Refugee Crisis

[Grumpyauldgit]

It is no secret, that for almost the last 20 years, I have been married to a refugee.

The esteemed Mrs Auldgit was born in a place where crime, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of education, and a complete lack of hope, was the norm.

It was only when her family sought asylum in Glasgow, was she able to put all these horrible memeories behind her, and start to think, of actually having a future.

My wife and her family, have lived in Glasgow for many years now, and have intergrated them selves into the community that well, that they now consider themselves to be Glaswegians, but every now and then you do see my wife, getting a wee bit misty eyed, when she thinks of her homeland of Paisley.

[Wibble]

It is no secret, that for almost the last 20 years, I have been married to a refugee.

The esteemed Mrs Auldgit was born in a place where crime, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of education, and a complete lack of hope, was the norm.

It was only when her family sought asylum in Glasgow, was she able to put all these horrible memeories behind her, and start to think, of actually having a future.

My wife and her family, have lived in Glasgow for many years now, and have intergrated them selves into the community that well, that they now consider themselves to be Glaswegians, but every now and then you do see my wife, getting a wee bit misty eyed, when she thinks of her homeland of Paisley.

Silly bugger!

[Wibble]

From what I can see... and I may be in drink - some fuqqin' chancers dancing their way intae Europe...

Have a 'gang' - 'cos some are - living at the end of your road - and see how you want folk rakin' yer bins.

Love the Germans/helme (u)ts and boxheads... but they owe the world - so let pay their way fter how they fuqqqed Europe from 1933 - s.

Embdy want tae see Angela wi' nae claises on..."

Here we go! NUDITY!!!

https://theslnaturist.wordpress.com/tag/angela-merkel/

Ooops!

I thought it was just an 'undraped pic' - apologies - bring on the ban.

[Bristolhibby]

Feck that, Putin has just confirmed his aid and further support for Assad. He's decided to step in and stabilise the region by force. Assad is hardly perfect however we've seen the other option, and some point pragmatism must win out. However some countries in the region have been offering medical and military support to ISIS.

It's a massive shambles.

Sensible idea. It's a shame the west couldn't see this. Assad is the lesser of two evils. We have to admit we've backed the wrong horse, and let another (psycho, criminal murdering horse take over).

Assad and the moderates must smoke the peace pipe and unite behind a common enemy.

Us Bombing Assad in any way is lunacy (exactly what the Tories wanted to do before they were voted down).

J

[MacTaz]

So who is going to do it for them then ? It's their country, let them fight for it ! That way we won't lose any more of our sons and daughters and the bleeding hearts can't vilify the poor bastards when they come back minus limbs and their sanity !

[Mee]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34169726

Looks like they want Hungary to be the bad guy again

[scotlad]

I've been very critical of the communication, tone and language that has come out from the UK Government on this crisis but I think we need to recognise that there are a lot of unanswered questions and there is no easy fix. I think most reasonable people would want policy to fall in the middle ground with every country doing their fair share but as others have said - how do you facilitate it in a considered manner? It's a huge challenge for governments and they simply need to find answers.

Others may have raised these points and many are being shot down but these points do need serious consideration:

- After fleeing their own country, why are the refugees progressing from (relative) safety of Turkey, Greece, Hungary, etc. to other regions of the EU? The process simply can't be allowed to flow uncontrolled in the EU - there needs to be registration and distribution that can't simply be handpicking what is perceived to be the most desirable location. I have honestly no idea to what extent Turkey is supporting these refugees but I imagine it is supporting their existence as much as anything else and not allowing for much of a life. They have 1.5m refugees so it's no surprise that many are heading in the direction of the EU - especially if they are simply being held in refugee camps, etc. Sadly, it hadn't even dawned on me that so many of these people are making the journey from Turkey as opposed to directly escaping from Syria, etc.

- How do we support an influx/integration refugees without further encouraging economic migration which is putting so many lives at risk? We can't simply ignore that economic migration is part of this. There's also no passports/papers for the vast majority of people so how do we validate who is coming from Syria/Turkey/Eritrea/etc.? There is a real danger to being seen as an open gateway and this goes beyond selfishness of EU states but the dangers of the journey and risks that these people are taking on.

- What are the rich Arab / Gulf states such as Saudi doing to support? If they are not doing much then they should be lobbied to do so.

- Same as above for USA. They are the prime culprit for destablising the entire region. They might not have to worry about borders with these countries but they sure as hell should be supporting. Financially and otherwise.

- What would/should governments do with 'economic migrants'? If people were to suggest that they should be sent 'back' - where do they get sent back to? Italy, Greece, Serbia, Turkey, Syria? (can we realistically send people back to a war-zone?).

I sure as hell don't know what the answers are but it's for the governments to work out. Who knows what the reasoned middle ground is as it is far from simple.

According to this, the US has had 13,000 asylum cases 'referred for consideration':

https://www.freemovement.org.uk/resettlement-of-syrian-refugees-uk-bottom-of-league-table/

I don't know if that means they have physically taken in that number of people yet or if they are just working through the applications while the people concerned remain in refugee camps for the time being.

Absolutely. Shame is the right word and I'm sure history will remember this in that way. The position by our political leaders is disgusting. More interested in "protecting" our way of life than helping humans.

On the contrary, I think the Tories are intent in destroying large parts of the British way of life. They certainly seem to have it in for the welfare state anyway!

don't recall the same rush to help with rwanda, & balkan massacres etc in 90s

of course that was before the online frenzy, you could read the paper, watch panorama etc

The UK took in refugees from Kosovo in the late '90s (I forget how many exactly). Quite a few were housed in Scotland.

[Ally Bongo]

Still buying The Sun ?

[Bristolhibby]

Still buying The Sun ?

FFS!

This is from Twitter.

@Shiny02: That Sun front page is like whispering "for Frodo" and then bombing the crap out of the Shire.

J

[Alibi]

I heard that "John from Aberdeen" on Call Kaye this morning. What a xenophobic racist bigot he is.

[hampden_loon2878]

So if we accept tens of thousands of refugees, do they then return home when their home lands are safe?

[usainboltyarocket]

So if we accept tens of thousands of refugees, do they then return home when their home lands are safe?

Is this a serious question?

[giblet]

I heard that "John from Aberdeen" on Call Kaye this morning. What a xenophobic racist bigot he is.

absolutely incredible how he is on every week.

[Parklife]

So if we accept tens of thousands of refugees, do they then return home when their home lands are safe?

You could sing a wee song "the war is over, why don't you go home?"

Catchy...

[scotlad]

So if we accept tens of thousands of refugees, do they then return home when their home lands are safe?

Most of the Kosovans did, by all accounts.

[phart]

Still buying The Sun ?

I actually went and read the article. Being totally lied to about the situation in Syria, in the same way about Iraq. George Osborne is a snake in the grass. A puppet spouting what he is told to spout. I said much earlier in the thread it's interesting to see emotive pictures displayed because it isn't something normally done mainstream. Now linking the refugee crisis to the vote in 2013 is total sophistry. the 2013 parliamentary debate was to attack Assad to deter him from using chemical weapons (which was never established by the way). It's the western/Israeli/Saudi alliance that funded the insurgents that are actually causing the refugee's. Assads family has been in power for decades, and no mass refugee events occurred, in fact they dealt with the majority of the Iraqi refugees in the previous gulf operations. It was the establishment of first "Free Syria Army" by Saudi and Qatar with ground and air support from the Israeli's. Which then morphed into what we have today across Iraq and Syria.

Theres pictures of John McCain having meetings with ISIS commanders a couple of years back. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/john-mccain-syria_n_3359166.html

Good ol Israel in there doing their part for world peace. (taking ZERO refugees ofc)

"Initial reports from the IDF stated that this was only for medical care for civilians, but that story fell apart when the UN observers identified direct contact between IDF forces and ISIS soldiers, including giving medical care to ISIS fighters. Observations even included the transfer of two crates from the IDF to ISIS forces, the contents of which have not been confirmed at this time. Further the UN report identified what the Syrians label a crossing point of forces between Israel and ISIS, a point of concern brought before the UN Security Council. This report from the UN strengthens the claims by the Syrian regime that Israel is heavily involved in operations within the nation."

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/05/isis-idf-link/

This is the UN reporting the above.

[Bristolhibby]

Narrative 2013

Bomb Assad. Assad = Bad. Support the rebels.

Narrative 2015

Bomb ISIS. ISIS = Bad.

So now we are meant to be bombing the people who would have benefited with bombing Assad in the first place?

As has been pointed out. Assad/Sadam/Gadaffi were in power for decades, remove them and we let the genie out of the bottle. How about arming Assad and forcing him and the moderates to the table and unite in destroying ISIS?

J

[phart]

Reading up on it, before the war started in 2011, Syria fed itself and provided almost all of it's own medical supplies (something the UK would struggle to do) now the UN needs annually $4.116 billion to supply the basic needs of survival. They have only received $1 billion so far, resulting in a halving of money provided each month for food. $13.50 per month for food. Resulting in a slow starvation cycle which is fueling the people smuggling.

Oh the Saudi's are in the process of starving the entire country of Yemen at the moment as well. I wrote about this a few months back.

[thewelk]

Most of the Kosovans did, by all accounts.

I know it's an easy joke to make but...would you want to spend the rest of your life in glesga hawhawhaw

Seriously though, I believe Kosovo is a beautiful place with amazing weather, great food etc. You'd go back there in a heart beat if you could. Especially when the alternative is being holed up in a tower in springburn whilst being stigmatised by the locals.

I honestly don't get this British mentality where even people living in some of the worst slum conditions in western Europe believe that they're in one of the most desirable places in the world. One that should be protected at all costs against immigrants. The UK has some nice bits but it's by and large a miserable damp sh*te hole.

[hunchy]

Outmof interest if we had put boots on the ground and backers one of the groups of rebels (iirc there were several different groups) that were more democratic or liberal would we still have the same exedus from syria. As far as I know part of the rise of Isis was them gaining control over the rebel groups in syria so surly if we had backed one of the better groups Isis wouldn't have gained as much lower.

But then when do the west ever do things right when it backs a group of rebels

[Wibble]

I'm living on borrowed time. for when hr Mods come back... 20,000refugees fae Syria... I can live wi' that.

Particularly when that paIR OF S CAMEROON AND OsBORE - (OOPS) MEA BRINGING THE BAIRNS IN... how can 'we' say "no"?

Syrians will do the deal and move back tae their homeland given a choice - whae wid shite on the kids... none of you lot - even the dafties!

We're Scottish - bring it on!

[Bristolhibby]

A good article.

https://theburningbloggerofbedlam.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/the-migrant-crisis-simplified-for-idiots-and-xenophobes/

Obviously it's written in a particular way.

J

[Orraloon]

So if we accept tens of thousands of refugees, do they then return home when their home lands are safe?

If they want to, yes, I'm guessing most would want to stay here though.

[buckielugger]

Out of interest, pop star Rita Ora is a kosovan immigrant.

And yes it is a lovely place, went there before all the troubles.

[hampden_loon2878]

I know in normal circumstances this would be the case, but this is not a normal refugee influx we are receiving, a five year visa type card should be given out with a review at the end of it,,, by that time the dust will have hopefully settled and a clearer picture of the situation and who has actually claimed refuge and then we could decide if it is merited..

If they want to, yes, I'm guessing most would want to stay here though.