Migrant watch (merged topic)

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 03 Apr 2016, 10:33

Migrants form a human chain to block traffic near the ‪#‎Greece‬ border with the former Yugoslav Republic of ‪#‎Macedonia‬. They are calling on the EU to reopen its borders and allow them to continue their journey to western Europe.
''Who are they closing for? For us Syrians?", asks one of the protesters. "There is a war. Imagine there is a war in your country, what would you do? You would have to leave. We want the borders to open, that's all.''

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdM-XgS ... dM-XgSXqww

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 03 Apr 2016, 11:03

biffvernon wrote:
Migrants form a human chain to block traffic near the ‪#‎Greece‬ border with the former Yugoslav Republic of ‪#‎Macedonia‬. They are calling on the EU to reopen its borders and allow them to continue their journey to western Europe.
''Who are they closing for? For us Syrians?", asks one of the protesters. "There is a war. Imagine there is a war in your country, what would you do? You would have to leave. We want the borders to open, that's all.''
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdM-XgS ... dM-XgSXqww

Well, Biff, because of the mistaken German open-door policy, the number of genuine refugees is now a small minority compared to vast numbers of economic migrants. As a result, there now has to be a careful process distinguishing genuine refugees from economic migrants, the victims of which are the genuine refugees.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 03 Apr 2016, 15:55

Here are great people doing really useful stuff.

Kiron, the university for refugees.

https://kiron.ngo/

https://universities.cityofsanctuary.or ... r-refugees

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/ne ... 91612.html

AutomaticEarth · Post by **AutomaticEarth** » 03 Apr 2016, 20:40

I thought this would happen sooner rather than later:-

http://uk.businessinsider.com/greece-is ... ted-2016-4

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 03 Apr 2016, 21:22

It will end with guns at the southern shores of Europe

3rdRock · Post by **3rdRock** » 03 Apr 2016, 22:27

https://www.justgiving.com/borderssingle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH725NRfbF8

This track is about the divisions that we draw between one another and the world in which we live, both real and imaginary. The one reinforces the other. By convincing ourselves of the intrinsic "otherness" of our foreign neighbours, we strengthen our own justifications for enforcing more and more aggressively the "real" borders that we've created. Borders which we use to fence in our wealth and keep at bay the "third world", whose labour and resources we are so happy to exploit.

We put up the borders that board us into our boxes / Oh can’t you see now how the locksmith lies? / Stoking up the national pride / While they’re keeping all the wealth inside (repeat)/ We put up the borders / To keep out the needy man / Borders / To protect the greedy man / Borders / To keep all the living men dead, dead, dead / We put up the borders / That separate us from our fellow human beings / Emphasizing difference instead of seeing / The reflections that connect us / Connections that perfect us / The similarities of factors that affect us in our / Everyday existence on this planet that we all live upon / Six billion expressions of the same essential one / The same essential force / That fundamental source / Of energy that manifests itself in oh so many different forms. And it’s / All alright and all ok and that’s just fine you know but / Me I know that sometimes you have to draw the lines just to make / Sense of what you see / Of this reality / But understand the lines you draw only exist within your mind, it’s the / Illusion of separation, whoa oh oh / Separating nation from nation, the / Justification for social segregation / So deep in our delusions like a world of mental patients, now it’s / Time to tear down the asylum walls and let the patients out, it’s / Time to let the refugees inside and share the wealth about, it’s / Time that we all understand / We are just one land / Just one people, people it’s time to make a stand and say / No woh woh woh / I won’t go woh woh woh / I won’t go quietly no no no / I won’t go quietly no no no / And if I do, well you should know / You can’t trap my soul / Trap my soul / Behind these / borders that board us...// We put up the borders / To keep out the needy man...// Borders / That elevate the status of those with resources / Never wonder from what plundering the source is misappropriated / Excavated from the living earth / Minerals like outlaw criminals flee from their place of birth and / Make the journey northwards / Destined for our waters where they’re / Welcomed in with open arms by the governments and corporates / Container ships slip over border points with ease / When they’re carrying the commodities that service our greed, but meanwhile / Deep down in the belly of the ship, a secret human cargo waits / No food or water’s passed a man’s lips for the last eleven days / Kept alive by memories of families they’ve left behind / They ride the waves towards the promise of a better life / Some flee from tyranny / Some simply seek a way / To lift themselves up from the poverty that stalks them every day / Some run away from never ending civil war / For every single one of them / This is the last resort and they say...

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 04 Apr 2016, 02:14

biffvernon wrote:
A REFUGEE is someone who is recognized as being forced to leave their country because of war or fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political
opinion. – 1951 Refugee Convention
That covers most folk who have managed to get out of Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Eritrea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Western Sahara, Libya and big chunks of other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Refugees are required to register for that status in the first safe country that they reach.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 06 Apr 2016, 18:45

Just in case there is anyone interested...

2 hrs
CITY OF SANCTUARY REGIONAL MEETING
Friday 20 May, 10am-3.30pm
Coventry

This is a mass email to contacts across Cambridge, Coventry, Birmingham, Derby, East Lindsey, Ipswich, Leicester, Lincoln, Loughborough, Malvern, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Reading and Wolverhampton, so my apologies for its impersonal nature. Please tell me if you know of any other groups in your area not listed here.
I have arranged for a "regional" get together in Coventry on Friday 20th May from 10 to 3.30pm with lunch provided.
There will be a limit of 60 places and priority will be given to ensuring an even spread from the region including partners and asylum seekers/refugees. I apologise for limiting the numbers from each group to a maximum of 5 places, to include a minimum of two asylum seekers / refugees. Please discuss in your groups / cities / towns and book your places directly with me ASAP. When you book, please state workshop choices in order of preference.
I will keep a waiting list if more than 5 bookings per group, so that spare places can be allocated nearer the time if some groups send less people.
The last Midlands conference was in January 2014 and it was very successful; providing ideas and stimulation for groups and good networking opportunities. You can read a brief report from this conference here.
The venue will be Coventry Refugee and Migrant Centre ( with special thanks to its Director Sabir Zazai for hosting us) This venue is a 15 to 20 minute walk from the railway station and less than ten minutes from the bus station. There is also nearby parking.
The basic plan is to share information updates from each city in the morning and to break into workshops in the afternoon. If you do not see a workshop you are interested in - please let me know what you would like to see.
Draft Agenda
10 - 10.30am - Arrival, registration, networking and refreshments - bring your leaflets and banners to display
10.30 - 10.45 - Open and Welcome from Sabir Zazai ( CoS Trustee, Director of Coventry and Refugee Migrant Centre) - Questions
10.45 - 11am - A current overview of refugee issues - Jonathan Featonby - Parliamentary Manager Refugee Council and CoS Trustee) - Questions
11 - 12.30 - 5 minutes update from each group - Latest news/ achievements and challenges. Followed by discussion.
12.30 - 1.30 - Lunch and networking - stalls/ displays from groups
There will also be a board for post it notes for ideas / questions / identification of issues to take forward
1.30 - 3pm - Workshops
Syrian Resettlement - Sabir Zazai (Coventry, where more than 100 Syrians and 50 Afghan interpreters have been resettled)
Schools of Sanctuary - Barbara Forbes (Birmingham)
Media Training for Refugees - Forward Masiokwadzo ( National Media and Communications Officer)
The Immigration Bill - Jonathan Featonby - Parliamentary Manager - Refugee Council
3 - 3.30pm Setting up referral systems across the region (please see this website, covering the North East and Yorkshire and Humberside which is the dispersal area for Urban House, formally Angel Lodge, the Initial Accommodation Centre in Wakefield. Discussion of a proposal that we work towards a similar one for the Midlands for asylum seekers dispersed from the Birmingham IA Centre.
All best wishes,
Colleen
Colleen Molloy
City of Sanctuary National Development Officer
Telephone 07443 575 231 Land-line 0116 291 2606
City of Sanctuary Website
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Donate to City of Sanctuary
You can easily raise funds for us every time you shop with Give as you Live. It won't cost you a penny - all you have to do is register.

johnhemming2 · Post by **johnhemming2** » 06 Apr 2016, 20:37

We do need to look after refugees, but not necessarily in the way that they would ideally like.

We are putting a lot of money into refugee support (outside the UK).

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 07 Apr 2016, 04:04

Biff, when you go there I hope you will welcome the refugees but tell them that the UK is a place where we tolerate all religions and most ideals but if their religion or ideals cannot live with others could you politely suggest that they find somewhere else to live. We do not like people who murder other members of their religion, or condone that murder, because the victim has transgressed in some way. We believe god, well those of us who believe in god, will punish the transgressors in the next life.

If they want to come here they will have live by our secular laws not their own religious religious laws, although they are quite at liberty to follow their own laws as long as they don't clash with ours. Again if they don't like that they can go somewhere where their religious laws are the law of the land. If they don't like those places well perhaps that is because of the laws that they live by there.

Can you also tell them, the men especially, that we quite like our women in this country, that we feel that they are equal to men, even if some of them do think that they are better than us, and are quite happy with the way that they dress. We are quite happy for their women to walk around like black penguins but we do object to people who wear masks in public. It signifies a lack of trust, which we find insulating, and we, most men, also find it insulting that you feel that we could not control our sexual desires if we were to see the faces of your women. The fact that women in your culture feel it necessary to cover their entire bodies says a lot about the failings of the men in your culture.

Could you also ask them to be patient if they can't find a job or somewhere to live because we already have 300,000 migrants here from last year and the year before and the year before that taking places that our own disadvantaged people would have liked to take. They are last in a long queue. Could you also tell them, as John has said above, that we are already contributing a lot of money to their compatriots elsewhere in the world and haven't got much to spend on them here.

Post by **kenneal - lagger** » 07 Apr 2016, 04:06

I am glad that we have taken in Afghan interpreters and, I hope, their immediate families. They served our forces well and were in real danger so qualified as refugees.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 07 Apr 2016, 15:06

People migrate. Get over it.

Foreign born as % of population, 2014

Dubai: 83%
Sydney: 39%
Los Angeles: 39%
Singapore: 38%
London: 37%
New York: 37%
Paris: 25%

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 07 Apr 2016, 15:45

biffvernon wrote:People migrate. Get over it.

Foreign born as % of population, 2014

Dubai: 83%
Sydney: 39%
Los Angeles: 39%
Singapore: 38%
London: 37%
New York: 37%
Paris: 25%

And this list demonstrates what, precisely, other than the fact that large numbers of people have migrated during the industrial age's boom time? What does this list tell us about what will or should happen as that age powers down?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 07 Apr 2016, 16:40

biffvernon wrote:People migrate. Get over it.

I'd like to remind you that those people who were advocating your policy have been forced to change it. It's you, not us, who needs to "get over it".

You are the one who is unable to accept reality, not us.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 07 Apr 2016, 16:42

biffvernon wrote:People migrate. Get over it.

People murder. Get over it.
People rape. Get over it.
People f*ck up the climate and pollute the oceans. Get over it.
People overpopulate places by having too many offspring. Get over it.
People respond to mass-immigration by electing people like Donald Trump. Get over it.