It is rare to see news from Russia about its illegal migrant problem, but here is a story from Monday that appeared in my alerts. Eroding social cohesionthere too?
MOSCOW, Nov 3 2014 (IPS) – Immigrants in Russia could face a wave of violence following thousands of arrests in a crackdown on illegal immigration which has been condemned not only for human rights breaches but for entrenching a virulent negative public perception of migrants.
Russia “intimidating migrants” says human rights activist Tolekan Ismailova who apparently wears many hats. http://www.rferl.org/content/uzbekistan-kyrgyz-activist-detained/25027138.html
More than 7,000 people were arrested across Moscow – and more than 800 already served with deportation orders – under Operation Migrant 2014 which ran between Oct. 23 and Nov. 2 in the Russian capital.
The scale of the operation and methods used by the authorities has left international and local rights organisations outraged.
They say police used violence during raids on thousands of locations, including work places, markets, lodgings, hotels and people’s homes. They said that some migrants were forcibly taken from their families with no information given to relatives of where they were being taken.
Some were deported without proper procedures being observed, according to local lawyers while others claim many of an estimated up to 100,000 migrants detained had money confiscated by police before being released without their detention being recorded.
Tolekan Ismailova, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said: “This is simply an institutionalised way of intimidating migrants and their families. The operation violates Russia’s international obligations to respect human dignity and ban the practice of arbitrary detentions.”
But beyond the rights abuses, the highly-publicised raids are, critics argue, also helping foment and entrench a xenophobic attitude to migrants in wider society that increases the risk of violence against them.
Ismailova told IPS: “Operations like this only reinforce negative images of migrants in Russia and increase violence towards them. Once Russians see images of the raids in the news they will rally to support the government’s actions.”
The warnings come amid hardening attitudes towards what some Russian MPs estimate to be as many as 10 million migrants across Russia.
There is more, read it all here. I wonder what proportion of the illegal migrants are Muslims?
We have some other posts on Russian immigration problems and Russian refugees to America, click here and scroll through those for more information.
There are ‘pockets of resistance’ in some European countries which still have a will to live—one of those countries is Bulgaria which recently came under fire from the UN for building a border fence with Turkey so as to keep from being overrun.
Bulgaria attempting to protect itself from invasion from Turkey built additional border fencing this year. Photo Credit: Reuters/Stoyan Nenov
Here is a bit of the latest news. Although most of our readers are from the US, it is important for you to know the trajectory Europe is on.
Residents of the western Bulgarian village of Kovachevtsi have issued a declaration demanding that the immigrants accommodated at the National Children Ecological Complex leave by October 30.
Ventsislav Todorov, Chair of the Kovachevtsi Municipal Council, informed that the declaration would be sent to the President, Prime Minister, the Education Minister, and the Chair of the State Agency for Refugees and the District Governor of Pernik.
“We oppose integration in a situation where Bulgarians are a minority, while Somali and Afghan nationals without refugee status are a majority,” he explained, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio.
See our Bulgaria archive here, and our ‘invasion of Europe’ series here.
Editor: This is a guest post by reader ‘pungentpeppers’ giving us a more vivid picture of what is happening with illegal migration in France (and Europe generally). Note our post from earlier in the week—From Catalonia to Calais….
“In France, as here in the U.S., the press often shows illustrations of women and children in stories about illegal migrants and refugees.” But, the French are mostly “fed up.” Photo: L’Express. Pascal Leray.
From ‘pungentpeppers’ (emphasis is RRW’s):
Illegal migration is stressing the French Republic.
From Lyon in the south to Calais in the north, from the Paris suburbs of Bagnolet and Saint-Ouen, and east to the German border, and south to Menton on the Mediterranean, our basket of news from France is filled with recent worrisome stories.
Last year France ranked third, after Germany and America, among rich countries for asylum applications received. French authorities handled almost 66,000 asylum requests, but granted protection to fewer than 11,500. Some migrants, refused asylum, stay on illegally. The rest join hundreds of others who want to leave France to try their luck elsewhere. Many head for the northern port city of Calais from where they hope to smuggle themselves into the United Kingdom.
Calais in Disarray
Angry mobs of hundreds of Sudanese and Eritrean migrants desperate to leave France battled each other last week in the northern French port city of Calais. Wielding iron bars and knives, and hurling masses of stones and rocks, they fought for control of an area of land from which they could sneak onto trucks headed for the U.K. More than 50 migrants were injured in the melee. The fighters are part of a group of about 2,000 Africans and Middle Easterners currently encamped in Calais, sleeping in makeshift tents, waiting for a chance to smuggle themselves abroad. Conditions are rough, and numerous fights have broken out over food and supplies. French police have at times bulldozed the migrants’ camp sites, citing health concerns – including an outbreak of scabies – but the migrants keep returning.
Truck drivers heading for the U.K. are terrified. One driver, Tommy Harrison, was ambushed by a gang in Calais. He said: “One of them pulled a knife on me while others climbed up on top of the cab and cut a hole in the curtain to get inside. It was very frightening. There was very little I could do. About 10 of them got in. It’s hopeless going to the gendarmes [French police] because they don’t want to know, so I drove to a lorry park where I knew there would be other drivers and we got them out.”
The French blame the British for the terrible situation in Calais. If Britain wasn’t such an attractive nuisance, the migrants wouldn’t try to go there, and Calais wouldn’t be having all of this trouble.
The New “French Resistance”?
It’s obvious that France isn’t measuring up when it comes to the uninvited migrants’ expectations for hospitality. Instead of greeting needy foreigners with a warm “bienvenu” (welcome), and offering them housing, food coupons and interpreter services, the French instead give them the cold shoulder. Perhaps it’s the famed “French Résistance” technique. Migrants arrive thinking they will wear the French down – but instead the French wear the migrants down and try to make them want to leave. If going to Britain isn’t appealing, the second prime destination choice for migrants escaping the country of fine wine and camembert is the land of ale and schnitzel.
To Germany By Train
Migrants have begun to head east from France to Germany in search of the elusive European “better life”. They travel by train, using tickets purchased from smugglers. So far this year, over 1,000 illegal migrants have taken advantage of Paris-Frankfurt rail links that connect the two countries. The trend worries Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the governor of the German state of Saarland. Her region is at the receiving end of the migration and is responsible for handling the asylum applicants arriving from France. As in the U.S., an increasing number of migrants pose as unaccompanied minors who are guaranteed special youth housing, medical care, and schooling paid for by local German taxpayers. German Chancellor Merkel is seeking French cooperation on the issue. Perhaps Germany should do like the French, and send the migrants back to Italy?
One Way or Round Trip?
Tens of thousands of illegal boat migrants have landed in Italy after sailing across the Mediterranean from Africa. Many of these newcomers, dissatisfied with the little that Italy has offered them, now dream of a better life in Germany, Britain or Sweden. On the way to dreamland, however, lies an inconvenient nation called France and the very bothersome French border police.
Faced with a massive influx of migrants leaving Italy, the French border police, newly reinforced, is concentrating its efforts on catching illegal travelers entering the south of France through Menton, Lyon, and other places. Many illegal migrants travel by rail, and the French border police have been arresting about one hundred a day, mostly Eritreans, on the trains and in train stations. They are then sent back to Italy. Thus the passengers, who planned a one-way trip, find that the French force them to travel round trip! Some travelers, however, show up sick.
Kidney Dialysis and a Transplant for Free!
Doctors and medical staff who treat kidney disease patients in the southern French city of Lyon are extra busy these days. Seriously ill kidney patients, from countries like Albania, Kosovo and Georgia, are arriving in Lyon seeking immediate medical treatment. Per the typical scenario, the traveler arrives at the train station very ill. He is immediately transported to a hospital emergency room. There the doctors see that the patient needs kidney dialysis. At that point the patient files for asylum, even if citizens from his country are not eligible. He then starts his emergency medical treatments. Per French law, three months after an asylum request is made, the patient becomes eligible for full free taxpayer-paid medical coverage and he is put on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. Eventually, even though his asylum claim is denied, the patient is granted special status as an “unwell foreigner”.
Per a report in the French “Le Monde” newspaper, well-organized networks are sending seriously ill patients to France as a business. The “medical refugees” arrive in Lyon knowing the full extent to which they can exploit the French system, have the names and addresses of dialysis centers in the city, and are quite open about coming to France “purely for health reasons”.
These new foreign patients are putting a serious strain on health facilities. For example, the Edouard-Herriot hospital has only 24 kidney dialysis patient beds and is running at maximum capacity. Besides the strain on medical facilities, unchecked migration is also contributing to a housing crisis in France.
Migrants Sleeping Rough: If Not Under a Bridge, Then in Front of City Hall
Migrants quit France for lack of housing, per a “Newsweek” report. “I’ve just been in Paris,” says Samuel (an Eritrean migrant), “and even the people I knew who had got asylum there were sleeping under a bridge.”
Last week a group of 200 Africans, mostly from Mali, set up camp outside the city hall of Bagnolet, a suburb of Paris. Joined by French anarchists, they demanded housing after the abandoned building where they had been squatting was destroyed in an arson fire. The local authority found housing for two families who had school-age children. However, the municipality issued a communique stating that they already have 3,000 applicants for social housing and do not have the means to relocate or house the rest of the migrants – and sent the police to evict them. The migrants then sought shelter under a highway bridge at first, but later settled themselves into another squat in the same suburb, an unoccupied building that used to serve as an employment agency.
Saint-Ouen – First Syrians, Now Kosovars or are they Kurds?
Back in April, I wrote about the refugees from Syria who occupied a city park in the Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen. After the municipality locked them out of the park, Syrian women continued to arrive, settling themselves on the sidewalk along the park fence. Because there were children with them, the French authorities expedited the asylum process and located housing for the families. The news of their victory must have spread, because in July a new group arrived on the scene.
This time, the municipality quickly locked up the park to prevent a recurrence of April’s events. Instead, the latest group of arrivals – about 40 families – set up camp on and alongside a grassy strip under a highway bridge at the entrance to Saint-Ouen. This new group was different from the April arrivals. They did not seem interested in seeking asylum. Their toddlers sometimes ran into the road amid the automobiles. The parents allowed their children to go and beg from passing motorists. During the evenings, the men fought over food and clothing donations. Per William Delannoy, the mayor of Saint-Ouen, the men were taking goods donated to them by car to local markets for resale. At the time he believed they were not refugees but Kurdish nomads from Syria. Per a later report, the municipality checked the group members’ papers and determined that although some were Syrian, most of them were Kosovar Albanians – and thus ineligible for asylum.
In France, as here in the U.S., the press often shows illustrations of women and children in stories about illegal migrants and refugees. An August “L’Express” report about the latest Saint-Ouen migrants refers to the group as “Syrians” and features at the top a photoshot showing a pair of cute little fair-haired girls grinning and flashing peace signs. How do the French people view such propaganda? Below the article, the most popular reader comment with over 100 upvotes states simply, “les Français commencent à en avoir marre!” or “the French are getting fed up!”
Editor: I was just imagining what America could look like someday with illegal alien squatters living under bridges and in encampments in US city parks (those cities away from the border!)—it will make news like that from Ferguson, MO this week look like a picnic. Americans simply won’t tolerate it, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet themselves. Or, is that sort of revolutionary “change” what some agitators are looking for?
A heated debate continues over the Australian government’s offer of funding to Cambodia if that country agrees to take some of Australia’s ‘refugee’ overflow.
The Abbott government came into office promising to reduce the illegal migration to Australia and they are working tirelessly to follow up on the pledge.
And, frankly, moves like this one—sending asylum seekers to Cambodia—will surely have a chilling affect on those human traffickers and would-be migrants to not try to get to Australia in the future.
The Cambodian government is in the final stages of considering a refugee resettlement agreement with Australia and wants to sign a memorandum of understanding as soon as possible.
[….]
“So far the working group already finished [its] studying on the draft proposed by Australia and I think that maybe soon, maybe a few days, maybe next week … we’ll send our counter-proposal to the Australian side.”
The human rights industrial complex is understandably having a cow over this plan and also blasted Cambodia for returning Muslim Uighurs to China. So I assume this would also mean that Cambodia wouldn’t want to take too many Muslim potential jihadists from Australia either.
Do these do-gooders really believe that Cambodia could stand up to China which surely must have demanded the Uigur’s return.
Cambodia is a signatory to the refugee convention but in 2009 it forcibly deported 20 ethnic Uighur back to China.
However, Mr Borith said any refugees resettled under a deal struck between Cambodia and Australia would be safe.
“Different story, different from the refugees that we have discussed with our Australian friends to … settle here,” he said.
“The Uighur come here illegally. Far away from China to Cambodia, how many thousand miles is Cambodia?
“They come here illegally. We can say that they [are] all illegal immigrants. That is different from the refugees that we discussed today with Australia.
We will be watching this story because honestly a get-tough strategy is the only thing that could possibly deter the invasion of western countries (do you hear that Europe! America!).
This is our 137th post in our Australia category, here.
Afghan migrant built his raft at Calais encampment, vows to build another one!
A young man who will surely need some mental health counseling in whatever country eventually gets to keep him, was rescued by the Coast Guard after his bed-sheet raft drifted off course earlier this week.
The story from the UK Daily Mail begins with this (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):
Coastguards told him he could have drowned and his friends think he is crazy.
But even though his attempt to cross the Channel on a flimsy raft ended in disaster, Afghan migrant Asif Hussainkhil is determined to try again.
After recovering from hypothermia brought on by his failed bid to reach Britain, he told the Mail: ‘I will keep trying because it is my destiny to get to England.’
The 33-year-old tried to cross the Channel on Monday with a raft made of six nailed-together bits of plank, with a bedsheet as a sail.
Later we learn that he left Afghanistan at age 19 and has lived in many countries since:
Since then he has travelled through nine countries, including Iran, Serbia and Switzerland, before moving to France to try and get to Britain. He is now living in a tent in Calais.
Be sure to go to The Mail and see the amazing photos of the mess these migrants have made of Calais.
Frankly I don’t get it! The European Union has a law that says legitimate asylum seekers must ask for asylum in the first safe country they reach in Europe. If they end up somewhere else, they are to be returned to that first country and have their claim processed there. Our sailor-wannabe surely passed through other EU countries before Switzerland.
So, why is France, the European Union or the UN even tolerating this slum camp at Calais?
Each of the migrants should be interviewed and returned to where they entered Europe or DEPORTED to the Middle East or Africa if they haven’t a legitimate asylum claim.
If you have been putting off a vacation trip to Europe, go now, before it’s gone!
Go here for all of our previous posts on the ‘invasion of Europe.’
