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EU ministers to meet on migrants as drowned boy's father speaks

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Why are they called migrants now? They are refugees. Is calling them migrants a way to show them in a bad light to make it easier to turn them away?

-1 ( +10 / -11 )

@Japan Violet

They're no longer refugees the second they leave Turkey. Turkey is not in midst of war, but they leave safety. Greece is not in midst of war, but they leave safety. Macedonia is not in midst of war, but they leave Macedonia. Serbia is not in midst of war, but they leave Serbia. Hungary is not in midst of civil war, but they're trying to leave Hungary. They are no longer refugees, they are ECONOMIC MIGRANTS! Being a refugee does not give you carte blanche to migrate to any country on Earth!

4 ( +13 / -9 )

“European countries, which turned the Mediterranean Sea—the cradle of ancient civilisations—into a migrant cemetery are party to the crime that takes place when each refugee loses their life,” he said in a speech. Not sure I follow.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Illyas

The reason they want to go to northern Europe is that they know they have a better chance of being granted asylum there. Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Spain and Hungary are entirely unsympathetic. People know when they're not wanted.

Germany and Scandinavia are openly welcoming. Put yourself in the place of the refugees; where would you want to go?

It's not all about money....

1 ( +6 / -5 )

"Not sure I follow."

That is because he is insane. He told CNN yesterday the entire blame for the crisis lies with the West.

I guess he's unaware that Aylan's family were not fleeing Syria. They were fleeing his country, Turkey, where they had been living. Aylan's aunt said the Turks treat Syrians like scum. But of course, that's all the West's fault, right?.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Furthermore, I heard on CNN that the family received $2000 from relatives in Canada in order to pay people smugglers to attempt the crossing. It's troubling to think that it's the wealthier and able bodied refugees are the ones that end up making it to Europe while the really desperate refugees without any money or in poor health remain in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. How fair is that?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

How fair is that?

Yeah, that dead 3 year old sure had an unfair advantage in life. Good point.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

@rainyday

Your right, the Syrian orphans living on the streets of Damascus picking up scraps of food could probably make it to the west if they tried harder. If only they also had a high horse to get up on.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Your right, the Syrian orphans living on the streets of Damascus picking up scraps of food could probably make it to the west if they tried harder. If only they also had a high horse to get up on.

If your point is "we should be equally concerned about all refugees, particularly the poor ones, and try to help them as well" then I agree.

If your point is "we should wall off all refugees from leaving the region because it would be unfair to the ones who can't leave" then I don't find that to be a particularly compelling point of view.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Kudos to Germany for waiving the usual procedures to welcome a million Syrians.

This is why they are making their way through Greece, Serbia and Hungary.

Embraced by a country with a healthy economy and world-leading conditions for workers, they will soon be economically productive again.

Does this make them economic migrants, or responsible refugees who don't want to burden the struggling economies of Greece and Hungary?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

If your point is "we should be equally concerned about all refugees, particularly the poor ones, and try to help them as well" then I agree.

I completely agree. (but was there anything in my comment that even suggested I support building a wall to keep all refugees out?)

The problem is that the general public is now losing confidence in the refugee convention when they see people receiving wire transfers to pay illegal people smugglers who set sail from Turkish beach resorts.

The refugee convention was set up to protect people in very specific circumstances, in a very specific way, with very well defined rights and obligations. You can't ignore the convention and expect that it will survive to protect refugees in the future.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Are we all possibly missing the point here? Migrants, refugees, call them what you like but they are all people and they are dying in their thousands desperately fleeing to find a better, safer life. In the UK the right wing parties and press try to 'warn' the people of Britain that hundreds of thousands of migrants will be turning up taking our jobs, claiming benefits and committing crimes. That's pure scaremongering!

All countries morally should do their part and help to re-home these desperate people. I often hear that "Britain is full" but I would rather see children living and playing in my home town than dead on a beach.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

As we sit and point the finger at European countries not letting in/out refugees, IS has a big smile on their face.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Rarely do I agree with anything printed or reported in the Daily Mail, however Britain aid budget to Syrian refugees since 2011 is some £900million second only to the United States.

There is a simple choice all EU countries will have to absorb every migrant, refugee, asylum seeker or deal with the issue of people smugglers without quarter. The question is not if but when the global community is going to commit to crisis in the Middle East directly.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The U.S has bombed the ISIS occupied area for a whole year, yet it just gave those terroists advanced to the Turkish border and they gained more ground. The syrian refugees tragedies was totally rootedf romt hisc ivil war Ironicaly, the one who kicked startedhis massive humanitarian crisis concered more about the glacier in Alsaska rather than human lives, I doubt the above horror image has ever changed his mind.History will remarks obama was the worst president in 21st century but I guess that was nothing his concern.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I am sorry Johnnie Walker, they are not people, they are a human community to a people smuggler valued at around £1500 per head loaded into a dingy. The UK will reach population density close to the end of 2016. The politics are an irrelevance that sell newspapers. Never witnessed such a tide of human misery, and it is going to get a whole lot worse.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The deaths by drowning and others by suffocation in sealed trucks are very sad but in the long run the problems and fate that Europe will face by this invasion will dwarf the sensationalist media's photographs and decide an entire continent's fate.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

The U.S has bombed the ISIS occupied area for a whole year, yet it just gave those terroists advanced to the Turkish border and they gained more ground. The syrian refugees tragedies was totally rootedf romt hisc ivil war Ironicaly, the one who kicked startedhis massive humanitarian crisis concered more about the glacier in Alsaska rather than human lives, I doubt the above horror image has ever changed his mind.History will remarks obama was the worst president in 21st century but I guess that was nothing his concern.

Elephant200,

What Chinese/English translation software are you using? It really sucks.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

If UN and EU wanted to save human life and then they need to show tough love. Otherwise, both refugees and host country will face tragedy and human traffickers are winner. How many children, women and men must die before UN and EU recognize they must tough on free movement of migrants?

Now you can see on TV news and news papers about the migrants turn against local Government and Police for not letting them to go Germany where they want to go and some EU members' Government do not want Muslim migrants in their land. Migrants refused to go into camp for to register their identity it will spread genuine refugees from economy migrants. There are no law and no rule to control these migrants. All migrants are demanding the Governments for to let them go for Germany. It's completely against UN Refugee Convention. The asylum seekers must register at first safe country they landed and not what they want to live. Some EU members’ Governments are openly saying this migrants’ crisis was German problem and they don’t want to take large amount of Muslims in their country. Now German also doesn’t want to take all Muslim migrants into its country. Actually the migrants’ problem was German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s problem. If Norway Nobel Prize commission has given special Nobel Peace Prize to Angela Merkel and then she will take all migrants from other EU countries.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

We are watching Europe committing civilizational suicide in fast motion. It is heartbreaking ... unless you are an islamist, in which case it is time to celebrate.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Let's not forget that this refugee crisis is the result of the US meddling in the middle east. Complain and chastise the cause and not the effect.

The US should be held responsible for the actions that have thrown the middle east into the turmoil of people fleeing terrorists that the US created and supported in the foolish gamesmanship by Secretary of State Clinton to overthrow governments.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

73 percent of these "migrants" are men age between 18 and 45. I'd be more okay with this "migrants" issue if the majority of them were, in fact, women and children, instead of mostly young military service-aged males. What will these men do in Germany or whatever country winds up accepting them? Do they have skills? Will they assimilate? How many are posing as poor "migrants" when they are actually jihadists?

The world is witnessing the whole EU experiment with its open borders going down in flames. Enjoy your upcoming soaring crime rate, Europe. . . .

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

All countries morally should do their part and help to re-home these desperate people. I often hear that "Britain is full" but I would rather see children living and playing in my home town than dead on a beach.

Invite a refugee family to live in your house if you feel that way. I'm so sick of liberals running their mouth and lecturing others while they live in their upper class communities. If you feel there is a morally responsibility on the part of nation states, than you must also feel there is a moral responsibility on the part of individual citizens. So put up or shut up - offer to house a refugee family yourself.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I guess it's just too easy to make asinine caricatures of opposing points of view. Let me try.

I'm sick of right wingers flippantly disposing of other people's lives while they sit comfortably behind their tacky keyboards in their mother's basements.

...that was easy

If you feel there is a morally responsibility on the part of nation states, than (sic) you must also feel there is a moral responsibility on the part of individual citizens. So put up or shut up - offer to house a refugee family yourself.

...let's try that again..

If you feel there is a moral responsibility on the part of nation states, then you must also feel there is a moral responsibility on the part of individual citizens. So put up or shut up - hire a boat, go out to sea and put your jackbooted foot into the face of the first child refugee and push it back under the surf.

..or you could just cool your jets with the faux self-righteous outrage and try to negotiate a conversation about refugee crisis with some semblance of maturity.

@Johnnie Walker: good point. It's easy for some to forget the fact that these are people, human beings and that if we were in the shoes of these people, and we cared about our families, we would be doing exactly the same. And fact is people in Europe are mobilizing to welcome and do more to welcome these refugees - demanding more from their governments (which represent them) and doing more themselves.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/30/german-pro-immigrant-protest-welcomes-asylum-seekers-to-dresden

"Merkel has vowed a zero-tolerance approach to anti-migrant violence.

Public opinion is largely behind her, with 60% of Germans polled by public broadcaster ZDF saying that Europe’s biggest economy is capable of hosting the asylum seekers."

And it certainly can do more: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/09/daily-chart

Refugee petition races above 100,000 threshold http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-34139798

As for the demographics... well Germany actually NEEDS immigrants.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/16/goslar-germany-we-cant-get-enough-immigrants-oliver-junk

Germany’s labor market needs more immigrants from non-EU countries https://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/en/press/press-releases/press-release/pid/germanys-labor-market-needs-more-immigrants-from-non-eu-countries/

On the basis of several different possible scenarios, the migration researchers calculate that by 2050, Germany will need a net average of between 276,000 and 491,000 immigrants per year from non-EU countries.

and, of course, Germany knows this.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

@gcbel

Oh dear, did I hit a bit of a weak spot? I love how when you actually ask if someone will take a refugee into their own home they get so defensive. I guess it's easier to spend taxpayer money instead of your own, and not have to worry about safety when these people are pushed into working class neighborhoods. Your privileged white upper class community won't have to deal with any of the consequences, so you're free to lord your self-righteousness over others.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Oh dear, did I hit a bit of a weak spot?

Not in the slightest, mate. You'd be flattering yourself to think you even could. I'm quite comfortable in my moral, white, upper middle class, self-righteous high ground.

You comfortable in your screw these people, I got mine, low ground?

Asinine hysterics, and low info scaremongering aside, the fact is Europe CAN manage this refugee crisis appropriately and humanely if it wants to. With a population of half a billion, the second largest economy of the world, 13 Trillion dollar GDP, the issue is developing the right policies to handle the crisis. It's incumbent on it's citizens to demand of it's governments that it does.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

white, upper middle class, self-righteous high ground

Thank you for admitting it. I can't wait for Rotherham to occur in your neighborhood. Those girls must be asinine, hysterical fearmongerers though, eh mate?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

So, this "Aylan Kurdi" story has turned out to be a fabrication by the MSM. Hardly surprising to see the world's leftist media outlets pushing an agenda over truth. . . .

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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