Sunday 6 September 2015

Migrants, not Refugees.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will be aware of the current situation in Syria.

Much has been made on social media that the people leaving the country are 'Refugees not Migrants'.  They are not.

As I understand it, if you are a refugee fleeing conflict or persecution, you travel to the nearest country not involved.  Within the EU, the Dublin 2 agreement states that people fleeing persecution or war seek asylum in the first EU country they get to.  Looking at a map, this would be Greece or Italy, but that is clearly not where these people are heading.

Simply put, those who end up in places like the Berlin refugee centre are migrants since they have crossed through a number of other EU countries to get there.



The BBC spoke to one Syrian migrant who insisted he wanted to stay in Germany and as soon as he is settled he will send for his wife and children.  Well surely as a 'refugee' he would have brought them with him instead of leaving them to survive without him?

The problems at Calais, in my opinion, are also fuelled by a desire for people to access our free and easy (in the most literal sense) lifestyle and collecting donations to be shipped across to these migrants are only adding to the problem.

I know that I have a lump of granite where my heart should be - with regards to people anyway - but surely I am not the only one who feels this way?

1 comment:

  1. I have moments where I feel the same. There are systems in place for asylum seekers to enter the country - do they use them? You'd argue obviously not if things like this happen.

    Lizzie Dripping

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