Pesky Migrants knocking on our shores

Once again the lead story on all news channels is the migrants. Today it is the turn of the Calais and all of the TV crews are there. Due to the strike of the ferry workers, desperate humans fleeing from conflicts like in Syria or poverty, tried to board trucks and cars to escape the inhumane conditions. Our TV crews were there to film their desperation. Our politicians talked tough and the PM promised more resources not to help or feed but to prevent them from entering. These included sniffer dogs, scanners and personnel. Everyone is claiming that it is not their responsibility to help and it should be UNHCR or the first country these people had entered. In the meantime these people must live like animals in shanty town in the jungle, where there are no facilities or basics such as food or water.

These desperate people are often dismissed as economic migrants as though search for better life for themselves and their families is a bad thing. However, not all are economic migrants and have escaped with their lives from conflicts, wars and natural disasters. Yes, some of them have also been victims of the traffickers, to whom they may have paid money. But that only makes them victims of greedy and often cruel and brutal criminals. These criminals do not hesitate to torture and even kill for their own protection.   

With the prominence given to the coverage you would think there are tens of thousands of migrants waiting to invade our island country. The fact is that there are only 3000 people who are living in the shanty town in the Calais. Compare that to the tens of thousands arriving in Italy from Libya, via the Mediterranean sea. So far this year approximately 60,000 people have been rescued from the sea. The rescue only started after incidents of drowning including drowning of 800 in one incident. So where are these 60,000 people? They are obviously in Europe but not in the UK. Clearly, other European countries are doing their fair share of helping these people except the UK.

It is often said that we are an island nation and we can’t help everyone. The reality is that we are not the only island nation as every country considers itself to be an island within their borders. No country has flexible borders which expand or contract according to rise or reduction in the population. Even Australia, a country of whole continent, claims to be an Island.

 A recent report by the United Nations said that there are nearly 60 million displaced people in the world. When this figure is mentioned politicians and pundits often say that Britain can’t take 60 million people. They miss the point that majority of these people are internally displaced in their countries, due to war and natural disasters. Others are mainly living in the neighbouring countries. Like Syrians in Turkey and Afghans in Pakistan, the two countries with highest number of refugees in the world.

The reality is that the vast majority of refugees stay in or around their country. Same applies to the economic migrants that they tend to stay in the neighbourhood. Only a small number venture far afield and they mostly do that on the invitation of the host countries. There is a myth that there are vast numbers of illegal migrants. Often it is assumed to be migrants from non white countries, in reality there are probably Austarlians, Newzelanders, Americans and Canadians but raids are mainly carried out on non white businesses and areas. Fact is that there is no concrete evidence of the kind of numbers banded about by the media and the politicians.

Unfortunately, immigration discussion has taken over the previously common topic of weather. Furthermore, colour, ethnicity, race and more recently religion has become a factor in the migration debate and policies in Australia, EU and North America. Those presenting the endless programmes and debates on the immigration do not bother to look behind the headlines. There are no explanations given beyond the recent past. As I stated earlier that even the economic migrants prefer to stay in the neighbourhood. No one is willing to say what’s gone wrong, why are these migrants risking life and treasure to travel to strange lands.

We need to look back and consider what has changed. What happened to the economies of the regions from which these people are fleeing from? What happened to the jobs previously available to migrants?

If we look back, in 1992 Iraq employed more than a million foreign workers. Libya at the time of western intervention employed as many as 2.5 million foreign workers, a vast majority from Africa but also from South Asia. Libya also provided economic support to African nations in the African Union. Syria, while not employing as many foreign workers, nonetheless had thousands of domestic workers. Syria had also hosted Palestinian refugees and Iraqi refugees during the Iraq occupation. The sanctions in Iran, which also hosts a sizeable community of Afghan refugees, meant Iranians seeking work elsewhere while they could have been providing jobs for the foreign workers.

Clearly the wars and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa and natural disasters such as famine, droughts have had a devastating effect on the local economies. Millions of Jobs have disappeared from the region. No wonder desperate people are risking all for work, better life and security. The remaining economies of the Gulf region could pick and choose labour and get away with low wages and unsafe and unhealthy conditions for workers. Israel, “the only democracy in the Middle East”, refuses to accept African migrants but continues to invite well off westerners to settle in the country. The rich are also welcomed by the western economies. While rich are good for the economy and growth, you need people to fill jobs created by such investment.

The fact is that many of the people knocking on our shores are educated and professional people. Like the Syrian teacher, interviewed by Krishnan Guru Murthy of channel 4 news. He was English Literature teacher in Aleppo. Now he is living in the Jungle in Calais in France. He unsuccessfully tried to get on to a lorry yesterday and alleged that he had been beaten by the French Police. There was also a 65 year old man who got injured while being removed from the lorry; he had previously worked in the Middle East and now desperate to find a job.

The reality is that Europe needs migrants for economic growth but political considerations come in the way. It is time to have a sensible immigration policy to assess status of migrants and to recruit foreign workers needed to grow our economy. Such a policy will stop exploitation and misery of fellow human beings. It is time to stop talking about humans as statistics and to start seeing them as human beings.

The media, which criticises other countries for mistreatment of migrant workers, should start providing public information about the real factors behind immigration. It should also stop giving false myths that the immigrants are only after benefits. Helping immigrants with sensible and thought through policies, without consideration of their colour, race and religion will be mutually beneficial. It will also return Calais to what it should be, a day trippers haven for purchase of booze and fags.  Find Update Here

Don't Talk About It, Its Not the Right Time

The appalling murders in France have rightly started the debate about the freedom of speech. However, at the same time people are being told that it is not the time to talk about the issues which are absolute relevant to the unity of the communities and are vital to stop such incidents happening again. This happens everytime such incidents happen and it is never discussed and addressed. Instead narratives are developed to create divisions, stereo types and prejudices, which can only lead to discrimination and feelings of not belonging. These feelings are then exploited and cause some people to act in a manner which is not conducive to a cohesive society.

The solidarity march in Paris today was to promote unity and inclusiveness for all. The impressive and historic attendance was a spectacle to hold with people of all faiths, colours and nationalities attending in large numbers. There were lot of moments to remember, like a Muslim Mayor of a Town who had come with his Jewish Businessman friend. Both were wearing placards, the Mayor’s placard said I am a Muslim and I love Jews and the Jewish friend was wearing placard saying I am a Jew and I love Muslims. The Jewish businessman spoke better English and said that the Muslim mayor had started a programme for teenage children from different races faiths and backgrounds to meet and learn about each other. Then there there was a Muslim man who gave white roses of peace to passer bys Jews and others. There was a Jewish woman who had moved from Israel to France, 20 years ago, and she was there with her Muslim friend but both also expressed their fears for the future. People were there with their children and elderly relatives with messages of peace and desire to live in peace and harmony. There were lot of young people whose parents / grandparents had moved to the country. Its this unity of young generation of descents of migrants and young white French that gives hope for a more tolerant future. 

The march was also attended by some leaders and high officials of the world. Some leaders tried to make political capital out of it and others were grateful to be invited. British Prime Minister was talking about security and measures to limit our freedoms further. Despite being told to stay away Netanyahu turned up, he used the well rehersed rhetoric of fighting Muslim extremists (Palestinians) and rise of anti-Semitism. He offered safe sanctuary to Jews in Israel, not surprising as more than 30% of Israelis want to leave the country for better careers and futures. One of the considred views of humanity and unity of all races, colours and beliefs and non belief came from an Italian Prince. Unfortunately he doesn’t have any power to bring about changes he was talking about. One Sky commentator and his guest agreed that this kind of unity procession was a better way to create cohesion, integration and unity than the proposed legislations limiting our freedoms.

Despite the positives of the march, one must ask questions whether the crowd represented all of the French communities. Was it just a gathering of the great and the good and middle classes and what efforts were made to include the marginalised and deprived communities where these murderers had come from. The neighbours of the culprits had nothing to say about these men except good things like they held doors, they helped people to carry shopping, they helped the disabled, they were quite and polite, etc. Even the person at the print warehouse, where they were finally killed spoke about their humanity. We now know that the brothers who carried out the Charlie Ebdo massacre were orphans, one of them was homeless the other had committed string of petty offences. They were born and bred in France and didn’t have any particular roots abroad. Yet they felt the need to travel abroad and make contacts with people with extreme views.

One person interviewed on the BBC said that there was abject poverty in the ghettos of Paris. Children were literally starving and young girls were prostituting themselves to survive. Another person who owned a restaurant said there was wide spread discrimination against the  descendants of the migrants from North African and Arab countries. He said while he had employees from various racial backgrounds such as Mali, Ethiopia, etc, there were no go areas for these young people and majority of restaurants will not employ young people from minorities like Arabs and Africans. One Muslim said that there are restrictions on the liberties of people with regard to expression of religion, clothing and even food. There is also the problem of increasing attacks on Muslims and their places of worship both before and after the murders at the Charlie Ebdo. There is no legal protection against Islamophobia anywhere in Europe.

Slowly it is becoming clear that the Charlie Ebdo wasn’t just a satirist magazine, it allegedly also promoted xenophobia, racial and religious hatred. It has also emerged that the Magazine had sacked one of its employees for anti-Semitic activity, but not for racial hatred or Islamophobic. It is clear that Charlie Ebdo wasn’t a popular magazine in any sense with only 60,000 copy print. The magazine mainly catered for the high society, which influence the opinions and policies of the government. It would be interesting to see if the proposed government funded million copies will contain similar material as alleged above.

While the France was preparing for the solidarity march, a debate was being held at the BBC studios for the programme the Big Question, with main topic of incident in Paris. The host of the programme is well known for his prejudice and collaboration with the Islamophobic community. This was reflected with the choice of guests disproportionally in favour of his views.  It was like having a match where the referee was in cahoots with one team. He failed to give enough time for reply to Raza Nadim of MPAC. It is becoming a norm for the BBC to give platform to people like Douglas Murray of the Henry Jackson Society and the Gatestone Institute and Quilliam’s front man Maajid Nawaz, to spread the narrative of division, fear and hate while gradually dropping the voices of reason. Douglas Murray said that it wasn’t the time to discuss the alleged inflammatory material and editorial of the Magazine. He made the laughable claims that Muslims were trying to enforce Sharia on the mainstream community and that the Islam was to blame for the actions of the perpetrators. Maajid Nawaz’s rhetoric is well known and is not  worth repeating. Nabila Ramdani a French Algerian Journalist puts it better in her Guardian artcle why French Muslims shouldnt be blamed. For that matter we need to get away from blaming whole of the Muslim communities for the crimes of the few and start confronting those who are creating mischief of this kind for own goals.    

To say it is not the time to discuss these issues is to ignore the real causes of disconnect, frustration and helplessness, which are leading to people acting out of character and committing acts of violence. The solidarity message need to be filtered through to the above mentioned deprived communities which exist in all of our societies. In reality they exist in all countries accross the world developed, developing, Western, Eastern, Muslim and Non Muslim. The lazy rhetoric to ask Muslims to do more, blaming the religion and rhetoric of back door sharia and the harsh language by politicians has been tried, tested and has failed. These people who carried out atrocities were born and bred in France. They were the product of French society. Therefore, to blame any other society, culture or religion is farcical and we are all to blame for our failings not just the one community.

Its time pay attention to the above mentioned deprived and discriminated communities. They include people of all races religion and colour. We need to provide comfort, assurance and support to these communities before someone else does and exploit them for their own agenda. Don’t just blame the religion and ask communities to do more as it reinforces the idea of separation not cohesion. We all have a responsibility to our young; don’t treat them as foreigners as their roots are here, treat them as citizens. Dont let people with extreme dark agendas of creating divisions and hatered talk and listen to the voices of reason in all communities.