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Of all the privileges that exist, the nation-state privilege is probably the most important, yet it is by far the privilege we talk about least.

The answer to the question of where you were born, and where you are resident, is decisive for your access to medical care and consumer goods, life expectancy and mobility. It is still better to be a half-Muslim, half-Jewish, Black, non-heterosexual, disabled resident of Tilburg, wool capital of The Netherlands, than a member of the middle class in, say, Helmand province in Afghanistan.

The extent of your right to mobility depends mainly on which passport you happened to hold, most likely through birth. Have a Dutch passport? You can travel to almost 170 countries without a visa. Those who have to travel with a Pakistani passport can travel visa-free to less than ten countries, from Haiti to The Gambia.

In his recently published bookthe German sociologist Steffen Mau describes how borders, as we know them, have only existed for a few centuries. In our own time, he explains, borders are increasingly functioning as sorting machines, separating 'desirable' from 'undesirable' human beings.

Covid may have made traveling somewhat more difficult for those with nation-state privilege, but with airlines predicting a return to the 4.5 billion passengers of the peak year of 2019, even if it takes a few years, that obstruction will also be temporary.

The bottom line is that the world can be divided in two: those who hold passports for superhumans (say, a U.S., UK, Australian, Canadian, or EU passport) and those who hold passports for the damned with the stateless condemned to even lower circles of torment.

Anyone who wants to understand anything of what has been called the migration crisis should keep this in mind. Because it elucidates how the distinction between so-called 'real refugees', 'economic refugees' and those whom Dutch right-wing politicians have called 'fortune seekers,' is wafer thin. When it comes to the reasons why people leave home and hearth, existential poverty is hardly distinguishable from the threat of war and persecution.

No matter how far back we go in human history, there were always compelling reasons for leaving family and homeland behind, if only because God compelled it. For example, God seems to have told Abraham: "Go from your country, your people and your fathers householdto the landI will show you."

Migration is not a crisis unless we are willing to call most of human history a crisis. The fact that we in Europe have come to use the term "migration crisis" is partly because casting migration in a hostile light is still one of the most effective propaganda instruments of right-wing extremist parties.

Whether Merkel's Willkommenskultur (her refugees welcome stance) contributed materially to the rise of the far right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is unclear, but what is certain is that Merkel realized that the refugees and migrant issue as used by far-right parties could contribute to the disintegration of the EU. Eastern European member states, in particular, hold on to the old story of a homogeneous people rooted in an almost mythical way to the land on which they live.

Merkel's biggest task during her years as Chancellor was to keep the EU together without shaking her power base in Germany itself. The fact that she had to conclude an agreement on behalf of the EU with a semi-dictator like Turkeys Erdogan was of secondary importance. Erdogan did the dirty work for the EU; he had to keep refugees (read: migrants) away from Europe's external borders in exchange for cold cash. Merkel was not exercised very much about the plight of refugees in general, those tucked far away in Greece, for instance, as described in Ralph Bollmann's excellent biography.

Alexander Lukashenko, dictator of Belarus, saw that there was good business to do with the EU when it comes to refugees. Unlike Turkey and Libya, he didnt so much want cash to rid Europe of an artificial problem as much as he wanted the lifting of personal and national sanctions imposed after he forced a Ryanair flight to land in Minsk in May of this year, in order to arrest a Belarusian dissident.

Whether Lukashenko acted on Putin's orders, and whether there is a connection between the refugees in Belarus and the threat that Russia will intensify the war in and against Ukraine, is hardly relevant to a better understanding of the 'migration crisis.'

Far more pertinent is the fact that the EU can be serially blackmailed by the threat of a refugee influx, because of the fear that the far right will gain more popularity as soon as refugees are back on the front pages of European newspapers again.

In order to increase the pressure on the EU, Lukashenko invited Iraqis, among others, to fly to Minsk for a fee of $3-4000 and stay in a hotel for a few days, with the implicit promise that they could then wander on down into the EU. The average income in Iraq is about $4000 a year. Within the domain of the damned, it is always the slightly privileged who make the crossing they have the means and the mental and physical strength to do so. For those left behind, the hope of a better life is usually the hope of an afterlife.

The Polish-Belarusian border, where those refugees were stranded, is in a region historian Timothy Snyder has described as "bloodlands"; places where both Hitler and Stalin committed their greatest mass murders. They have seen it all before.

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, has stated that the EU will not finance barbed wire and walls to mark and fortify its external borders. But the Polish parliament has already allocated 350 million euros to build a wall with or without money from the EU. A wall that, if it will even be built, will be visual noise, but with only symbolic effect. Whoever has the burning desire for a better life will always find holes in a wall.

Can people be asked to share their nation-state privileges with the less privileged? In theory, yes, of course, but in practice, I fear that the vast majority of people are not willing to make any sacrifices for more justice.

It is true that the sacrifice can be forced, but in democracies there is a danger that this enforcement will be punished in the next elections. Bertolt Brecht already wrote that it is a pity that the government can be dissolved, but the people cannot. Since we are still left with imperfect peoples, the idealist must choose: remain theoretically idealist, become a dictator, or try to convince the people although past results arent very encouraging.

Ironically, Lukashenko's actions seem to have strengthened the unity of the EU. Merkel, before she left office, already complimented Belarus' EU neighbors for their actions. The EU is, of course, a community of values and standards, but east of Berlin and south of Palermo those values and standards are gone, because values and standards, like the weather, are a relatively local matter.

As to whether the human sacrifice of the refugees in the Mediterranean and along the Polish-Belarusian border, as well as the flimsy deals with Turkey and Libya, were a reasonable price for preserving the EU, future historians will determine. It is certain that the abuses of, for example, Frontex, the EU border police (such as pushbacks and violations of international law), about which among other outlets Der Spiegel has reported, are nowhere to be found in debates on essential themes, anywhere.

Since there is no police force at the borders to enforce international law, international law does not exist out there, on the periphery of the EU's community of values and standards.

Stopping relatively small numbers of refugees and migrants is in fact the preventive expulsion of the scapegoat, before that scapegoat has been able to reach the center of the community. In his ever-inspiring study "The Scapegoat," French literary scholar and historian Ren Girard argues that the myth always conceals "collective violence" against "a real victim." The blame for the crisis is projected onto the victims of the persecution, and they must therefore be expelled before they can pollute the community.

Little has changed about that. Behind the myth of the migration crisis hides collective violence against real victims. The perpetrators of that violence, who in Germany attack refugees and asylum seekers on a regular basis,and the profiteers off the refugees misery, try to cleanse themselves by means of that myth. But international humanism also has its mythical sides and is, in any case, powerless without a world police, which will not come into being, for now.

The community of values and standards called the EU, which wanted to outsource warfare to America, makes modest human sacrifices in order not to endanger its own survival too much. That is the truth of the 'migration crisis.' The rest is mythology.

Democracy, the rule of law and the international community are what should save us. But they are gods in which fewer and fewer people believe.

Arnon Grunbergis the author of the recent novels "Occupied Territories" and "Good Men." As a reporter he has been embedded with, among others, Dutch and German troops in Afghanistan and American troops Iraq, in a nursing home in Flanders, a circus in Amsterdam, a massage parlor in Romania and slaughter houses in Germany and the Netherlands. He was born in Amsterdam and lives and works in New York.Twitter:@arnonyy

See the original post:
Superhumans, scapegoats and the far right: Busting the myth of Europe's 'migrant crisis' - Haaretz

Editor's Note: Some last names are being withheld to protect the identity of people.

Kasia Wappa is helping migrants by hosting them in her house. Her family has lived in the region for generations. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

As the migrant crisis evolved in November near the border of Poland and Belarus, photographer Kasia Strek spent several days documenting what she saw.

"Migrants in the woods feared everyone, which did make reporting particularly difficult," Strek said. "Especially that as journalists, we were already banned from entering the state of emergency zone established by the Polish authorities, right beside the border with Belarus, where most of the crisis was actually taking place."

According to Strek, people came from all over Poland to help the migrants at the border on their own.

Mohammed is from Syria. He spent the last four years in Turkey, before trying to get to the European Union. Before leaving Syria, he survived a bomb attack when he was praying in a mosque, which injured his head, an arm and a leg. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Blend, a Kurd from Iraq, considers himself lucky. He has only spent 14 days in a camp on the Belarusian side of the border and five days in the woods after crossing to the Polish side. When his kidney problems started to become unbearable because of lack of food and water for the last days, and he couldn't walk longer, volunteers from Polish aid organizations arrived to help. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Blend, a Kurd from Iraq, considers himself lucky. He has only spent 14 days in a camp on the Belarusian side of the border and five days in the woods after crossing to the Polish side. When his kidney problems started to become unbearable because of lack of food and water for the last days, and he couldn't walk longer, volunteers from Polish aid organizations arrived to help.

Since September, a wave of migrants from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and other countries have been camped in the sprawling Biaowiea Forest at the border in freezing temperatures.

They were hoping to cross into Poland. Belarus has been accused of encouraging migrants to fly to its capital Minsk, before pushing them toward the border with Poland, and even encouraging them to clash with Polish authorities. It's a charge that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's regime has denied.

Here is what the photographer saw.

Kasia Wappa prepares to enter a local forest trying to find people who asked for help. This was known as a "silent intervention." It was organized with Grupa Granica, an activist group. They give people food, warm clothes, power banks to charge their cellphones and medical help so they can continue their journey. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Left: Sangat talks to his father in Baghdad for the first time after leaving Minsk weeks earlier. When he was found by one of the local activists, he was completely wet and hadn't had any food or water in two days. Right: Sangat developed a condition known as trench foot. It is very often seen among migrants trapped in the forest at the Belarus-Polish border. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Kamil Syller is a lawyer who lives very close to the Belarusian border. He and his family prepared beds for people who might need help. And they use a "green light" to indicate homes in the area that can help provide shelter to refugees. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Ammar Alshtewy left Syria running for his life as he refused to join the military and participate in armed conflict. He is a refugee in Belgium where he lives with his wife and two daughters, but when he learned that his mother and younger sister, who did not tell him that they were coming, got trapped at the Belarus-Poland border, he came to meet them. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Employees and volunteers from Ocalenie Foundation, one of the main organizations helping at the border, look at their supplies during a briefing between shifts in their temporary office in Sokolka. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Maciej Jaworski and Patryk Tamberg live in the restricted zone around the Belarus-Poland border. After accidentally meeting migrants in the forest nearby, they decided to do their best to help. They look in the areas known to be frequented by migrants in the forest hoping to bring them aid. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Clothes, documents and sleeping bags left behind by migrants in the woods near Narewka, Poland. The spot is known to be a meeting place with drivers, who try to bring migrants to other countries in the European Union. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Activists from the Ocalenie Foundation prepare their car for an intervention, by packing clothes, food, water and power banks for charging cellphones, among other supplies. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Police control cars looking for smugglers in Narew, near the Belarus-Poland border area. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Five men from Iraq were caught on the border of the forest when they were asking for food and water. They were kept in the police car until border guards arrived. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

In November, at least three military camps were installed in Dubicze Cerkiewne, a small village near the restricted state of emergency zone. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Polish politician, Katarzyna Kretkowska, speaks during a demonstration with migrants in Hajnowka, Poland, organized by the group Mothers at the Border. People came to protest how the government was handling the crisis and to show support for those helping people trapped in the forest. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

A nationalist march was organized in Bialystok to thank Polish security forces for protecting the borders. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

A funeral for Mustafa Mohammed Murshed Al-Raimi, from Yemen, who died after crossing the Belarusian border into Poland. His brother came from Yemen for the occasion. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Left: After illegally crossing the border with Belarus, migrants were buried in a provided area at the cemetery in Bohoniki, Poland. Funerals were organized by members of the Tatar community, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Poland. Right: Natalia Boryslawka, a volunteer at Ocalenie Foundation, cries at the funeral of Mustafa Mohammed Murshed Al-Raimi. Kasia Strek for NPR hide caption

Kasia Strek is photojournalist based in Paris, France and Warsaw, Poland. Follow her on Instagram @kasia_strek.

Continue reading here:
This photographer captured how activists helped migrants at the Poland-Belarus border - NPR

Following the fall of Kabul, the United Nations aid agencies, worldwide charities, Western diplomats and government officials became united to warn the world about an unfolding humanitarian crisis resulting from the Taliban returning to power.

South Asia is indeed heading toward a colossal humanitarian crisis especially emerging from the events in Afghanistan. Many experts believe that the coronavirus-hit economies will continue to face new challenges like refugee crises across the globe in 2022.

In an article for the Middle East Institute, researcher Roie Yellinek called it the politics and the geopolitics of Afghan refugee crisis. A number of Save the Children reports have revealed new challenges in freezing winters for refugees across the globe.

The question arises on how many Afghan children will be able to resist harsh weather conditions, insufficient food supplies and lack of medication. For many Afghans, like Africans and Central Americans, poverty, war and hunger have left little hope to survive in their own countries.

Not a single day passes that I don't read or watch news reports of migrants voyages to Europe in search of a better life. A report by the Pledge Times quoted Save the Children, saying more than 1,300 migrants died at sea in 2021, whereas 28,600 migrants were saved by the Libyan Coast Guard.

Since the fall of Kabul, I have reviewed a series of articles in the global media featuring the struggle of ordinary Afghans in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Strange though, most sections of the Western media are full of glamorous stories that show images of Western cities and their residents holding placards with captions, Welcome to Yorkshire while at the same time, British Home Secretary Priti Patel, a daughter of migrant parents herself, has turned out to be extraordinarily tough both in her speeches and overall stance on migrants, nearly placing her in the racist category.

In contrast, I can count dozens of stories published in the mainstream Western media print, broadcast newspapers and television channels that blame neighboring Muslim countries for not doing enough to accommodate the Afghan refugees.

These news reports suggest a single theme that Europe is humanitarian and how ordinary Europeans are anxiously waiting for Afghan refugees in their cities to start new lives.

The reality, however, is quite grim because Europes treatment of refugees doesnt equate with all those past and recent campaigns that portray Europe as a custodian of human rights, democracy and peace.

Most of the articles in the Western press on Afghan refugees show that the West is welcoming and accommodating to Afghan refugees, while it is the neighboring Muslim countries that are cold and unwelcoming to Afghans.

Look at The Washington Post headline: As some countries welcome Afghan refugees, others are trying to keep them out. Correspondingly, Foreign Policy wrote that Afghan refugees get a cold welcome in Pakistan. Whereas Iran is deporting, and Turkey is reluctant to take more Afghan refugees.

Even before the fall of Kabul in 2021, the coronavirus-hit economies in Turkey, Iran and Pakistan were hosting millions of Afghan refugees without mandatory support. Now that the international community has turned its back on the Afghan refugee crisis what can they do?

Two decades ago, I visited Istanbul to report on the 15th Turkish general elections held on Nov. 3, 2002, for Daily Pakistan. I managed to escape my busy reporting schedule to discover Istanbuls history, culture and amazing evening life around the old city in the Sultanahmet district. One rainy and freezing night, I had met a local taxi driver and his Pakistani friend who showed me a small migrant camp full of South Asians ready to go to Europe.

A small room was packed with youngsters mainly from South Asia who were desperate to go to Western Europe through Greece. There, everyone had an emotional story to tell me, but everyone was fearful as they may not see daylight again due to potentially drowning at sea on their impending journey. Many had reached Istanbul through the Iranian mountain range called Chaand Tara in Urdu (which translates to "as high as the moon and stars" in English).

I broke down into tears after listening to their heartfelt stories of struggle, injustice and ill-treatment at home and en route to Europe to make it to a new homeland. I couldnt turn away from the tales of the suffering of young people and wept after learning how many of them had to pay a huge price for this journey, leaving everything behind.

Unfortunately, like the arms trade, human trafficking is a profitable business that benefits many fat cows. Its not a secret anymore, many in the streets of Pakistan's Quetta city and Iran's Zahedan know a way to Europe through Istanbul, be they Afghan refugees or poverty-hit jobless youngsters from Asia.

Why is the migrant crisis emerging around the globe? One after another humanitarian crisis has unfolded in recent years that disturbed bilateral relations between Europe and Turkey.

For the current Afghan refugees' crisis, like Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Libya, the reason is pretty simple as it has resulted from regional military conflicts. Unfortunately, the bitter truth is that competition for regional hegemony between Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and some Middle Eastern countries have led to wars.

Two decades on, migration is still a challenge for Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Despite the best efforts by these countries' governments, migration continues to affect diplomatic ties between Europe and Turkey.

At present, Turkey is hosting the world's largest refugee population of around 4 million, while neighboring Pakistan is home to 3.5 million Afghans along with Iran that accommodates 780,000 Afghans. Besides, according to a BBC report, an estimated 3.5 million Afghans are currently internationally displaced within the country.

The real challenge ahead is how to avoid a mega-disaster resulting from a failing economy in Afghanistan that leaves no choice for Afghans other than to leave. If the world community is serious about resolving the refugee crisis, it should discourage and halt arms supplies to rebel groups, stop private military and affiliated groups such as Blackwater and warlords, and avoid interfering and intervening in other countries' domestic politics. Imagine, a day when the world's major powers stop imposing their style of democracy, controlling poor nations through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and avoiding taking natural resources through unfair means. We would have no humanitarian crisis, nor people leaving their motherland to become second and third-class citizens in faraway places.

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Is the world failing the Afghan migrants challenge? | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

After struggling with the migration crisis on European Unions (EU) eastern borders and Belarus attempts at provocation, 12 EU countries have proposed fast-tracking policy changes related to migration and the policing of external borders. Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania have begun building new border structures equipped with surveillance systems, as well as monitoring their borders with Belarus.

In turn, Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orbn has addressed an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen demanding reimbursement for maintaining Europes fragile stability and putting exemplary measures in place in order to protect it. This has raised the question of how long the European Union will continue to refuse to fund barbed wire and new border fences?

Over the course of the three decades following the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, European countries have built fences and protective structures six times the length of the toppled Berlin Wall. In 2015, the construction of such structures on external borders cost EU countries 238 million. Hungary alone spent 1.64bn in 20152016 on keeping out migrants and refugees attempting to enter from the Balkans. In 20212022, the installation of barbed wire on the Belarusian border will cost Lithuania 152 million and Poland 353 million.

But how effective are these walls and fences in contemporary Europe? They are only effective as symbols demonstrating that politicians are taking measures to eliminate threats real and imagined posed by migration flows, migrant traditions, and lifestyles that do not fit the dominant local culture. However, in the long term, this strategy will be damaging to both the EUs economy and reputation.

In the minds of politicians and ordinary people who support such measures, defensive structures are intended to stop unwanted migration from countries where incomes are low to countries with higher living standards. They cannot, however, put an end to global inequality, solve the problem of poverty, or discourage people from seeking a better life. To put that in context, Reece Jones has shown that the GDP of countries which erect defensive structures around the perimeter of their borders is on average five times higher than the GDP of countries where migrants originate. To solve the problem of illegal migration, a long-term plan is needed, one that eliminates the motivations and reasons behind this movement.

European diplomacy has already succeeded far more than the armies of individual EU member states and their fences on the borders in curbing the threat of migration on the EU border with Belarus.

Experts proved long ago that increasing opportunities and routes of legal immigration, including regulated access to the labour market for foreign workers, is highly effective in the struggle against unauthorised migration, and that diplomacy is more effective in solving issues of security and border protection.

European diplomacy has already succeeded far more than the armies of individual EU member states and their fences on the borders in curbing the threat of migration on the EU border with Belarus. Following a meeting between the foreign ministers of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, the Uzbek government has confirmed that it is willing to cooperate with the European Union and ban transit flights carrying citizens of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen to Belarus. Other countries in the region have also agreed to boost cooperation on security and border protection, curb people-smuggling according to the EU-Central Asian agreement and receive financial backing from the EU.

In 2019, the European Union Institute for Security Studies predicted that EU borders would be increasingly vulnerable because of growing migration flows and the criminalisation of cross-border movement. It warned that third countries may attempt to use mass mobility as an instrument of geopolitical influence, and called on the EU to reflect on methods of preventing hybrid attacks and provocations linked to migration, while also preserving freedom of movement within the Schengen Area.

The announced measures diverge in many ways from the declared goals. They also contravene EU humanitarian law.

Yet, as the situation on the border between the EU and Belarus has shown, no concrete scenarios, preventative measures, or mechanisms for fending off such hybrid attacks within the EU have been developed. In December 2021, the European Commission proposed measures for preventing the political manipulation of migration flows on its eastern borders for the first time. The plan aims to provide Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland with the operational support necessary for ensuring security and a humane, well-organised and dignified approach to managing migration flows that respects the fundamental human rights of those crossing through Belarus.

The announced measures diverge in many ways from the declared goals. They also contravene EU humanitarian law. In particular, the European Commissions plan allows Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland to increase the registration period for asylum seekers to four weeks, whereas the EU Qualification Directive on international protection sets out a registration period of three to six days in such cases (10 days in situations of mass migration).

The plan also gives the migration agencies of Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland the right to accommodate asylum seekers in special centres, where only their basic rights are respected for a period of up to 16 weeks, and to limit their right of appeal. In light of the latest legislative changes introduced by the Latvian and Polish parliaments, which repeal the right to asylum in cases where the request is made immediately after crossing the border or where the border is crossed illegally, the mass movement of people on the external borders of the EU is very likely to become a destabilising force for Europe as a whole.

At present, Poland, Hungary, the Baltic nations, and other member states of the EU that share borders with non-EU countries see only one way of stemming the flow of migrants and securing their borders putting up new walls and fences since they have so little trust in EU diplomacy and economic leverage. But, without Europe-wide understanding and implementation of humanitarian procedures such as the right to asylum, the problem cannot be solved. The use of migration flows as an instrument of geopolitical influence over EU countries will only continue to gain momentum in the years to come.

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Fences on the border can't be Europe's future - IPS Journal

UK Border Force staff report that they find fake ID documents daily, for which there is a maximum penalty of ten years in jail.

Figures compiled from think-tank Migration Watch UK have revealed that more than 2,000 people a year use fake documents when attempting to enter the UK.

UK Border Force staff report that they find fake documents daily, with 21,256 false passports being discovered by Border Force in the decade leading up to 2020.

Immigrants found using fake passports could face up to ten years in prison if action is taken.

Prosecutions have decreased since the year 2013 from 1,200 to around 300 in 2021, when the UK ceased taking ID cards from the EU.

Alp Mehment, spokesperson for think-tank Migration Watch UK, said: Presenting false and fraudulent documents is nothing new.

"What is new and not lost on traffickers and fixers is that the absence of genuine documents, and even lying to an official, makes little difference to whether an illegal entrant is allowed to stay.

The Home Office said: People using false documents will be refused entry to the UK . . . Through the New Plan for Immigration we will be implementing an electronic travel authorisation scheme . . . to block the entry of those who present a threat to the UK.

Originally posted here:
Migrant crisis: Over 2,000 people a year use fake passports trying to enter UK - GB News