U.N, World Refugee Day

Italy and Greece are taking in the brunt of refugees because of their geographic location. They are amongst the countries of the EU struggling the most.

Italy is threatening a plan B, which I think would be giving the refugees status of some sort that would allow them to travel the EU.

Slumberjack wrote:

It's tragic that there wasn't a safer way devised for migrants to make their way into Europe.  Does anyone else feel that it is entirely fitting, apart from the risks involved for migrants who travel from Africa to Europe, that Europe is the primary destination, particularly if that destination begins with southern European nations like Italy and France?

Don't know that it is "fitting" but it is realistic. In my opinion this is partly why the North American Security Perimeter was created, to stop refugees.

http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montrealers-march-against-dep...

3,500 people from Haiti and Zimbabwe who have been rejected as refugees lose all status in Canada.

..........

Hernandez says an estimated 500,000 people are believed to be living in Canada without official documentation. Among them are whole families who have been ordered to return to their countries of origin, but who have decided to ignore their deportation orders and stay in Canada.

..............Her organization is asking for the federal government to stop spending money on the detention and forced deportation of these non-status people and instead find ways to allow them to become full-fledged members of Canadian society. It cites figures from the federal department of public safety that show more than 18,000 migrants were deported by the Canada Border Services Agency in 2012-2013 — an average of 49 deportations each day.

Canada will continue to only allow a trickle of refugees through.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/what-are-babies-doing-behind-bars-in-...

Like most toddlers, Alpha Anawa likes toys, cereal, and making new friends. Curious and bright-eyed, the two-year-old has never been to a beach, ridden on a merry-go-round, or been out of his mother’s sight. The first time he saw a car, he was petrified. The only life he has ever known has been spent behind barbed wire.

His mother, Glory Anawa, has lived in Toronto’s Immigration Holding Centre since 2013, after Glory—who was three months pregnant and says she was fleeing the threat of female circumcision in her village in Cameroon—landed at Pearson International Airport and tried to claim refugee status. (Prior to that, Glory says she had received temporary status in Finland, but wasn’t able to make it permanent.) She had identification, but it was not issued by the Cameroonian government, so she was detained after the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) could not verify her name, birthdate or place of birth.

Glory delivered the baby in a Toronto-area hospital and named him after the first letter in the Greek alphabet; to her, he represented a fresh start in life. The baby’s first words were “radio check”—this is what guards say when they change shifts in the converted hotel that Alpha calls home. It crushed her. “I cried for days after he said that. It’s not words for babies,” she says on a phone in the visitors’ room at the centre, Alpha squirming in her lap. The child paws at the Plexiglas, trying to reach a cellphone—a new and enticing object—on the other side.

The reality is we will continue to try to stop people from migrating to first world countries. It's easier for us because we have an entire continent.

The truth is if we accepted as many as our land would support the US and Canada would become completely different countries. Our social services would collapse. If we are truthful. we don't want to be that fair. Might makes right. Our borders will be protected with the support of a massive percentage of the population who wants to protect our way of life.

I didn't post this to condemn Europe or Italy or Greece or the migrants trying to reach their shores. The reality is, Europe will not significantly increase the number of migrants or refugees into the EU for the same reasons we won't.  It is just much harder for them to protect their borders.

Canada works on making sure boat people don't get close enough to our territorial waters for us to become responsible for them.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/australia.accused.of.smuggling.boa...

The Australian navy has reportedly paid off the crew of a boat carrying asylum-seekers to return to Indonesian waters, and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is not denying such reports.

The country's immigration and foreign officials have already maintained that the reports are false, but Abbott's refusal to deny the reports left Indonesia's foreign ministry "very concerned," according to a Business Insider report.

The Indonesian police said they detained the boat's crew members this week. They later told the police that an Australian navy ship intercepted them and gave each of them $3,900 to turn back.

"I saw the money with my own eyes," the local police chief said. "This is the first time I'd heard [of] Australian authorities making payments to boat crew."

The passengers echoed the police's story.

Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesperson expressed concern over the reports, adding that the authorities have started an investigation. "This is endangering life. They were in the middle of the sea, but were pushed back," foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said.