Friday 29 January 2016

So Sweden is going to send 80,000

"failed asylum seekers" back to where they came from? They are apparently not prepared to house, clothe, feed and educate all those people  who came seeking a better life?
I note with interest that our news services now refer to those entering Europe as "migrants" rather than "refugees". It is an interesting shift, especially as those seeking to come to Australia are referred to as "refugees" and "asylum seekers". 
People are still trying to reach Europe, even in the depths of winter. It's the promised land and some will do anything to try and reach it.
Greece is being criticised for not properly processing the flow of migrants too.
Perhaps it is time to start looking at what is really happening. Greece is a financial basket case and just processing the flow of migrants is expensive. They have been encouraged to come by the policies of other countries - particularly Germany. Germany needs younger workers and this no doubt seemed a way of solving the problem. It seemed like a simple answer to a complex problem - but it may have made the problem even more complex. Greece should not have to shoulder the financial burden of trying to handle hundreds of thousands of would-be migrants in order to benefit Germany. 
It is said that some people now regret having tried to migrate and that they are returning home again. I doubt there will be many who will go willingly. The fact that there are any at all suggests that at least some of the "refugees" being talked about earlier are people who, quite understandably, saw a possibility that they could have a better life somewhere else. I'd want to go too if there was a war on and a country I thought was rich and offered employment opportunities seemed likely to house me. 
But Sweden is going to send people back, Denmark is asking people to pay what they can - just as their own citizens do and some other countries do. Other countries will no doubt make similar arrangements. The "welcome mat" is no longer out. 
This worries me because some of the people who are most in need of help and shelter and a permanent place of refuge are still in refugee camps. They have nowhere to go.

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