Refugees, Migrants and helping (Merged Thread)

[davidbfpo]

A startling article, although years ago the movement of refugees into the Yemen was encountered. So here are two passages by a SME on the Yemen:

more than 160,000 people arrived in Yemen in 2018 alone. Just to be clear this means that more desperate people crossed the Red Sea into Yemen than crossed the Mediterranean heading for Europe. Yemen is in the midst of an internationalised civil war and suffering from the world’s worst humanitarian crisis according to the UN’s Secretary General. There has been no outcry about a ‘migrant invasion’ from any Yemeni Minister of the Interior, whether from the internationally recognised government or the Huthi movement who control the capital Sana’a. Indeed Yemen has received and accepted close to a million Somali refugees since the 1990s, allowing them to work and live in the country, as Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula to recognise the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Prior to the current war, the country’s authorities have been impressively hospitable to Somali refugees, though not to the thousands of Ethiopians and others who have crossed the Red Sea.

Near the end:

Migrants heading into Yemen are facing extreme hardship conditions in addition to entering a country at war where most of the population are also suffering from famine conditions. What does all this say about living conditions and prospects in their own countries?

Link:https://www.opendemocracy.net/north-africa-west-asia/helen-lackner/migrant-crisis-in-europe-look-at-yemen?

[Bill Moore]

https://www.freeburmarangers.org/201...-can-love-win/

Last Stronghold of ISIS: Can Love Win?

Bullets flew by our faces and smacked into the ground around us. Snipers were shooting at us from the tent-and-truck city that was Baghouz, the last physical stronghold of ISIS. Below, in a smoke-and-dust-shrouded valley at a bend in the Euphrates River, was the distillation of the most hard-core living ISIS members.

The battle being fought out in this little corner of the Syrian desert began when, with their families, ISIS had retreated from Mosul, Iraq, pushed out by the Iraqi Army and coalition forces, to Raqqa, Syria, the last capital of the ISIS caliphate. From there the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had taken over the offensive and, with the help of air and artillery support from the coalition, had pushed ISIS out to Deir Ezzor. The fight had continued and the last remnants of ISIS had been steadily pushed back along the east side of the Euphrates to Baghouz on the Iraq/ Syrian border.

The photos of the ISIS truck and tent city is worth viewing, I would have a hard time visualizing if I didn't see them here. The article transitions into a discussion with photos on the refugees. Can love win? I have no idea, but the world has a problem regarding the large number of women and children refugees from ISIS or fleeing ISIS. We're obviously not going to pursue Hitler's solution and maintaining refugee camps indefinitely doesn't seem sustainable. Most countries don't want to help because if they bring back one refugee that commits an act of terrorism, it will politically devastate the politician and political party that agreed to bring them back. The odds of Assad's regime and his Russian, Iranian, and Chinese partners offering a solution is slim. Most likely it will be a problem dropped in the lap of a corrupt and often ineffective UN and various NGO groups. I don't see this ending well.

[davidbfpo]

Bill,

Good catch. First-hand reporting is important and I did wonder watching BBC reporting who was supporting the SDF's humanitarian work.

Now to the key question and citing you in part:

the world as a problem regarding the large number of women and children refugees from ISIS or fleeing ISIS. We're obviously not going to pursue Hitler's solution and maintaining refugee camps indefinitely doesn't seem sustainable. Most countries don't want to help because if they bring back one refugee that commits an act of terrorism it will destroy them politically. The odds of Assad's regime and his Russian, Iranian, and Chinese partners offering a solution is slim.

I read somewhere that Russia is actually taking their nationals back, albeit with conditions. IIRC the men go to jail for ten years and the women can remain with their children till they reach 'X' age, whereupon they too go to jail.

Earlier today catching up with stored articles I listened to this thirty minute podcast with three experts adding their viewpoint. One is Richard Barrett, ex-SIS & UN and Aimeen Dean. Worth listening to IMHO.
Link:https://monocle.com/radio/shows/the-foreign-desk/273/