Nearly 700,000 illegal migrants were apprehended in Turkey within the period 1995-2007 while the number of apprehended human smugglers in the same period was 1,242.
Migrant Deaths Highlights Problem with Illegal Immigration in Turkey, Greece
700,000 people tried to cross through Turkey in the course of 12 years. I think it is time we stop enabling the current framework in the European Union that addresses all cases of undocumented migration as “asylum seekers” or “refugees”. This is not merely the result of political and or war related struggles. This is also inherently connected to poverty, the rule of corporations, centuries of colonial interventions and the depletion of resources, the imposition of institutions like the World Bank and the IMF and the economic measures that only bring poverty and decimate communities.
The EU presents the issue in an hegemonic manner (i.e. everyone trying to reach the continent is a “refugee” or an “asylum seeker”), avoiding to address this situation for what it is: a humanitarian catastrophe borne out of centuries of exploitation by the very same structures of power that now criminalize these people.
Every undocumented migrant is a political immigrant. Just because the EU refuses to acknowledge it doesn’t make it less so.
(via redlightpolitics)
abokononist:randomhumanrambling:socialistexan:punkpedagogy:
I hadn’t seen anything about this, but wow.
WTF…
What.
Jesus CHRIST
This Hellenistic Pagan is smacking her head.
I feel sick
i went to athens for the summer when i was 18 yo and the racism i experienced was disgusting. i am really not surprised that in the past year you have this huge resurgence of anti immigrant, racist policies. not at all.
ATHENS — Greek police vowed Sunday not to relent in their efforts to evict undocumented immigrants after a sweep they said had netted 1,130 in central Athens over the weekend.
Police said a total of 4,900 people were rounded up in the capital on Saturday, of which 1,130 were detained. “The police operation to evict undocumented immigrants will continue,” a statement said.
AFP: Greek police detains 1,130 immigrants
From the news:
Operation Xenios Zeus, named after the name of the king of the ancient Greek gods in his role as protector of guests, mobilised 2,000 police in Athens and another 2,500 on Greece’s eastern border with Turkey.
Police spokesman Christos Manouras said Saturday the operation was a necessity for debt-laden Greece’s national survival.
“We must send the message that Greece cannot afford work and hospitality” to would-be immigrants, he said.[…]
But as the country struggles with a crippling economic crisis and sweeping austerity cuts, social tensions are on the rise and the increase in undocumented immigrants has fuelled xenophobia and racist attacks.
For the first time in Greek political history, the country in June voted into parliament a neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, which has promised to purge the country of illegal migrants.
(via redlightpolitics)
I know that xenophobia is a common response to economic crisis, but xenophobia never solved anyone’s economic woes. Also, am I missing something about the name? Shouldn’t it be called the opposite of Zeus as protector of guests, since the goal is to get ride of the people they’re seeing as guests? Then again, that language of hospitality obscures the fact that one of the groups of people they want to keep out are Syrian refugees. “Refugees” are not the same as uninvited house guests.
(via paolaandfrancesca)
someone is making money off this. that’s the thing about all this right wing hate and sweeping away of undocumented immigrants into detention centers. this is for a profit for fortune 500 companies and to deem certain people as expendable for free labor and to occupy only certain space. someone is always behind these groups and their missions funding and offering something in exchange for this.
(via strugglingtobeheard)(via so-treu)
At least 1 500 people are known to have lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean in 2011.
Opening sentence of the report “Lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea: Who is responsible?” by Dutch Euro Parliamentarian Ms. Tineke Strik (of the Socialist Party).
The report, presented yesterday at the Council of Europe, details the lack of protection that undocumented migrants and asylum seekers from Africa face while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Ms. Strik led the Parliamentary Commission that set to investigate NATO responsibilities after the British newspaper The Guardian published the investigation “Aircraft carrier left us to die, say migrants”.
From the report:
The President of the Parliamentary Assembly reacted immediately to the article, expressing distress and deep concern, saying that if the allegations were true, then it was a dark day for Europe as a whole. On the basis of this concern, the President called for an inquiry.
Now, I don’t want to entirely dismiss the President’s distress and concern, however, I find it rather facetious that he would be so distressed over this particular case when it is known that there have been 16,264 deaths of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers either trying to reach the EU or already in EU detention camps since the mid 90s (report last updated one month ago). These camps, which can only be compared in “living” conditions and detention status to Guantanamo are put in place by no other than the EU itself (and paid for and supported by all member countries). So, I can only be very suspect of a shocked reaction for this one particular case of one particular boat when people have been dying by the thousands per year under the care of the EU.
Previous posts on this subject here, here and here.
(via redlightpolitics)
Bishoy, a 25-year-old Egyptian asylum seeker, at an anti-racist demonstration in the southern Athens suburb of Kallithea, where he was a victim in one of two separate racist attacks in May 2012 that left four migrants injured.
The Greek authorities are failing to tackle a rising wave of xenophobic violence that has left migrants afraid to walk the streets.
Check out our video and photo series here.
i’m pretty sure the greek authorities aren’t “failing” anything. in fact it seems that they’re pretty successful in facilitating this violence, and i wouldn’t be surprised if they are directly involved.
Me and WonderKat are talking history and it’s like, just think about the Roman Legion
You think that super fucking diverse group of soldiers
From an empire that went here to there
Wasn’t full of ALL KINDS OF FOLKS?
FROM ALL OVER THE PLACE?
You think everyone stayed home?
You think they didn’t go to different lands and settle?
You think all Romans were White, when the Romans gave out citizenship like they did?
I mean, you think back in the day, trading, mixing, knowing the people of Greece, North African -you think those people were White?
Really?
Go look through the lineage of emperors again
And the popes
Go look at the paintings and reliefs before they got white washed and re-branded
Just go look
Go look at those urns
Folks were capable of using color approrpiately
Think about that.
Seriously, think about that.
Then think about restoration projects, the people behind them and if they’re truly doing “restoration” or “revisions”
(via karnythia)
Lol at people who thought POC didn’t exist in Europe in the 10th century
Errr you guys have never heard about the Moors then? Who by the way, contributed to a lot of architecture to parts of Spain and Portugal when they conquered that area of Europe in the 8th century and were there until the 15th century. This is all off the top off my head since I remember hearing about it ages ago but seriously take some goddamn history lessons.
Oh and what did you think Othello was about? Some white dude? He was Blaaaaack.
Therefore POC did exist in Europe in the 10th century and Brave did erase their presence. If Shakespeare can write about a Black guy in the 17th century then why the fuck can’t Pixar write about POC in the 21st century?
Oh…right…RACISM.
(via biyuti)
Let me tell you
for all of those who assumed that Italy winning the 2012 euro would be some great moment for race relations in that country. It never would have been. Although I support Balotelli fully as a great player, he will never be seen as Italian by Italians. You need to understand that the construct of race and ethnicity aren’t intertwined in Europeans. Italians continue to reject and kill Black African migrants, and belittle those trafficked in through sex work. If you are black, you will never be seen as Italian, no matter if you speak the language, live there or have family there. You go to places like Rome and all the black people are marginalised, in their small communities. Do you think Balotelli will ever be seen and treated as Italian, or just a trick pony for the team? Did you see how the team and press avoided all conversation about the abuse he received. And Balotelli is able to live in England, and not be confronted with the onslaught of day to day racism in his adopted homeland. I’m not saying that is any better, he shouldn’t deal with it at all. it’s just some people really don’t see how Europe and Italy is so far behind on even acknowledging these issues. As a player, he would get far more support and love if he played for Ghana. he would be seen as a human being. Every time I see him play for Italy he looks exploited, and once he stops playing football or doesn’t score goals as regularly, will that little bit of “racial progress” exist? no, it won’t. Anyone that thinks sport changes the fundamental inequalities and exploitation of black people in European society are deluded.
This is, in my view, an especially nasty form of racism that thrives in white European countries by which highly achieving non-white athletes (also entertainers and artists and other public figures) like Balotelli are put on pedestals and tolerated, even celebrated, as credits to their race… as long as they keep scoring. After that it’s business as usual.
The pedestal is just another way to single people out and exclude them. And pedestals can easily be toppled by those who set them up.
Belgian right-wingers have offered to pay a 250 euros ($310) bounty to anyone who reports a veiled woman to police, they said on Tuesday, in the wake of face veil riots in Brussels.
Filip Dewinter, a senior figure within Vlaams Belang, a right-wing party, told Reuters the riots had made police apprehensive about enforcing the burqa ban and that the payment should put pressure on authorities to further enforce it.
A “bounty”. Because nothing says “dangerous criminal” like a Muslim woman exercising her right to dress as she sees fit.
(via redlightpolitics)Norwegian right-wing extremists decried the “Islamisation” of their country as they took the stand Tuesday in what Anders Behring Breivik’s defence hopes will help prove he was sane when he killed 77 people in Norway last year. The 31st day of Breivik’s trial was in large part dedicated to testimony from extremists, as the defence tries to prove the July 22 bloodbath was the result of ideological convictions shared by others, albeit a tiny minority, and not due to mental illness.
AFP: Witnesses at Breivik trial decry ‘Islamisation’
This “tiny minority” narrative is rather infuriating. Sure, only a tiny minority grab weapons and go around killing people; I’ll grant you that. But the ideology in question is not upheld by a minuscule group. It is pervasive, it is everywhere: from right wing politicians offering bounties for veiled Muslim women, to entire parties founded on those principles, to Black people being told they shouldn’t travel to certain parts of Europe for the Football Cup because their lives might be in danger, to non White children being placed in lower education paths than their capabilities would afford them.
Breivik is not part of a tiny minority. Breivik and those who think like him are the pus in the festering wound; the most visible symptom of an infection that is spread everywhere.
(via redlightpolitics)“A furious row has flared after it emerged that approval has been granted to the formation of an alliance of seven European extreme right wing political parties.
These include the British National Party (BNP), which had two MEPs elected in the last European elections, the French Front National and Hungary’s Jobbik.
The new pan-European grouping, called the “Alliance of European Nationalist Movements”, will qualify for a reported €289,266 of EU taxpayers’ money.
The AENM may also qualify for more European money next year.
News of the new group emerged on Thursday at parliament’s plenary in Strasbourg.
Formal approval for the new group was given at a meeting on Monday by parliament’s bureau, which comprises the assembly’s president and vice presidents.
Reaction to the news was swift, with UK S&D member Claude Moraes, calling for a ‘boycott’ of the new group.
He said, “It’s a shameful week for democracy in Europe. Let’s hope this also will be a rallying cry for anti-fascists throughout the EU to work harder together to stop the pan-European far right.”
He said, “There are pan-European alliances of political parties from the centre right Christian Democrats through to the Greens, including the Party of European Socialists which includes the British Labour Party as a member, and we all respect one another’s differences and work together.
“I hope that none of the other parties work with this alliance of racists and neo-fascists.
“Two BNP MEPs were elected at the last European elections in 2009 and they are now in a close alliance with the Front National in France, who may achieve success in the French presidential elections in the summer, and Jobbik which has been a government coalition partner in Hungary.
“There are very strict rules about how this political funding can be spent. These include respect for democracy and human rights. We will keep a very close eye to make sure this new grouping stick to the rules.
“This is why we believe this decision is wrong, and we will closely monitor how this neo-fascist grouping spends their money,” Moraes said.
The BNP failed to form an alliance of far right MEPs in parliament, but it was decided by the institution that this did not preclude them from forming a pan-European political party.
Further comment came from Edward McMillan-Scott, a vice president of parliament, who said the establishment of the new group gave “cause for real concern”.
The UK ALDE deputy added, “I have been tracking the rise of the far right for a few years and in the last European elections we saw the rise of far right parties in ten of member states.
“The formation of this new group is further proof that these groups have been collaborating since that time and will present a joint platform at the next elections in 2014.”OMFUKING GoODNESS> Do people not remember !>? that Facist nearly destroyed the 20th century , nearly destroyed the whole fucking world. why are they even allowed to exist . They have proven to be the most dangerous deranged group on the planet. Why aren’t more European cleaning up fascist scum. Do they forget the last time they let facism take root . I swear They want Humanity to end they have some fucking death wish . European needs to take this shit more seriously. Civilized my ass. These people scare me. they fucking scare me more than any other folks on earth cause they almost succeeded and carried out their white is right plan.
white people. so civilized. so learned. so barbaric. so fucking STUPID. if the world ends, there is no fucking doubt who would be behind it all.
You don’t have to be stupid to fuck up majorly. Case in point.
Intelligence is worth nothing when it is not tempered with empathy and awareness.
truth
The best part: the EU will be spending money on this filth during a time of renewed “austerity measures” stemming from their financial troubles.
Never mind that “austerity” means “cutting out services for the
unworthypoor” and that it seems to be making the recession worse.I tell you, sometimes being smart just means that you’ll find more foolproof, elaborate, complex, byzantine, breathtaking elegant ways of suicide.
*cries* BECAUSE THERE IS NO WHERE TO RUN.
(via so-treu)
Its headline bashing time again. So apparently the Norwegians are having trouble understanding Brevik.
He read an hour long thing discussing his reasons for doing what he did. I really don’t see where the confusion could stem from.
Norwegians would be a minority in their own capital city within five to 10 years, he said, and he blamed liberal politicians for bringing about Norway’s demise by allowing immigration as well as “feminism, quotas … transforming the church, schools”.
Often Breivik came across as exactly the kind of “pathetic and mean loser without integrity” that he insisted he was not.
He admitted he had exaggerated the size and reach of the Knights Templar, the shadowy anti-Islamist network he claimed to have joined in London in 2001, because it wouldn’t have sounded so impressive to tell of “four sweaty guys in a basement”.
You “gild the lily” in order to “maximise the propaganda effect”, he said.
He said he regretted creating a “pompous” backstory, and posting pictures of himself wearing a pseudo-uniform cobbled together from eBay, because it had created the impression he was insane.
He repeated over and over again that he knew exactly what he was doing when he planned the attacks.
His targets were not random. The young people he shot dead on the island of Utøya during a Norwegian Labour party summer camp, some of them as young as 14, were “not innocent, non-political children”, he said. “These were young people who worked to actively uphold multicultural values. Many had leading positions in leading Labour party youth wings.”
He noted that “Sarkozy, Merkel and Cameron have all said that multiculturalism has failed”. He had studied recent history and was disgusted to see what happens “any time nationalist parties take power”. He cited as examples the partial EU boycott after Jörg Haider’s far-right Freedom party entered Austria’s government in 2000, and the rightwing coalition in Hungary, which he claimed, was under pressure to “change their mind by being called intolerant nationalist Nazis”.
Brevik is descended from the rhetoric of dehumanization that white Europeans engaged in,a nd continues to engage in to make their colonial project successful. He is the product of the refusal of many white Europeans to see poc as fucking people, as actual Norwegian citizens. He’s the dude who went out and actualised all the slurs and racist anti immigrant rhetoric and the comments about headscarves and hijab and those lazy Africans and fights and gaslighting when poc complained about racism. Brevik is the result of claiming “tolerance” and multiculturalism but still demanding assimilation into white values while never allowing poc to fully integrate anyway because they are poc. And then blaming them for white people’s refusal to categorize them as people. Brevik is the logical result of racism being built into a society from the foundations to the roof, instead of being lanced with genuine repentance and a wish to do better. And that shit is across the European continent. But they will isolate him as a lone wolf and pretend that their rhetoric of exclusion and white supremacy had nothing at all to do with his radicalization. After all, a Muslim person might have punched him and broken his nose once!
(via karnythia)
The Netherlands: father of two commits suicide on the eve of his deportation
I haven’t been able to find a source for this in English so you’ll have to bear with my translation of the article in Dutch. As I always say, anyone curious about the original source can parse it through Google Translate. The resulting grammar tends to be a bit mangled but the text is well readable.
The father apparently committed suicide to prevent his children from being deported as now they have no adult relative to take care of them and the Dutch State would need to step up and fulfill that obligation. His 14-year-old son now believes that the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) killed his father.
The son and 12-year-old daughter have been placed in a foster home. The mother, according to sources, was killed in the war in Burundi where there are still tensions between Hutus and Tutsis.
The father had been depressed for some time because of his pending deportation. He would tell friends that his life really would be destroyed if he had to return to Burundi.
It is not yet clear whether the children can stay in the Netherlands. Their father’s funeral will take place on Thursday in Utrecht.
I don’t have much to add to the above because rage tends to get the best of me in these cases.
(via biyuti)
And to the Americans that don’t think racism is happening in Europe
Please, try and get it together. Europe is not doing anything great when it comes to race. So many POCs have to defend themselves. I mean you have Nigerians getting killed in Ireland, blacks immigrants being shot down in Italy (all approved by government). How many POCs have to walk around defending themselves in Eastern Europe? Countless numbers. The exploitation and killing of the Roma population is disgusting. I remember when I was last in Austria they set alight a caravan and killed a family of people. There is deep seated racism and prejudice. France is another example just look at how successful Le Pen has been. This goes on and on and on. Even during the 2006 World Cup they warned Africans not to go around Eastern Germany after a certain time. The treatment of Turks and Arabs. Basically what I’m trying to tell you is that Europe is no utopia. Don’t think racism isn’t as vicious over here.
To any Americans following me please READ THIS POST and STFU about OMG Europe is sooo much better. NO! NO!
Racism is everywhere. EVERYWHERE
^^^^
(via karnythia)
