to listen to Wilders’ “Warning to America.”

Judy and I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Wilders speak in Washington, DC in February of 2009 here.  Type ‘Geert Wilders’ into our search function for our many reports on his warning to the West.

Tennessee is at the epicenter right now of the push-back against Islamic supremacism in the US, here.