Turkey’s immigrant problem could soon become ours

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In Istanbul, signs of the Syrian influx are everywhere. Syrian mothers sit on pavements clutching babies wrapped in blankets; children from Homs, Syria’s most completely devastated city, push their way through packed tram carriages begging for coins. Arabic adverts offer rooms for rent. It’s almost inconceivable how many Syrians Turkey has taken in as refugees — around 2.5 million of them so far. That’s almost three times the number who have sought refuge in Europe. And while the Turks are hospitable, Turkey has more than any country should bear. Yet still more refugees arrive. This is a serious cause for concern, not just in Turkey but in Brussels too, because if Turkey can’t cope, their migrant problem will quickly become ours.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian war, Turkey has acted as a buffer zone between the Middle East and Europe. It’s one of the places refugees head first, to safety, while they work out what to do next. In the early days of the conflict, many refugees arrived in Turkey hoping that the violence in their own country would subside and that they could return home. Five years on, they see Syria sinking ever further into chaos. Some, understandably, make the decision to leave for new lives in prosperous Europe. Of the one million refugees and migrants who ended up in Europe last year, 800,000 arrived in Greece via Turkey.

Far from all of them were Syrian — they comprised roughly half the newcomers, with Afghans and -Iraqis making up much of the rest. But Syria is now the world’s biggest refugee generator, and things are getting worse. So it’s easy to see why Turkey’s -ability (or willingness) to accommodate the 2.5 million Syrians is of such intense interest in Brussels: if the Turks decide they have had enough, and enough of their refugees decide to move, we could see a fresh wave of immigration — maybe even larger than last year’s.

Refugees can be amazingly tough and resourceful, but their living conditions in Turkey — though better than they would be in Lebanon and Jordan — are far from ideal. Most Syrians do not have the right to work, and taking an illegal job means low pay and the fear of being sacked without notice. Access to schooling and healthcare is limited. Many Syrians struggle to get to grips with the language, which leaves them isolated and confused. Looking at a future with no prospects, what parent wouldn’t at least consider gambling on a fresh start for the sake of their children? No wonder then that Turkey’s Aegean coastline is now filled with people-smugglers offering passage to Europe, selling the dream of a new life in a Germany or Scandinavia. The journey can cost anything from €800 to €6,000, depending on demand. The trafficking trade is now a multi-billion-euro business.

What should a panicking EU do? So far the answer has been to bribe Turkey to make the refugees stay where they are. Some €3 billion of EU funds has been pledged to Turkey, with more to come. Brussels has also dangled the enticing prospect of visa-free travel to the Schengen zone for its citizens. A leaked transcript of EU-Turkey talks from November gave a feel for the kind of horse-trading going on. The Turkish foreign minister is -quoted as denouncing the EU billions as an ‘insult’, and Recep -Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, reminded Jean-Claude Juncker, the former prime minister of Luxembourg, that his country was the size of a Turkish town. ‘We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria any time,’ Erdogan was quoted as saying. ‘We can put the refugees on buses.’ This sounded very much like blackmail.

The EU has proved willing to hold its nose and strike a bargain while Turkey locks up journalists and arrests academics. It has also capitulated to President Erdogan’s demands. An EU report denouncing his crackdown on freedom of expression and a return to violence in the mainly Kurdish south-east was delayed until after his re-election last November, apparently at his request. This caused astonishment in Brussels, with one ambassador saying that the EU was now ‘at the whim of the Sultan’.

As for Turkey’s part of the deal, it has taken some steps to crack down on people-smugglers, and has promised to build more schools for refugees. Turkey has finally said that it will give Syrians access to work permits — although it hasn’t said when, and this isn’t an entirely trouble-free proposition. Employers have been happy to hire refugees on the black market, so they work in factories and on farms for much less than the minimum wage. It’s far from clear that these jobs would still be on offer when Syrians must be paid properly.

Many Turks are proud of the hospitality their country has shown. But there are signs that some people are beginning to lose patience. I know a wealthy Istanbul family that refurbished six empty flats and gave them over to refugees — only to receive a petition from the neighbours complaining that they didn’t want the new occupants to be there and accusing them of petty crime. Last year, a 13-year-old boy made the headlines after a shopkeeper in the city of Izmir beat him for selling tissues outside his store. A photo showed him with a bloodied nose and tears running down his cheeks.

Turkey already has a deeply polarised political climate, with a frenzied and often aggressive public discourse over the role of religion, the rights of minorities and the conduct of the ruling Justice and Development party. It would be all too easy for the precarious mood in Turkey to tip over into resentment, which is why both Erdogan and Europe are looking so nervously at Syria. How many more will come? And how will we cope?

The trouble for Turkey (and therefore Europe) is that the root cause of the refugee crisis is the fighting in Syria — which -continues to intensify. Blithely ignoring the first attempt at Syria peace talks in two years, Russian jets have ploughed on in support of Syrian government offensives, showing no regard for who or what they attack, bombing schools, homes and crowded market-places, and sending desperate families fleeing to the border.

Turkey has suggested that Vladimir Putin is deliberately trying to increase tension in Europe by creating more refugees. More likely, Putin sees this as just a handy side-effect in a bigger plan. If he crushes all those opposed to Bashar al-Assad — other than Islamic State — he knows that the West will have no option but to accept that the Baathist regime is here to stay. The recent attempt at peace talks in Geneva was abruptly halted after this onslaught. So the chaos in Syria looks set to continue for years. This means tens of thousands more Syrians trudging towards Turkey — and almost inevitably another influx into Europe.

The recent deal with Brussels, and heavy pressure from the United States to prevent the transit of Islamic State fighters back and forth from Syria, means that the Turkey–Syria border is much less porous than it once was. There is no longer an open door for refugees. Ankara has prevented the entry of about 50,000 people displaced after the recent fighting in Aleppo, prompting breathtakingly hypocritical demands from Europe that Turkey let them in immediately. There is speculation that Turkey — deeply unnerved by the approach of pro-Assad forces towards its border — is seeking to create by default the buffer zone that it has long demanded from Washington. Its exact intentions remain unclear but, whatever happens, aid agencies warn that the vast numbers of uprooted civilians and the fierce fighting can only mean one thing: more and more refugees.

Turkey is not an easy political partner. Erdogan is a mercurial leader who is aware of the power he now wields over the EU, and if he feels that the EU is not holding up its end of the bargain, he won’t hesitate to cause trouble. Turkey already feels resentment that the EU has not yet paid the money it pledged; there are no signs of a promised direct resettlement programme. Brussels says that it cannot begin until there is a significant fall in the number of people crossing to Greece, but this looks unlikely to happen. There’s just too much money in it for the traffickers and too many people willing to risk their lives. Last week, 38 more drowned in two boat accidents in a single day. Eleven of them were children.

Every day, the number of Syrian refugees grows larger. As I write, thousands of those who have fled Aleppo and converged on the Turkish border are sleeping in the open air, anxiously watching the skies for Syrian and Russian jets on bombing raids. This week, the United Nations warned that upwards of 150,000 more people could soon be fleeing Aleppo; Turkey says the total number displaced from Aleppo alone could eventually be 600,000. Syrians living (or seeking refuge) in the rebel-held Idlib province could be next to move, and in Damascus, the only talk is of continuing the offensive as the rebels continue to lose ground.

The effect of all of this is not hard to imagine. In the first six weeks of this year, 70,400 refugees and migrants have crossed from Turkey into Greece — almost ten times as many as in the same period last year. The pace will probably intensify as the weather warms up, just in time for the referendum on Britain’s EU membership. The great migration may be just beginning.

Laura Pitel lives in Istanbul and writes for the Independent.

TaggedAleppo, Assad, Brussels, buffer zone, displaced people, Erdogan, EU, Europe, Jordan, Kurds, Lebanon, migrants, refugees, Russia, Syrian war, Turkey, Vladimir Putin, work permits

Show comments

Rik

Fine,fine here we go again,there are 7 billion people on this planet,80% of which either live in poverty or under threat of war and/or persecution.Exactly how many should Western Europe open its borders to??? 10,million,100 million 2 billion???Either we just say no and actually preserve Western civilisation or be dragged down and drowned to third world levels.AFTER WHICH WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HELP ANYONE.Halo hunting,virtue signalling,it’s more deadly than heroin addiction,feels great at the time but in the end it kills you.
- Social Justice Warrior
  
  #refugeeswelcome
  - Rik
    
    Excellent,you are welcome to take in,house, feed ,educate and totally provide for as many as you wish in your own home.naturally you will also pay for all their health care needs personally.C’mon lead by example,no?? thought not.
    - Bad Lad
      
      And be held responsible for any crimes they commit.
      - Malcolm Stevas
        
        Perhaps with a £20k surety for their good behaviour, placed in escrow.
      - Bad Lad
        
        Absolutely. No Social Justice Warrior eorth her salt could complain at that.
  - Sue Smith
    
    Glib and facile phrases just won’t cut it. You are a living example of the shallow hashtag culture. And for a pacifist it’s an interesting username!!
  - Bad Lad
    
    #RefugeesUnwelcome
    #Rapefugees
    Hey hashtags are easy – and simplistic, just like you.
  - logdon
    
    In Mecca?
    
    Nein danke.
  - Cyril Sneer
    
    You speak for an ever decreasing minority.
    
    We should send people like you to Syria – air drop you w nkers straight into Raqqa and then sit back and enjoy your beheading video.
  - Hybird
    
    That’s what an Austrian mother told her 10 year old son. The lad befriended two “refugees” down at the local swimming pool. The elder one (17) dragged him into a changing room and raped him.
    The mother says she now regrets telling her son that “refugees” should be welcomed. She should have told him to keep well away from them. Same goes here – parents should tell their kids to avoid using Muslim taxi firms. Way too risky.
  - http://www.ukipforbritain.co.uk/ ukipforbritainwebsite
    
    #RhodesMustRise!
- Damaris Tighe
  
  We need to get to the source of the problem of Europe’s inability to say ‘no’. It is, I believe, the doctrine of universal human rights enshrined in various UN & EU protocols for refugees & asylum seekers. The idea of an abstract human being stripped of all attributes apart from his need & suffering, trumps (!) the right’s concrete, realistic view of the person as part of his culture & history. If liberals understood the person in this way, they would see the clash of incompatible cultures & also see that Europe & its peoples are unique historical products worth preserving. Instead they take an obvious truth – that humans are all at some level individuals – & make it the only reality.
  
  Incidentally, many migrants have picked up on the West’s abstract humanitarianism & appeal to the cameras, ‘I’m a human being’. Yet in the countries they come from I doubt that the ‘other’ is seen as in any way human.
  - rationality
    
    ‘Refugees’, ‘human rights’ and the exploitation of our emotions to feel endlessly pity to the unfortunate, are the political tools and fabrications used to bring down the West. To be taken in by this manipulative facade is pure gullibility considering we know now that a globalist elite or oligarchical collectivists are using their power and wealth to destabilise the West. The UN and Universal Human Rights are tools used by our controlled governments to carry out the agenda so they can they say that their hands are tied. The deceit is so transparent!
    
    Good to see you back.
    - James Chilton
      
      I’m almost willing to believe that “a globalist elite or oligarchical collectivists are using their wealth and power to destabilise the West”. But what isn’t explained is, what’s in it for them. How will they survive among the ruins of a culture which has provided them with the tools to destroy it?
      - rationality
        
        They have their hidey holes for when the SHTF and as they control the UN they are very much part of Agenda 21/2030 which is about reducing the amount of people on this planet. With us Europeans gone or much reduced they will be able to enslave humanity forever. People need to recognise the psychopathic evil that these people possess.
Social Justice Warrior

Europe must do its fair share. Our leaders are responsible for this tragedy

people say we don’t have room for all these refugees but we can find room – Europe is a big continent

#refugeeswelcome
- Jack_H
  
  Rubbish,why are are leaders responsible?
  - Social Justice Warrior
    
    for constant warmongering in the middle East and for funding dictators
    - Jack_H
      
      Really,we have interests in the Middle East……….what model do you propose for the Middle East?there is no democracy there and little appetite for it.The Chaos in Iraq after the US/UK tried to replace a nasty Dictator with a democratic Government is still continuing without end.The people displaced by the fighting should be in UNHCR funded camps on the border awaiting a time when it is safe for them to return.
    - Bad Lad
      
      Yep the Labour Party messed that one up good and proper. No doubt, if you were old enough in 1997, you voted for the mad Blair. So you should feel guilty – very guilty – but I don’t.
    - Cyril Sneer
      
      You voted Labour. It’s your fault.
- E.I.Cronin
  
  The UK and Europe has done more than it’s fair share for a conflict it bears no responsibility for at all – the Supporting Syria 2016 conference just held in London has raised USD 11 Billion in pledges and the UK alone has committed 2.3 Billion pounds since 2012.
  
  I wish you Refugee fanatics would take your simplistic, guilt tripping hashtags to the Gulf states where they actually have some moral and factual basis.
  - Sue Smith
    
    Exactly. Watch this. I’ve already posted it elsewhere on The Speccie but it’s key to the present argument:
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7ZU5vGPy0
    - E.I.Cronin
      
      Sue I love it! Am sharing widely.
- Sue Smith
  
  “Our leaders” are not responsible for this tragedy. If you want to commit cultural suicide because of your own feelings of guilt please don’t drag the rest of the world into it.
- vieuxceps2
  
  You ,warrior for social justice, are free to work off your own guilt by helping these migrants,but I and many others do not share your hairshirted self-hatred. The muslims of the world must sort themselves out and agree to differ just as we have in religious matters.Our continent and the countries within it belong to us who have lived here for untold centuries.We will need to fight against the incomers,no doubt of that, but we do not need fifth-columnists like you to betray us in advance of the battle.
- Bad Lad
  
  5 in your spare room, right sharp. Make sure your women are modestly dressed and do what the arriving men tell them. Don’t ask them to work. Be respectful. Let us know how you get on.
- SunnyD
  
  Some other inane comments: Side by side, the entire human race could fit into the 5 boroughs of New York City (with the J3ws and Muslims occupying the space of Brooklyn); the populations of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark (all 10million +) could fit into a square mile (perhaps on Bornholm Island?); a small island the size of Bermuda could fit a billion people on it. Tiananmen Square is pretty huge—880m x 500m, or just under half a square kilometre and could hold 4.4 million people, or the entire population of Croatia, Oman, Lebanon, Panama, Moldova, Uruguay, Kuwait, Mongolia, or Lithuania. At least my inane comments are interesting whereas your bargain basement virtue signalling is akin to the likes of Telemachus – are you sure you’re not Nick the Greek incognito? #tellsomeonewhocares
- Blindsideflanker
  
  “Our leaders are responsible for this tragedy”
  
  No we aren’t nothing what so ever to do with us.
- Zanderz
  
  Nice troll 😉
- Cyril Sneer
  
  F ck off you cretin.
- mohdanga
  
  And the Mid-east is big, as well. All the filthy rich MUSLIM oil sheikdoms right next door to Syria have taken ZERO of their Muslim brethren. How about them doing their “fair share”??
Kasperlos

Turkey is playing with a double edged sword. Should she continue to allow migrants to cross into Europe and at the same time use that as leverage (yes, it’s called blackmail) to gain EU membership and visa free travel, it might all be a moot endeavour as the EU project will collapse into a dust heap under the burthen of an uncontrollable cultural, religious, political, economic and sociological crisis. The criminal and inept gang in Brussels know full well the catastrophic folly of standing aside while millions of illegal aliens from the third and Islamic worlds flow into Europe. It is irony that in this centenary of the Great War we see an upheaval – and, once again, Turkish involvement. Perhaps it’s the Ottoman’s revenge. Whatever it is, Europe and the Western Tradition is facing an existential crisis the likes not seen seen World War Two. We are all witness to an extremely dangerous time in history, and the elected and unelected leaders are dancing on eggs. Finally, the Sykes-Picot agreement and Europe never envisioned a time when millions of third world and Islamic peoples would migrate to their doorsteps. Rather, Europe 100 years ago was in the throes of mass ‘e’migration. Imagine in Edvard Grieg’s Oslo the sounds of Arabic music flowing from the streets. Today parts of central Oslo reflect the horrendous and exotic worlds that 100 years ago were discussed in polite parlors of the political and intellectual elites and academicians. Today these worlds are now enmeshed in the West and the repercussions will come. Christopher Clark should have plenty of material for a second installment of his book ‘The Sleepwalkers’.
Mongo

sadly there will never be peace, freedom, dignity or democracy in the Middle East/North Africa as long as it’s dominated by that destructive, merciless ideology

any and all other ‘solutions’ are futile
Sue Smith

I say again, I predict that within 5 years most of the middle east will have evacuated to Europe. Any bets? Aided and abetted by shallow hashtag activists!!
- Bad Lad
  
  You might be right but I hope not. I hope the democratic backlash is so great that our Vichy governments stop this collaboration. Obviously, the mainstream news will struggle to report the full truth and obfuscate as many of the problems inherent in Levantine immigration as possible…
  - Sue Smith
    
    It’s a fight that’s going to involve all of us, all of the time!! We are now in a struggle to the death over what kind of society we want for ourselves and our children. I won’t be dictated to by loony lefty bullies.
    - Bad Lad
      
      The loony left won’t be relevant for long. They’ll be busy hiding from their pets (women and gays especially), emigrating, blaming victims for provoking Muslim aggressors or simply converting to Islam. They’ve done for themselves demographically by importing savages as surely as they have democratically by electing “Jeremy”.
- Blindsideflanker
  
  “the middle east will have evacuated to Europe”
  
  And Europe won’t be Europe any more but another middle eastern failed state.
- James Chilton
  
  I’d guess 10 years, but nothing would surprise me now about the speed of our downfall.
E.I.Cronin

In a parallel, and much saner, universe Juncker & Merkel would follow Orban’s decisive lead and seal Bulgaria borders, send the Navy to police the Aegean and shut down the people smuggling trade while coughing up the 3 billion Euro bribe and Sultan Erdogan wouldn’t have the fate of Europe in his hands.
- KingEric
  
  Shutting down the people smuggling really is the first step. The flow has to be stopped before things explode.
  - E.I.Cronin
    
    Yes absolutely. Surely they have the military capacity, legal right and finance to close the smuggling routes… instead they outsource the job of protecting their borders to a corrupt, deceitful Sunni militant and are surprised when they’re held to ransom.
RavenRandom

How about relocating them in other Arabic speaking countries? Why come to Europe difficult religion, different language, different customs… oh hang on… are they economic refugees?
Offer money to the many other Arabic speaking countries or other Muslim countries to take them.
- Jack_H
  
  Or just appeal to their sense of decency….it is far easier for them to absorb people from the same cultural,linguistic and religious background……..and if all the emoters are to be believed Migrants and Refugees will hugely boost their economies as they are much smarter,harder working and all round better than their own populations.
  - Rick.Brown
    
    Sad to say but Arabs/Muslims don’t have a “sense of decency” in the same way we do.
    - Jack_H
      
      Strange how many Muslim commentators in this country talk of our ‘Responsibility” but completely ignore the failure of Rich Middle Eastern countries to take in any and to openly say they have no intention of admitting any………Seen Alibhai Brown this morning saying how we should take these people in and comparing it to the Holocaust……about as intellectually dishonest as you can get and an insult to the memories of the victims of the Holocaust.
      - Conway
        
        Another Holocaust is what we’ll get if we let them all in and we’ll be the victims.
- Bad Lad
  
  But this is an Arab plan to take Europe from us. It’s the very reason they do not take refugees – they are being sent as an occupying army.
- Wildflowers
  
  There is a video of a speech from a senior Saudi official stating that they do not want to accept the refugees as it would be “destabilising” for their society. I’ll see if I can track it down (LiveLeak?).
Blindsideflanker

I note that when we are accused of breaking a country, we’re told the resulting refugee crisis is our moral responsibility to deal with. I note few if any migrants are fleeing to Russia in light of Russia helping to break Syria or there being any calls to make Russia take them.
- Cyril Sneer
  
  Russia won’t take them and as a result they don’t go.
  
  If the EU did the same thing the result would eventually be the same – none would come.
  
  As Merkel sent out an open invite then the numbers that could come will literally be without limit.
  
  Russia hasn’t broken Syria, it’s only been bombing 3 months. The Syrian war has been going on for over 4 years.
  - http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
    
    That’s mainly because we set ourselves against the wrong side and condemned the only side that could provide a reasonably secure country for all of its minorities. If we think Assad was overly fierce in his response to armed factions and gangsters attacking police, army and trying to overthrow the government, ask yourself how our own police and armed forces would react to something similar…. You are a dead man if you produce a knife in the street here let alone turn up with a rocket launcher and a gang armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and start declaring independence.
Malcolm Stevas

The Turkey problem would be less salient if Greece performed its duties as an EU member more conscientiously. For all its economic woes, Greece maintains a large standing army (I believe 180,000 active front-line troops), a respectable navy with up to 14 frigates and around 30 coastal gunboats, and runs about 600 aircraft including well over 200 helicopters. Its coastline might be fragmented and difficult to patrol but it has the numbers and the kit to do so – it’s the will that is lacking. All EU countries are victims of the destructive “human rights” passion that extends way beyond protecting the interests of our own citizens (an absolute duty) to permitting illegal migrants to stay rather than summarily ejecting them. But enough is enough: Greece can return illegals to Turkey, and Italy can send its migrants back to N.Africa. Europe’s interests come first.
As for our own local problems, our leaders are as culpable as Greece – and it’s always been a mystery to me why France permitted the “Jungle” at Calais to become established, let alone stay in place so long. It’s not as if the French can’t act decisively and ruthlessly when their interests are threatened.
- Bad Lad
  
  Well, firstly, the French are happy to transfer the problems to us. They see us as having fostered Islamic terrorism for much longer than they have and their security services refer to our capital as Londonistan. A damned cheek in the light of what we’ve seen lately but there you go, all our governments are guilty as you say.
  
  The governments of the EU are now effectively Vichy governments, oppressing their populations on behalf of a foreign power. That power may be hidden, fragmented, multi-facted and even occasionally amorphous but it exists alright and our leader pay homage to it: Islamism. They take as much money as they can stuff in their pockets from the Saudis, for example, and these savages won’t be the only Islamic paymasters our governments serve.
  
  The cloak of human rights merely helps them oppress existing populations in favour of the occupying ones. It has rarely if ever been used for anything else.
  
  I keep banging the Vichy drum because I think it is entirely apposite and want to see it gain common currency. Our governments openly collaborate with theocratic fascists who intend to rape, murder and enslave Europe and that is the naked truth.
  - James Chilton
    
    The Vichy regime was collaborationist. Why are the neo-Vichy governments collaborating with Islamic powers which are determined to destroy Western societies? It doesn’t make sense.
    - Bad Lad
      
      Money.
      - James Chilton
        
        Okay. If money is the answer, the people who sell us out won’t enjoy the benefits of a modern economy in which to spend their loot.
      - Bad Lad
        
        That assumes that they have thought it through.
    - Bad Lad
      
      And go on, I went for Vichy but neo-Vichy is better. Good man.
  - Malcolm Stevas
    
    Well, yes, but the French haven’t shifted the problem onto us – yet. They maintain this festering sore that must be hellish for the citizens of Calais. Pity it isn’t ruled by the English crown any more…
- James Chilton
  
  It could be in the French interest to keep the Calais camps intact. It puts pressure on us. They hope we will relieve the pressure by opening migrant camps in Dover as a “humanitarian” safety valve.
- http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
  
  Well said. Greece is a disaster from top to bottom. I watched a TV programme last night on IPLAYER about Greece and the migrant problem. It was filmed last summer. It was astonishing that on the shores of Kos, the only presence to be seen on the Greek side was a rabble of do gooder local activists waving rubber boats ashore and handing out bottles of water. Then a stream of hundreds of ‘refugees’ (economic migrants in reality) were walking to the nearest train station in a town some miles away. There were no Greek naval forces, no policemen, no troops in evidence. You could see right across the straights to Turkey and the only boats were rubber landing craft of the invading swarm. Greece is not playing the game at all. They simply wave the migrants through to somewhere else.
  - Zanderz
    
    That is their game – no migrant wants to stay in Greece. It’s easier to let them through on ‘humanitarian’ grounds rather than take a stand and be the global bad man.
  - Malcolm Stevas
    
    Agree entirely, in particular your closing para.
  - alfred5
    
    Some are clearly refugees fleeing a war zone
    - http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
      
      They fled the war zone and arrived in Turkey. That’s it. Asylum rules dictate that you ask for help in the first safe country not the one with the nicest prospects for the ideal life. NO REFUGEE arrives at Calais or Cologne as his first port of call. Anyway – the majority of them are from Macedonia, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
      
      NONE OF THEM are any responsibility of ours to take in. If Greece lets them in, Greece can keep them.
  - deepeekay
    
    Do this: everytime you read about an islamist nutjob, search online for the year that they entered our country and our lives and under whose government they arrived. The last three times I have done this John Majors Tories popped up. I was not surprised.
    - http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
      
      Don’t be so damned silly. The numbers coming now far outweigh those that came back then albeit that there were too many then. Also, our worst problems seem to be from second generation nutjobs. There are plenty more of those growing up right now and millions of the beggars came during Labour’s time.
      
      This is far too important a subject for our NATIONAL wellbeing to get into stupid feckless party politics.
  - ClausewitzTheMunificent
    
    We don’t connive: it’s not our problem if all these people want to go to Britian and Germany and Sweden, and its not our business to stop them. Perhaps if the British and the Germans hadn’t been complicit in the destruction in Iraq, Libya and Syria you might have had a point.
    - http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
      
      Of course its your problem. YOU are supposed to secure the borders to the Schengen zone!!! Greece exerces NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER. Not about anything.
      
      No responsibility to collect taxes needed to pay for government expenditure
      
      No responsibility to pay back borrowed money
      
      No repsonsibility to register migrants as required by Schengen and Dublin agreements
      
      No responsibility to do anything at all except sit in the sun until you retire at 50 on a final salary pension EQUAL to your last salary.
      
      Useless failed state. Cut them loose and push them away into the mess of the Middle East which they resemble more than they do a European nation.
alfred5

I WROTE THIS OVER SIX MOTHS AGO BUT AS TIME GOES BY IT IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY PRESCIENT AND PROPHETIC …….

Europe is feminised , decadent and self absorbed with a faux Hollywood TV trash culture …we are hopeless ; we cannot defend ourselves because we have lost the ruthless will to live that comes from struggle and adversity ;we have lost the meaning and sense of purpose that religion offers and are now cast adrift , nay marooned, in an archiphelago of existential despair !…..what now little man ..what now ?

We are in fact the ELOI from H G Wells ”Time Machine ” and the Muslims from the Maghreb , M E and Afghanistan are clearly the MORLOCKS …many if not most are young men , vigorous , hungry and contemptuous of their hosts who they see as weak , decadent and quasi homosexual …they are GATE CRASHING our borders because word has gotten out due to modern communications that the EU are a ”soft touch ‘ ‘ who will not enforce their borders !…they are not asking for entry , they are clearly demanding and will not take ”No ” for an answer !

”Here come the assassins stained in the colours of their trade ” !… Macbeth

Angela Merkel in a colossul fit of absent mindedness and female pyschobabble announced that Germany would take 800,000 so called refugees ; unfortunately she is likely to get 8 million, mostly male, migrants …she has in fact triggered an avalanche of epic proportions that is virtually impossible to switch off !

The EU will not do what is clearly necessary by moving decisively and sending their navies down there , stopping the migrant smugglers , sending the migrants back and then sinking the boats …only when word gets out in the developing world that the EU is wilfully enforcing their borders will the mass migration slow and stop ; but they will not do it because they are too soft , too feminised and too ”decent ” …indeed , they have lost the sense of a tragic nature of life and that we humans are in fact , predatory and ruthlessly opportunistic…MAN IS WOLF TO MAN !

Unsurprisingly , they are trying to get the Turks to slow down or turn off the migrant flow , but that is like asking the arsonist to become the Fire Chief ; the Turks are opportunistic fellows and will only do so at a stiff price …they will jack us out and hold us to ransom in a latter day DANEGELD or version of the Barbary Pirates and our so called leaders will pay it ; unfortunately , they will find that the ransom goes up in price opportunistically …the Turks will have no real intention of stopping the flow as they clearly intend to make the best of their good fortune and blackmail us !

We are in the midst of a major historical event , the greatest since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the former Soviet Union ; in fact , this could turn out to be nothing less than the greatest ,or at least most consequential, mass migration in human history and the collapse of the EU ….the Third World has one major advantage over us insomuch they have the POPULATION BOMB and are certain to use it against us !

”By the pricking of my thumbs something wicked this way comes ” ! …Macbeth
- alfred5
  
  Part of the problem is German war guilt and especially the Holocaust …the younger generation have been burdened with the sins of their grandparents ..they feel like the offspring of serial killers and are psychologically damaged by it !.. I imagine it is worse for females than males and this goes some way in explaining the fit of madness by Angela Merkel !
  Germany would have been better served by taking in a million Russians or Ukrainians
  - MickC
    
    And Europe would have been better off if Germany was not re-united.
- Zanderz
  
  I’d say that was pretty much spot on.
- http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
  
  Worst of all, Merkle in her latest fit of insanity, offers Edrogan the carrot of visa free travel for 75 million Turks to the EU………
  
  GDP per capita Turkey $10,900
  GDP per capita Germany $46,268
  GDP per capita UK $41,787
  
  I wonder what the get up and go Turkish youths will do…….
  
  We will see an influx that makes our current debacle seem like nothing.
  - alfred5
    
    Too true ..this is like the Titanic lifeboat syndrome …the survivors had to paddle away from the sinking ship or they would of been swamped by panicked swimmers
    Merkel is the emotional woman who claimed that the already full lifeboat should paddle back and pick up more swimmers FATAL MISTAKE
    - http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
      
      I can’t understand why the Germans tolerate such a fool runningbthe show. Worse still – she seems to be running the whole EU. By what right does she offer the Turks visa free travel to the whole EU?????
      
      Time to get out, whatever tuppence halfpenny ‘concessions’ Cameron ‘wins’…. As if we are going to accept as a triumph that we might be able to have considered our request not to send child tax credits to families in Romania when the kids live there and daddy is selling The Big Issue in England somewhere and receiving working tax credit as well….. The bloody insolence of it and the bloody insolence of Cameron to tart up this cadaverous offer as a negotiated triumph.
rationality

I support Orthodox Christian Russia and Shia Muslim Iran to end this war in Syria and kill the Western/Sunni funded Islamic insurgents so the country can be restored. The Syrian ‘refugee crisis’ is the narrative for the invasion so with a stable Syria the excuse is gone and should be stopped. Of course they wont stop the invasion but at least the deceit is clear.

Turkey cant be trusted in any shape and form so the ‘refugees’ must be stemmed from Syria as they will use it for extortion purposes. If the EU doesnt give them billions of euros they will flood Europe with these people. Lets not give them the excuse and treat it like the pariah state it is. It has no place in Europe.
- http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle
  
  I am put in mind of the English king Aethelred and the payment of Danegeld to bribe the Viking horde from invading and despoiling English lands . They were eventually paid one hundred tonnes of silver to hold off from destroying our lands.
  - rationality
    
    Thats a great analogy and it makes me cringe that the whole of Europe is being held hostage by a gangster like Erdogan.
    
    Considering the manipulation and deceit we are more aware of I question how much of this is by design. The controlled West is looking to get rid of us due to their masters (banking families) elsewhere so the pretence here is that the West is saying its not our fault when really they should be at minimum sanctioning Turkey, with threat of war if they dont stop the invasion. The Turkish people wouldnt like that and perhaps might get rid of the gangster Erdogan.
    
    Erdogan makes a useful scapegoat so the West doesnt have to do anything. Who knows?
James Chilton

Some, understandably, make the decision to leave for new lives in prosperous Europe.

If I “understandably” make the decision to leave for a new life in prosperous Japan or America, they won’t let me in.
- newname
  
  They probably will if you can show you have the means to support yourself and not become a welfare recipient.
  - Malcolm Stevas
    
    Hmmm, makes me wonder how many of the UK’s 100,000-plus Somalis have the means to support themselves and are not welfare recipients. I’d really like to know.
    - mohdanga
      
      They are one of the worst ‘enrichers’. Big problems over here in Canada with them.
http://rantingoldgit.blogspot.co.uk/ Arthur Sparknottle

Thee are two solutions and both should be employed immediately.

1. We need a strong naval presence to blockade the straights between Turkey and Kos and also between the Libyan coast and Lampadusa. We must warn all would be illegal travellers that all vessels venturing beyond the half way mark of the crossing will be fired on and destroyed and WE MUST DO IT.

2. We must restore the Baathist regime, perhaps ensuring that Assad himself resigns. There is no credible other regime that can govern Syria in a way that accommodates all of its ethnic groups. The Sunnie revolutionaries are either fundamentalist savages like DAESH or they are trigger happy militia types who will slaughter the Alawites and possibly the Christians.

The west has made terrible mistakes in supporting a rabble of anti-Assad brigands. Do we want another Libya, or another Iraq? We have seen these revolutions degenerate to abject chaos over and over all over the Maghreb. Time to stop and repent what we did. Blair isn’t the only stupid British leader with Middle Eastern disaster on his hands. Cameron was very happy to flex his podgy muscles against Ghadaffi and look where that led.
- James Chilton
  
  Neither of your solutions will be implemented. The governing class in this country is absolutely crackers and has been that way for some time.
- MickC
  
  No, what WE must do is mind our own business. The Russians will restore Assad, and some semblance of order.
- SunnyD
  
  as much as I agree with you (especially on point no. 5) this sounds waaaay too much like common sense and this type of talk will likely give the powers that be the inside track on how we’re all feeling and give them the ideas to do the exact opposite
investigator

We had a similar, but smaller, problem in Australia. Shiploads of illegal migrants were being brought in from Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries. Thousands upon thousands. One politician, Tony Abbott, promised to “stop the boats” if he were elected, and, within a short time of taking power the boats had stopped coming.

It can be done. If it is not done then Europe will become a bicultural society constantly on the verge of civil war. If the civil war does erupt it will make Europe’s religious wars of the past look like football matches.
- alfred5
  
  True enough , it can be done but only with a national will ..there is something weak and pathetic about the postmodern EU..it seems to me like we are heading for a Darwin Award
- Jacobi
  
  Sadly, I suspect a war is now inevitable. It will be different from previous wars. Islamic strategists will dictate it. Western Europe, not just the EU, will dither. The outcome ……………………?
- Liberty
  
  It’s undesirable but we will, as a result of mass immigration, see a huge increase of surveillance, and control. We will also see a more realistic and sophisticated effort by European governments to get immigrants to integrate, assimilate and adapt to Western ways. Lets face it, immigrants can see with their own eyes that our way works and Islam is dysfunctional. The more we tell them that the sooner will they adjust. The EU though, from its ivory towers, is not imaginative or adaptable enough. It can only be done by national governments responding to voter pressure.
Jacobi

A naïve and very pro-Turkish account. But the writer lives in Istanbul. She has to be careful.

This summer will see a 3/4 fold increaser in the number of Islamic immigrants into Europe likely to be over 2/3 million. Turkey will ensure that, while still bleating for money.

There is a refugee crisis because the Syrian government is in the process of re-capturing towns already invaded and captured by ISIL. That is war.

It is now obvious that this whole problem is caused by a combination of Sunni/Saudi-Arabia/ISIL/and, now obvious to anyone who looks, Sunni Ottoman Turkey. This intention on the part essentially of Saudi-Arabia has two objectives. The destruction of Shia Islam, none
of our business, and the Islamification of Europe, very much our business.

The answer?

See Saudi Arabia and Ottoman Turkey for what they are.

The establishment of Internment camps.

A European ( not an EU ) Coast Guard force to collect and intern these overwhelmingly religious immigrants pending a solution of the war

Apply this also to the N African route.

Ask the Germans to do something about Merkel who has contributed so much to this dangerous shambolic crisis for Europe
Cyril Sneer

Considering Turkey has played a large part in supporting this war with their support for ISIS or AQ then they can damn well take care of these unwanted parasites.

Turkey can attempt to send over what it wants but if we actually control our borders then it doesn’t matter what Turkey sends over to us, they will be rejected.

This boils down to our leaders and their avoidance of properly controlling the EU’s external borders. They’re engineering this crisis and enabling it when they can easily control the EUs external borders if they had the desire. They don’t because they want to destroy our societies and destroy the nation state.
http://monicol.co.uk/peter peter2108

What Sean McMeekin calls the War of the Ottoman Succession began in 1911 when the Italian invaded Libya and ended in 1922 when the Turks drove an invading Greek army out of Turkey. This left behind an unholy mess from which the people of the Middle East seem unable to escape.

There is a fine piece by McMeekin at http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/12/16/turkey-and-russia-enemies-again/ saying we should remember the idiot Russophobia that faciltated the Crimean War
jeremy Morfey

We might consider 1898, when the United States invaded and then colonised the Philippines.

At the time, it had been under Spanish control for several hundred years, and during this time the Spanish colonials because corrupt and useless and the natives ever more restless. America was trying to engage in trade with the Philippines, but was having to confront ongoing chaos, so decided in the end it was easier and cheaper just to invade, which they did in April 1898. Spain ceded the Philippines to America in December of that year.

The struggle for independence continued on until 1935, when the Americans created a Republic there under President Manual Quezon, which lasted until Japanese occupation during WW2. The Philippines was liberated by the Americans under a second invasion in 1945, and created another Republic a year later. It is now a prosperous and democratic nation, with the usual grumbles about not enough money. inadequate politicians, dodgy weather and a boundary dispute with China.

Is there anything here that can be learnt as regards Syria, and considering recent adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya that didn’t quite work out as well? In the Philippines, only Mindanao (about the size of Ireland) has a significant Muslim presence; the rest being converted to Catholicism by the Spanish and remain so.
- I like kidz!
  
  I agree that the Muslims are the problem here and elsewhere.
  - SunnyD
    
    comments like that will incite the anger of the wolf’s son noeL – he will pontificate in his Japanese accent accusing you of bigotry and hiding your computer
- sidor
  
  Syria is a battleground in a war between Iran and the Saudis. Turkey is a Saudi ally. The Saudi-controlled wahhabites are trying to capture the territory and wipe out anyone who is not of their faith. Which includes millions of Christians, Alawites, Kurds and other minorities. They attempt to repeat the Armenian genocide committed by the Turks 100 years ago.
sidor

The article is misleading. The problem of Turkey arising as a result of its ME policy, and the problem of EU with respect to the Islamic refugees are two distinctly different and unrelated problems. Turkey is taking the defeated Islamists who it supported in the war against the Syrian government. Europe has no obligation with respect to these “refugees” which are the defeated islamists. The EU problem is much more simple: open borders. If the external borders of EU are not closed, tomorrow many more millions will arrive from all over the world.

Can anyone explain what is the border policy of EU? Are there any military to protect EU from invasion? Any EU navy in Mediterranean? Is NATO still available? Who is going to defend the Empire of EU?
- SunnyD
  
  that would be the (no doubt soon-to-arrive) EU federal army, who will impose martial law on the natives who resist the impending invasion…. and what we need Turkey in NATO for, I have no idea – the Cold War is over and Turkey is miles from the north Atlantic….
  - sidor
    
    Who said that the Cold War is over? NATO is still very much active against Russia. But the invasion of EU from the south doesn’t seem to be NATOs concern. They were good enough for bombing Yugoslavia, but are not interested in defending the EU borders against the invading Moslems. Thousands of them cross the border between Russia and Norway on bikes. Norway is still a member of NATO.
    - Hybird
      
      Norway sends them back to Russia now. 18 of them were hospitalised in a night club in Murmansk when they started groping Russian girls. They must have thought they were still in Norway – but Russian men tend to get angry when Muslims do that.
      - sidor
        
        A talked to my Norwegian friend a couple of days ago. They aren’t able to return them for technical reasons. But the question remains: what the Norwegian border guards are doing? Are they able to defend the border? Or they are instead employed in a humanitarian capacity?
    - SunnyD
      
      sorry I must’ve dreamt the fall of communism and swallowed the media narrative, probably whilst in my drug haze in the 90’s 😉
      - sidor
        
        The dream is much older. We now see that the Cold War had nothing to do with Communism from the very beginning.
      - SunnyD
        
        something to do with an unpaid gas bill then?
I like kidz!

Isn’t this what nuclear weapons were invented for?
DaHitman

They have more in common with Muslim Turkey than Europe
- Tom Cullem
  
  That’s why they want to leave Turkey and get to Europe. The Syrians and the Turks probably understand each other only too well. Gullible Europe, on the other hand . . . .
http://www.ukipforbritain.co.uk/ ukipforbritainwebsite

Turkey has plenty of space. It can easily accommodate the entire population of Syria – it just needs to move them to the right area. All Turkey does is put refugees in camps which are almost totally (or totally?) paid for by the European Union. Turkey’s whining is nauseating. It’s turning into a vile Islamic state and persecuting journalists and all opposition. It has a direct role in perpetuating the war in Syria, and is up to its neck in the chaos in Syria and around it. Don’t shed any tears for this monstrous Islamic Republic. It’s got what it wanted. Pay it to maintain camps in its enormous hinterlands and ensure it NEVER gets into the European Union.
- Nick
  
  Well said.
- Norse Notion No.9
  
  Exactly. Tyrkey is quite huge, and if the idea is what it ought to be, namely that refugees should and also wants to return to their homeland as quickly as possible, then the obvious right approach is to keep them as close to their homeland as possible.
  Besides Turkey (and Jordan), Saudi-Arabia is even bigger AND just a “stonethrow” away, and had as of a couple of months ago, taken ZERO refugees!!! (Any change?) It’s ridiculous to even talk about European responsibility, until they have “filled up”!
  
  So there are unquestionably other agendas, than helping refugees, at play here.
  - Guilttripjunkie
    
    The Syrian ‘refugees’ are the responsibility of their fellow co religionist neighbours in the Middle East. It has nothing to do with Europe. All illegals entering from Turkey should be interned in detention centres in Greece. The ‘pull factor’ to the rich West has to end.
Discuscutter

If Europe is to survive then it will have to stop taking refugees.

It certainly should help and pay for a lot of it but breaking Europe will not make the world a better place.

The Middle East and North Africa have a demographic nightmare and that is going to ensure this problem will not be solved.

Contraception and family planning need to be flooded across the region to bring the birth rate in to a stable position.

Doubling in population every 20 years in lands that are mostly desert is a real problem.
- Guilttripjunkie
  
  I totally agree, these people are breeding themselves into poverty and war. The population bulge in the MENA region is the root cause of problems in that area.
Mike E

There are so many biased and erroneous statements in this article that I don’t know where to begin. Here are just a few comments.

“How can Turkey cope?” she asks!

It can cope because the “refugees” comes from a neighboring country that has the same theocratic religion/culture as it has itself.

It can cope because it doesn’t have provide a luxurious welfare system like the Northern European countries (where all the “refugees” want to go).

It can cope because it doesn’t pay astronomical sums to give those that cross the borders a living standard which is unheard of outside of Western Europe.

It can cope because it is a Muslim country, not Christian one, and the “refugees” at best reluctantly accepts the Christian culture in Europe, but more commonly despises it.

She writes:
“It’s almost inconceivable how many Syrians Turkey has taken in as refugees — around 2.5 million of them so far. That’s almost three times the number who have sought refuge in Europe.”

So what?!
Turkey, a Muslim, perhaps Islamist, country, has received Muslim people from a neighboring country. How is that comparable?
- mohdanga
  
  Funny how after WWII, displaced Dutch, Belgians, Hungarians, Poles, etc settled in Canada, the US, Australia, UK, New Zealand and not Saudi, Iran, Iraq, and all the other dysfunctional Muslim countries.
jeffersonian

‘Since the outbreak of the Syrian war, Turkey has acted as a buffer zone between the Middle East and Europe.’

Buffer? More like a launch pad.
The Hard Man

Erdogan is a butcher who puts Syrian children on rafts in order to blackmail Europe.
davidofkent

Turkey has been letting these migrants sail off to pastures new for several years. What is all this talk about Turkey handing the problem to the EU. That’s exactly what they have been doing. Obviously, the countries that should be taking the refugees are those that have caused the trouble, starting with Saudi Arabia and ending with Russia.
Tickertapeguy

These refugees will not be able to stay too long in Europe. They are going to find out that Europe is a worse place than where they came from. Europeans hate them with a passion and they will feel that every single day… till they leave.
- Guilttripjunkie
  
  The political elites of Europe invite these people over en masse and even put their welfare and safety above that of the own people.
  - Tickertapeguy
    
    That is why the growing schism between the people and the elite. Merkel is hated and so is Obama.
    Here in the US the general sense is “Donald Trump or Secession”. Many commenters put “Secession” first even over Trump.
Sid Falco

Not one more – sink the boats. Kick Turkey out of NATO and EU “begging status”. Erdogan is as responsible as anyone (with Obama, KSA and Qatar) for the attempted jihadi takeover of Syria.
Tom Cullem

Well, one way Turkey could cope is to stop ISIS from coming across its borders with the oil to sell that is making ISIS rich enough to keep up the war against Assad, which is creating the refugees.

It could also do something about the huge business in forged passports and ID papers inside the camps and at the borders, which are proving additional magnets to the migrants, and for which government officials are taking huge bribes from organised crime to look the other way. The migrants know that if they bring enough money, they can get those papers in Turkey and then head to Germany, where, if those papers say they are Syrian, Iraqi, or Afghani, they are virtually assured of being granted asylum.

And, they could start firing on and sinking the boats. Before European Europe is sunk.
Joe Long

“Laura Pitel lives in Istanbul and writes for the Independent.”

The print edition of the Independent may soon be terminated, it will be no loss

This isn’t difficult – as Viktor Oran demands – wire off Greece

Then all the migrants can be detained in camps until such time as they can go home, regardless of how long that is

The Greeks wouldn’t have any choice – they would be compelled to put the migrants in camps by the diktat of other European nations, by all means pay them handsomely to do it and if the migrants are fenced in in camps it should be no huge inconvenience; get them off the streets.

Do not let one more “asylum seeker” into the heart of Europe.

The existing ones can be transferred to the camps in Greece
Guilttripjunkie

The Syrian ‘refugee’ problem should be solved first and foremost by their co religionists in the Middle East. A Muslim civil war in Syria can not be used as an excuse for millions to seek better lives in Western Europe. Europe should take a tenth of the number accepted by the Gulf States. If Greece needs to become one big prison camp in order to save Europe so be it. The Greek debt could be written off as payment for keeping millions of culturally incompatible people out of Europe.
bscook111

Turkey is dealing with the perfidious European. Europe is dealing with the nefarious Turk. Russia understands this perfectly. So do Cruz and Trump. Not so for the rest of our candidates. Current admin and the Hag understand nothing.
Conway

“What should a panicking EU do?” Well, it certainly shouldn’t be giving Turkey visa free access as it is currently! It shouldn’t be fast tracking Turkey to join, either.
Arthur Ascii

Meanwhile, Turkey continues to wage war on the Kurdish population in the south east of Turkey despite the fact that these same Kurds are winning battles against ISIL.
Ingmar Blessing

Isn’t Britain an island?

I believe this country might be able to cope with Turkey flooding Europe. As soon as people from the continent are massively booking one-way tickets far away, you have to CLOSE the Eurotunnel!

C-L-O-S-E

Got, it?