Originally Posted by Yorkiechef (Post 11756183)

This European problem is of merkel's making. Come and you will have refuge, when they get there it's too many for us, hey EU, bail us out, take a load of these, too many for us.

Incidentally, those requesting asylum in UK, irrespective of likelyhood, are released, if they are unsuccessful, they disappear into the underworld of illegal work, better than being a taxi driver in Syria. Europe can't fix this problem, it will just escalate into a bigger and bigger problem. I remember someone said on here that the problem of the poor folk in this world is borders, until the borders come down, we will have inequality in the world. Well they are down now, let's see what happens shall we.

Oh, meant to say, if you live in a farm, orchard, good schools and so on, you won't be affected by this, your schools and countryside and your perfect little world will go by without a second thought. However the working class will be affected, they live in towns and city's and their children will be taught alongside people that don't speak a work of English. God help us all.

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 11756215)

You can't throw people to the wolves, whether you like it or not. Britain has to do its part, and the EU as a whole has ample capacity to help Syria and Iraq.

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 11756235)

The UK already provides substantial funding to refugees in the countries around Syria. Encouraging people to utilise the services of people traffickers is unlikely to provide a solution.

Paul Collier describes the situation correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB0_njAf32A

To quote James Jonue from the comments below:

Ska Keller is completely divorced from reality and offers only meaningless soundbites and platitudes. Free movement is now dead, and distributing the migrants around the EU won't work. The vast, vast majority of them don't want to go to places like Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia etc. They want to go to rich Northern Europe, i.e Germany, Sweden or France. If you send them to Slovakia they'll simply find a way to move to Germany. The Slovaks and many other states don't want them, so any migrants that end up in those places will face a lot of hostility. That alone will be a big push factor in the direction of Germany.

What is disgraceful is the fact that we've left the poor and the vulnerable to fend for themselves in the camps in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. Those that can't afford the fees of the people smugglers or who aren't fit enough to make the journey have been abandoned and instead we're focusing our efforts on the young, relatively wealthy men who have made it to Europe (and yes, most of the migrants are young males, despite the images the media selectively shows us). A lot of these men have left families behind, so there will be a second influx when they demand to be re-united.

The whole EU response has just been crazy. No wonder Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states think they can get away with doing nothing.

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 11756486)

Paul Collier is living in his ivory tower and " completely divorced from reality" if he thinks some EU funding can assist the refugees to live normal and productive lives in Lebanon and Turkey. Lebanon in particular has no capacity to integrate Syrians. The refugees do need jobs, housing, healthcare, education, on an ongoing basis; is Turkey able to provide that?

No problem with anything that Ska Keller said.

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 11756862)

Germany can accept as many migrants as it wants as long as it will deal with the consequences. Encouraging this migration route has virtually no bearing on solving the problem regarding refugees from Syria but certainly it will make some people feel better. There are quite likely to be fewer jobs in places like Wolfsberg in the future so perhaps the pull factor will diminish in the future also.

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 11756864)

It's not a long term solution, that's true. But it is a response to the current crisis, a crisis that indirectly was our own making.

It's interesting that that expert Middle Eastern relations Tony Blair has been exceptionally quiet during this whole escapade.

Originally Posted by paw339 (Post 11756888)

Most of them come from Afghanistan.

Originally Posted by Almost Canadian (Post 11756903)

I am not sure of the specific crisis that you speak of but I would be interested to learn why you believe it was "our" fault.

Originally Posted by paw339 (Post 11756888)

New German news report "On the Greek island of Lesbos, in less than an hour around 1,200 people arrived in 24 boats on the island. Most of them come from Afghanistan."

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 11756864)

It's not a long term solution, that's true. But it is a response to the current crisis, a crisis that indirectly was our own making.

It's interesting that that expert Middle Eastern relations Tony Blair has been exceptionally quiet during this whole escapade.

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 11756972)

It is a response certainly but a flawed and irresponsible response.

"a crisis that indirectly was our own making." because.... ?

TB hasn't been PM for nearly 10 years now

Originally Posted by Shard (Post 11756963)

Operation Desert Storm set quite a chain of events into motion.

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 11756979)

So it's the fault of the UN, Arab League and in particular these countries who provided the forces and back up:

United States
Kuwait
United Kingdom
Saudi Arabia
France
Italy
Canada
Egypt
Syria
Morocco
United Arab Emirates
Pakistan
Oman
Qatar
Bangladesh
Non-combat support:[hide]
Argentina
Australia
Bahrain
Belgium
Czechoslovakia
Denmark[1]
Spain
Luxembourg
Netherlands
New Zealand
Niger
Norway
Poland
Greece
Hungary
Senegal
South Korea
Sweden