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Written by Om Marathe, Edited by Explained Desk | New Delhi | Updated: October 25, 2020 12:48:53 pmChildren stand by the sea at the Kara Tepe refugee camp, on the northeastern Aegean island of Lesbos, Greece, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. (AP Photo: Panagiotis Balaskas)

Greece on Monday said it would be extending a wall along its border with Turkey to prevent potential mass crossings by migrants into its territory.

The move, seen as the latest sign of fast deteriorating relations between Greece, a European Union member, and Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, comes months after a spike in border tensions after Turkey said it would not be stopping refugees from crossing into Europe.

Additionally, on Tuesday, the Greek foreign ministry was reported to have written to the EU to consider suspending its custom union agreement with Turkey, which has been in force since 1996. A Bloomberg report also said Greece had called on three EU partners, including Germany, to halt arms exports to Turkey.

Relations between the NATO allies, which have been contentious for decades, have nosedived this year; the two countries have been bickering over a range of issues, including refugees, oil exploration and the Hagia Sophia monument.

Since the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, vast numbers of displaced Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey. According to the latest known figures, Turkey hosts some 37 lakh refugees from Syria, and is feeling the socio-economic and political strain of their presence in the country.

In 2015, the refugee crisis reached its peak as thousands drowned while attempting to cross over to the West using water routes. Around 10 lakh reached Greece and Italy.

In 2016, Turkey agreed to prevent migrants from crossing into the EU, and the bloc in return promised funds to help the former manage the refugees on its soil.

However, in February this year, Turkey said it would not be honouring the 2016 agreement, asserting its inability to sustain another refugee wave. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would be opening the doors with Greece for migrants to cross through.

Critics blamed Turkey for using the migrant issue as a means to bring its western allies on board with its military campaign in Syrias Idlib province, where hostilities had escalated in preceding weeks.

Greece said the migrants were being manipulated as pawns by Turkey, which in turn accused Greece of illegally pushing back migrants from reaching its island territories.

Subsequently, in March, thousands of migrants sought to enter Europe through Greece and Bulgaria, but numbers fell sharply due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and tougher border policing.

Now, the Greek government has said it would extend its already existing 10 km long wall with Turkey by an additional 26 km by the end of April 2021, spending EUR 63 million on the project.

Turbulent ties that are worsening

For centuries, Turkey and Greece have shared a chequered history. Greece won independence from modern Turkeys precursor, the Ottoman Empire, in 1830. In 1923, the two countries exchanged their Muslim and Christian populations a migration whose scale has only been surpassed in history by the Partition of India.

The two nations continue to oppose each other on the decades-old Cyprus conflict, and on two occasions have almost gone to war over exploration rights in the Aegean Sea.

Both countries are, however, part of the 30-member NATO alliance, and Turkey is officially a candidate for full membership of the European Union, of which Greece is a constituent.

Also in Explained | Why the US and UK believe Russia is planning a cyber attack on Tokyo Olympics

The Eastern Mediterranean dispute

For 40 years, Turkey and Greece have disagreed over rights to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, which covers significant oil and gas deposits.

Increasingly assertive under President Erdogan, Turkey in July announced that its drilling ship Oruc Reis would be exploring a disputed part of the sea for oil and gas. Greece responded by placing its air force, navy and coastguard on high alert.

After negotiations, the Turkish vessel retreated in September, but earlier this month resumed its voyage, conducting seismic surveys near the Greek island of Kastellorizo.

Athens, which considers the waters surrounding the island its own, has described the ships movements as a direct threat to peace in the region. A signatory of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), it maintains that its continental shelf should be calculated while considering its island territories in the Eastern Mediterranean.

On its part, Ankara, which has not signed UNCLOS, argues a nations continental shelf should be calculated from its mainland, and maintained that Oruc Reiss activity was fully within Turkish continental shelf. Follow Express Explained on Telegram

The Hagia Sophia row

Greece was also irked this year after Turkey ordered the centuries-old Hagia Sophia, a UNESCO World Heritage site, open to Muslim worship in July.

The Hagia Sophia was originally a cathedral in the Byzantine Empire before it was turned into a mosque in 1453, when Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmet IIs Ottoman forces. In the 1930s, however, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, shut down the mosque and turned it into a museum in an attempt to make the country more secular.

Many Greeks continue to revere the Hagia Sophia, and view it as a key part of Orthodox Christianity.

On July 24, when Friday prayers were held at the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 90 years, church bells tolled across Greece in protest, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the sites conversion an affront to civilisation of the 21st century, describing Turkeys move as a proof of weakness.

Turkeys foreign ministry hit back, saying, Greece showed once again its enmity towards Islam and Turkey with the excuse of reacting to Hagia Sophia Mosque being opened to prayers.

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Explained: Why Greece wants to extend the wall along its border with Turkey - The Indian Express

Journalists Dibyaudh Das and Sruthin Lal travelled from Delhi to Lucknow in May to cover the displacement of migrant labourers in Uttar Pradesh. The stories the duo covered in their 600-km cycle journey that lasted 12 days have been released as a three-part documentary series, titled Corona Cyclips.

Sruthin and Dibyaudh hadnt cycled since their school days. The idea for a 600 km ride, the latter admits, was supposed to stay as an idea. I thought Ill just suggest this crazy idea in the newsroom meeting and thats it. But Sruthin (associate editor) was also excited about it. He came up with a workable plan. The company approved it. And, the two journalists were on their way.

The journey, amidst a heatwave and a raging pandemic, was expectedly arduous. My whole body was sore after the first day, says Dibyaudh, But we were live-blogging our journey. We shared stories of people who were in need of help. And, we noticed immediate feedback and a lot of people got help. So, that kept us going.

The reverse migration of labourers from cities to their hometowns was largely a story of heartbreak. Tens and thousands of them traveled over 100 miles on foot, without food, for days. The Guardian called it the greatest exodus since partition. The documentary, apart from capturing this, also covers moments of benevolence. Throughout our journey, we saw people -- Panchayat workers, officials, Dhaba owners -- providing food and water to labourers. In Vrindavan, for instance, we met some villagers who make tulsi malas for a living. Their livelihoods were hit badly due to the lockdown. But they came together to help the migrant labourers. They pooled in money and food grains and fed the people coming into the state, says Sruthin.

Sruthin says travelling in cycles helped them get such stories. He calls it slow journalism, wherein one stops, observes and investigates upon noticing something interesting. His colleague concurs. A lot of people helped us because we were on cycle. I think they could relate to us. Its not the same as getting out of an AC car and putting mics in front of them. It was also easy to access some villages that wouldnt have been possible with bigger vehicles. It saved us from the problem for looking for fuel as well during the lockdown.

Another concern that was at the back of their heads was the COVID-19 disease itself. Back in May, the villages were largely uninfected. Since we were travelling from cities and towns, we were doubly careful about not contracting the virus and spreading it in the villages, says Dibyaudh.

The entire documentary has been filmed using a mobile phone. We carried a tripod. But it wasnt needed much, says Sruthin, You dont need a lot of resources to tell a story. That was the biggest takeaway from our journey. All you need is a mobile phone. With social media, you can create an immediate impact as well.

The labourers stories, Sruthin feels, have been forgotten. The media and the people seem to have moved on from the issue. I hope this documentarys release serves as a reminder.

The three-part series of Corona Cyclips is available on Asiavilles YouTube page

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Corona Cyclips documents the 600-km cycle journey of two journalists covering the migrant labour crisis - The Hindu

Home Secretary Priti Patel visited the port of Dover last weekto gee up the beleaguered Border Force and offer words of encouragement to the British people. 'It is our mission and objective to break this route up,' she told her personal cameraman and tightly-controlled media team. Priti hot footed it out of the docks as soon as the PR stunt was over. Job done for another day. More fake promises of stronger borders by a Conservative party who seem unable to control anything, let alone a porous expanse of water separating England from France.

The reality is we all know whats going on. Not from the mainstream media who eagerly line the dock side waiting for exhausted looking women and children being brought off the boats. We all know the reality from alternative media and independent reporters that have filled the void.

Ive covered the migrant crisis for more than five years and worked on the ground in more than eight countries. Ive visited dozens of refugee camps and illegal migrant encampments. Ive spent hundreds of hours with refugees and migrants listening to their stories and trying to make sense of this crisis. The picture I see in the news does not reflect my experience and that of many others.

Over my time on the refugee trail, Ive noticed that the majority of people making the journey to Europe are males between the age of 18-35. In fact Id estimate up to 85 per cent of the migrant influx is comprised of young men. I always found it difficult to turn on the TV and see women clutching their infants and fathers weeping as they landed on the shores of Greece. Difficult because of the humanitarian empathy that wells up within us all, but also difficult because its not a reality Im seeing on the ground.

What I found over five years across the Balkans and Europe is not whats written about in the papers, its not the stuff that wins journalism awards. Its the painful reality that the refugee crisis is more complex than we are led to believe. 'Everyone who needs asylum should be given a safe place,' a leftist volunteer once told me. Thats true and its a nice notion to live life by, however the reality is starkly different.

What Ive witnessed over the years is people, who by their own admission are not refugees, taking advantage of European gullibility and generosity. In 2015, when Merkel declared anyone who came will be welcomed in Germany, the door was truly opened. A green light lit up across the Middle East, Africa and other more far-flung parts of the world. With the aid of Google and volunteer organisations people knew exactly what type of persecution, sexual persuasion, religious or ethnic identity would secure them a ticket into Europe.

I dont mean to be flippant on the subject of fraudulent asylum claims but it seems all too common. In warehouse refugee camps Ive witnessed men from Egypt studying maps of Damascus to fabricate their identity. Ive seen North Africans all claim to be Syrians and coincidently all from Damascus.

Around a fire on the Serbian-Croatian border Ive shared cigarettes and fruit with middle class, metropolitan Iranians who are taking their chances on reaching Europe. 'We will say we are Christians and suffer problems because of that. I have had friends who say theyre gay and it worked. The funny thing was when he arrived in Berlin they housed him with other gay refugees.'

Countless stories that dont fit the narrative pushed on the evening telly fall by the way side. Violence, drugs, alcohol, disease and criminality are the bleak reality I saw on Europes borders. I shared the hardship to an extent to understand what truly drives people to pack up everything and come to Europe.

Thousands and thousands of genuine refugees suffer in the Balkan barbed wire. More lie restless in stifling, overcrowded camps waiting for their turn to continue onwards to Europe. In the West, we know all of this yet we neglect to have the difficult conversations that are vital moving forwards.

How do we protect public health with an influx of uncontrolled migration? How do we address the elephant in the room: integration? What about family reunification? The numbers are vast! If Germany has six million new arrivals then how many more will come if their families are allowed to join them? How will Europe cope with all these people?

The British public are alarmed by what they see in Dover. Not out of a knee jerk, racist reaction but out of a genuine sense of concern. People have the right to ask questions: Where are these people going to live? What about the school placements? The doctors surgeries? The opportunities to work in an already crumbling economy?

The reality is we all know what we are hearing about the refugee crisis is not the full picture. Its not as clear cut as the London bubble would have us believe.Across the world, there are hundreds of millions who would qualify for EU asylum. The question we are all going to have to ask is how much is enough? How many people can the West really take?

Edward Crawford is afreelance photojournalist and videographer

The rest is here:
The truth about the migrant crisis isn't what you think - Spectator.co.uk

UK Border Force officials travel in a RIB with migrants picked up at sea whilst Crossing the English Channel, as they arrive at the Marina in Dover, southeast England on August 15, 2020. BEN STANSALL

London A man who had just landed on a British beach after crossing the English Channel in a dinghy from France was reportedly attacked earlier this month by a witness who saw him arrive, as the coronavirus pandemic contributes to a surge in attempts by migrants and refugees to enter the United Kingdom by boat.

Police opened an investigation into the attack and said the victim, in his 20s, was not seriously injured.

"While urgent action is needed by the French and the (British) Home Office, there is no excuse for violence or vigilante behavior," local member of Parliament, Natalie Elphicke, said.

August saw more people attempt to make the more-than-20-mile trip across the channel and enter the U.K. in this way than has ever been recorded in a single month, according to media reports.

Britain's Home Office does not maintain a running total of migrant channel crossings, but journalists calculate the numbers based on ad hoc information released by the government. BBC News calculates that more than 5,000 people have tried to make the trip from France so far this year the highest number on record and, according to Sky News, more than five-times last year's total.

But refugee advocacy groups, including the United Nation Refugee agency, UNHCR, say the U.K. is not facing a migrant crisis.

"What is happening is that the movement of people has changed, and it has become a lot more visible because of the COVID situation," UNHCR External Relations Officer Laura Padoan told CBS News.

"We're seeing far fewer lories (trucks) being able to cross through the channel, so people are resorting to using smugglers' dinghies," she said, explaining that it's too soon to tell if the overall number of asylum seekers has increased, or if it's just the number of people attempting to cross by boat versus other methods.

"What we're calling for governments to do is expand the safe, legal routes that make that immigration route for families to be together again fairer and less restrictive," she said.

As more people attempt to cross the English Channel one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world there are also more unaccompanied minors among them. Many land on beaches in the English county of Kent.

"They tell us that they were very cold and wet and scared, some that there were too many people in the boat and they didn't want to get in but they were sort of forced to get in by the people smugglers," Brigid Chapman, spokesperson for the Kent Refugee Action Network, told CBS News. "They're just extremely grateful to be here."Last Monday, the local government in Kent said it did not have the capacity to take care of any more children arriving on its shores.

"I am deeply disappointed and concerned that, despite our many efforts to avoid this unthinkable situation, it has been necessary to make this announcement today," Kent County Council Leader Roger Gough said in a statement. He appealed to the central government and other counties across the U.K. to help care for the unaccompanied children.

"We are grateful for the support some other local authorities have given recently but unfortunately, due to the continued high level of arrivals, it has not been enough to make a real difference to the numbers," said Sue Chandler, Cabinet member for Integrated Children's Services in Kent.

Chapman said the county council has been flagging the issue for months to the central government, and part of the reason it's overwhelmed is reluctance by other local councils to take on unaccompanied minors because of a lack of funding. She said the U.K. as a whole could handle the number of migrants and refugees arriving by boat, and that Britain still receives many fewer asylum claims than other countries.

"With a lot of the children that we work with, they didn't actually have any choice about where they went. They were put into the hands of people smugglers. And they really, you know, they traveled at night, they were often beaten and deprived of food because the people smugglers need to keep them sort of compliant," Chapman told CBS News.

"Normally parents have asked for them to come to the U.K. because they may have a cousin or something, or somebody they think can kind of help that young person to make a start in life," she said.

Earlier this month, British Home Secretary Priti Patel created a new position a Clandestine Channel Threat Commander to address the rising number of migrants and refugees trying to cross the channel in small boats.

"The number of illegal small boat crossings is appalling," Patel said in a statement. "We are working to make this route unviable and arresting the criminals facilitating these crossings and making sure they are brought to justice."

The government also announced it was considering plans to deploy large navy vessels to the channel, which refugee groups said would be dangerous and could even prove deadly.

Britain's Royal Navy told CBS News it currently has no plans to deploy any ships, but that it was dedicating 10 staff members to help with planning and logistics.

"It's really important that the political rhetoric is in proportion to the scale of what's happening on the channel, which is manageable and the numbers are low," said Padoan, of UNHCR.

"I feel like a lot of the mainstream media is dancing to a very xenophobic tune at the moment, and there are certain politicians that are really trying to stir things up," said Chapman, of the Kent Refugee Action Network. "I don't understand what they're trying to achieve with it, but the situation is becoming really, really toxic."

Late last Thursday, a video message featuring a refugee was projected onto the cliffs of Dover overlooking the English Channel by the activist group, "Led By Donkeys."

"Britain is not facing a refugee crisis. There are around 30 million refugees around the world, and Britain is home to only 1 percent of them," Hassan, a man who introduced himself as an asylum seeker who made the boat journey across the channel five years ago, said.

"Britain is, however, facing other crises, but we are being used again as a distraction from the actual crises facing this country, caused by the people who are running it," he continued, "They are using us to distract you from how badly they have managed during this pandemic."

Read the rest here:
Why coronavirus is driving more migrants and refugees to try to reach Britain by boat - CBS News

THE body of a teenage asylum seeker is washed up on a French beach.

He was, reported the BBC, a desperate 16-year-old seeking sanctuary in Britain another victim of corruption, violence and, by implication, the heartless Tories.

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In fact, the poor soul was 28-year-old Sudanese Abdulfatah Hamdallah, whose official asylum claim had been ruled unacceptable by the French authorities.

A non-swimmer, he stole a toy dinghy and tried to cross Europes busiest sea lane before puncturing his flimsy craft with a spade used as a paddle a mile offshore.

Whichever way you look at it, this is a tragic story.

Yet for some bizarre reason, Britain is getting the blame.

Why, wail the shroud-wavers, are WE putting lives at risk?

In truth, migrants are the raw material for a cruel criminal industry.

Countless young men pay people-smugglers billions to cross continents and reach British soil.

At least one in four lies about his age, according to social care records. Many are well over 18, as was 28-year-old Abdulfatah.

In this age-limit lottery, winners hit the jackpot with free accommodation, healthcare and spending money up to the age of 25.

All claim to be from war zones, fleeing for their lives.

Some are telling the truth. Many make false claims, both about their age and their origins. Some, reportedly coached by aid workers, concoct fake personal histories and nationalities and destroy evidence of their true identity.

With 50,000 illegals now parked in temporary accommodation around the country, hard-pressed officials struggle to tell one from the other.

In fact, only some are in genuine fear for their lives.

The United Nations warns seven out of ten coming through Libya are economic opportunists using criminal gangs to jump the queue. Some are battle-hardened Islamists.

They will remain on the hook to gangsters who shipped them over.

Most who reach France have been officially ordered, at some point along the way, to leave Europe.

Many complain bitterly about French racism and ill-treatment. With every other country moving them on, Britain just 22 miles away is their last hope.

Once here, thanks to zealous human rights lawyers they are unlikely ever to leave and, under our liberal laws, might one day bring their family over to join them.

This explains why they are desperate.

France could solve this crisis by closing camps and cracking down on criminal gangs.

Instead, as The Sun reported on Saturday, Emmanuel Macron is using it as a Brexit negotiating weapon.

If we want a neighbourly hand, we must cough up another 30million and abandon our rights to sovereign status over fishing and human rights laws.

Macron is happy to see migrants leaving.

He thinks it is Britains fault for being so soft an undeniable fact which Boris Johnson is, I am told, about to address. The whole point of Brexit was taking back control.

Covid has exposed the shocking, perhaps even deadly, lack of such control at the heart of government.

Ministers pull levers and nothing happens on PPE and Covid testing. In June, they demanded a return to school. Nothing happened.

Britain is paying the price for an unaccountable bureaucracy, the Whitehall Blob. And for a legion of grotesquely expensive quangos such as Public Health England, identified here on Sunday by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.

We are tied in chains by lawyers posing as human rights champions and troublemakers who challenge decisions with costly and time-consuming judicial reviews.

Well, I am here to tell you, folks, this is all about to end ...I hope.

Whitehall Remainers are seething over a range of yet-to-be revealed measures which will sweep away EU-style meddling and regulation and hand power back where it belongs: In elected political hands.

Comment

THE SUN SAYSBrussels is still bent on ensuring that Britain somehow loses out

Comment

ALLY ROSSHarry Hills World Of TV is a safe space for un-PC comedy

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GEOFF PALMERBanning anthems from the Proms will only manipulate history & create confusion

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THE SUN ON SUNDAY SAYSPresident Macron and his pals must drop their outrageous tactics

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JEREMY CLARKSONRobots can't fetch slippers, let alone steer a car in rush-hour on the M25

Illegal migrants will be sent back. Long legal wrangles will be terminated. Judicial reviews will be effectively abolished.

Human rights laws will be tailored to fit the needs of Britain, not Brussels.

Thanks to Brexit, the Bonfire Of The Quangos is about to begin...at last.

Free world problems

THE US presidential elections are private grief, but every Western democracy has skin in this game.

The leadership of the Free World is being fought between two gaffe-prone third-raters, neither likely to last a full term.

Republican incumbent Donald Trump, 74, makes even his rare triumphs like the Israeli-Arab peace deal look shabby.

Dazzlingly dentured Democrat Joe Biden, 77, if victorious, will be remembered for turning a non-entity opportunist into the Free Worlds first black female leader if he fails to see out his term.

Chosen running-mate Kamala Harris might be a surprising success...or an unmitigated, untested and unelected disaster.

Neither Americas 150million voters nor the rest of the world will have a say.

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Emmanuel Macron is trying to use the migrant crisis as a Brexit negotiating weapon - The Sun