For a long time I’ve maintained that Greece’s role in the
eyes of its EU brethren is to serve as the EU’s filter trap for immigrants fleeing
Africa and the Middle East. Not everyone
agreed with that. Now’s the chance to prove me wrong, Europe. DO SOMETHING.
The Grand Kabuki play between the rest of the EU and Greece over
Greece’s financial crisis will drag on and on, without clear villains or
heroes…despite the efforts of each side’s media sycophants to deify or vilify selected
characters in those roles. But as is the
nature of hype meeting reality, some who started out as populist stars are
rapidly drifting into the Sarah Palin category (can’t wait for the comments on
that one :)).
But in the midst of Greece’s economic catastrophe of
historic proportions, there is one incontrovertible fact—refugees and illegal migrants are flooding its shores in unprecedented numbers. The Greek Coast Guard literally
saves scores of lives every day, and the people of the affected islands
(including tourists) have shown remarkable character and patience in the face of
unorganized and ill-equipped officials and facilities—though it’s anybody’s guess how long that patience will last in the face of the relentless daily deluge.
In July alone, 50,000 arrived seeking refuge. With a population
of ten million, that’s equivalent to Great Depression America experiencing 1,500,000 non-English
speaking refugees struggling ashore in one month into rural Louisiana and
dispersing from there to impoverished migrant camps set up across the state. There is no sign of the wave subsiding.
So far, it’s up 750% over last year. The United Nations has called their conditions shameful. And no one's disputing it.
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| Sergey Ponomarev photo on Island of Lesbos for NY Times |
For those escaping, their drive is to find a better life.
Many are educated and seem able to pay the price to the smugglers. For the smugglers (and those who allow them to
operate so openly) it’s all about the money.
They couldn’t give a damn whether the passengers live or die. They’re just commodities, whose fate the
smugglers leave to the sea and the Greek Coast Guard.
I doubt there is a leader in Europe who doesn’t have firm
ideas on what must be done, they just lack the political will––though there are
reports that Greece’s current government didn’t realize what it had to do to
receive 500 million euros in funding aid from the EU for immigration and asylum
projects.
Refugees seeking a better life will not stop fleeing to Greece
(or Italy) on the way to their dream of making it to northern Europe (few see their futures in Greece).
Most fear lives of perpetual suffering if not certain death
should they remain in their homelands, a realization that makes staying
there—as opposed to risking all to make it to Greece—the only irrational decision. And so they will keep coming, no matter the
risks or costs.
The smugglers know that.
The question is, when will Europe? And the rest of the world.
Jeff—Saturday
Posts
Sad commentary about the conditions in Greece, but important to know. Maybe someone will listen.
ReplyDeleteAt some point, Lil, a lot will listen. The question is, before or after the West faces the great harm that can befall it from so many desperate people from disparate places believing that the the great institution known as Europe does not regard them as deserving of humane treatment.
DeleteThe humanitarian crisis happening in Southern Europe and Northern Africa is beyond compare. This will become a global problem and needs to be addressed by world leaders. It's a disaster too large for any one country to try and manage.
ReplyDeleteYou're right on the mark, Michele, and world leaders know it. I was told as much by a high level UN dignitary a half-dozen years ago--about when Greece first started asking for assistance with the problem--"Immigration is the single biggest problem confronting the world today." Hard for people to believe then, even harder today with ISIS out there. BUT think about what is inspiring ISIS recruitment...and you'll see the common link. It is a true and rapidly growing crisis that will not go away simply by shutting one's eyes or tunnel.
DeleteThe only road to a solution to these kinds of problems is to end the terrible poverty that so many of those countries contain. When people are desperate, they do desperate things, whether in their home countries or elsewhere. You don't see mass migrations between the US and Canada, but oh, Mexico...
ReplyDeleteThe first step to a better world is to first make it better for the worst off.
Amen, EvKa. It's the nits of the "how" that's made it all so politically unachievable. But with so many now able to escape their problem laden lands into countries that for so long have said "not our problem," perhaps the political climate has changed. Hopefully toward more thoughtful, long term resolutions.
DeleteMmmm, I think we (Brits) should hold our hands up as guilty of not caring. The mild, 'keep them out at Calais' theme of the general election was dropped when one boat sank and pictures of the bodies of dead children floating in the Med came through on the media. But the subject was simply dropped, nobody talked about a solution. Cameron was vilified recently for saying it's not the fault of France, so we are totally missing the point - it's a global and humane issue and one that the politicians here seem content to ignore, unless the talk is of them 'swarming to our shores through the tunnel' or putting the army in charge of the port ( that was a extreme suggestion but one a fair % of the public agreed with).
ReplyDeleteOur attitude is shameful.
The question is, how do these politicians think it's all going to end? The migrants are not going home to places where they face what they consider worse fates than staying where they are...and somewhat protected by being in the news.
DeleteItaly is a parenthesis in this report, but its numbers are as great or greater. The costs LAST year of supporting and caring for the refugees was 48 euros per citizen of Italy.
ReplyDeleteIf the babies drowning were blond and blue eyed, the Northern Europeans might be moved. As it is, NIMBY (not in my backyard) is the attitude of the wealthy countries in the north. But Greece and Italy ARE Europe's backyard. And the people dying in their waters and reaching their shores ARE HUMAN BEINGS!
I find the hardheartedness, the smugness disgusting.
That number if the DAILY cost per citizen.
DeleteYou're so right AA, Italy and Greece have long borne the brunt of the migrant exodus, Italy from North Africa across from Libya, and Greece largely from the Middle East. But perhaps because the trip across open seas from Africa to Italy is far more dangerous than the couple of miles from Turkey to Eastern Aegean islands (such as Kos and Lesbos), and the horrors in Syria and Afghanistan, the number of immigrants flooding into Greece this year have soared past those arriving in Italy. And with Greece's population at ten million, and Italy's over sixty million, the impact is mind-boggling on Greece. Here's a BBC piece on the overall figures of this tragedy. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286
DeleteI think Caro's comment about the Brits could actually be changed to us (Americans) but I would take it one step further in our case. . .I don't think most Americans even know this is going on. . .who has time to think about a world crisis in the making when one could be thinking about the next thing Donald Trump might say or do? Shame on us!
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid you're right (again) Jackie. Americans persist in not seeing beyond their shores....but prefer their shows.
DeleteA lot of good points here. This is a global problem. It's not just poverty that is causing people to flee their homelands, which they really do not want to do, but it's also war. Countries have been or are being devastated by wars and people flee. They have to.
ReplyDeleteMany are living in refugee camps or tents, but many just get on boats, often run by swindlers who don't care if they live or die.
I just read a study that said that 2,000 people have already died on the Mediterranean just this year, desperate people.
Until wars stop and poverty is overcome, people will flee to safety and where they think there will be jobs.
It is a global problem. These people deserve sympathy and assistance, not repression or neglect or cruelty.
It's too bad that many people are landing in Greece, as that country has its own problems, which will only get worse as cutbacks ensue.
The people migrating are coming from terrible conditions. Major changes have to happen to help them and to change the conditions that cause them to leave their homes to face uncertainty and danger.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, Kathy. The problem is in the world finding the will. Sadly, I don't see that coming until bitter self-interest takes charge. :(
DeleteThursday we read of 1,000 refugees being locked in a stadium in Kos without food and very little water, reported Docctors without Borders. Police had swept through the island, clearing refugees, mostly from Syria and Iraq. from public squares and parks.
ReplyDeleteElderly people, women and children were in the stadium. People were fainting. No provision for food.
Police fired tear gas outside the stadium.
Now, this is heartbreaking.
Child trafficking, can't even discuss it. It's a crime against humanity, intolerable. Where poverty is the underlying cause, that's bad enough. Where it's carried out by criminal gangs, seeking to make profits on children, it's a horror beyond horrors.
This is a crime that the global community must stop.
It's a mess for everyone concerned, and something those directly involved cannot resolve on their own. Without a unified, world-wide approach (or at least a European one) all the horrors will continue...as they have relatively unnoticed by many for decades.
DeleteSadly, this crisis reminds me of my mother's parents and their siblings fleeing czarist anti-Semitic pogroms to come to the U.S. in the early 1900s. They faced discrimination and bigotry when they arrived and for years to come.
ReplyDeleteThey needed assistance, jobs, housing and understanding and acceptance.
The life of an immigrant is a hard one, and for those fleeing their homelands today, it is especially brutal.
You make a very good point, Kathy. I once wrote an "Author's Note" to a book I'd written that focused on the plight of the immigrant as its theme ("Target: Tinos"). Though the note changed as the result of my finding a quote by Aleksandr Pushkin so right on the mark it seemed as if written for my book, that superseded note expresses your point. Here's what I wrote back then:
Delete"This is a fiction, a mystery meant to entertain. But it involves a subject that touches each of us, for we are all descended from immigrants, or perhaps one our self. Why souls leave one land for another and how they survive may not matter to most, unless of course you’re the immigrant—then it all matters."