“The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece, where burning Sappho loved and sung” – Byron. And now on those isles and especially Lesbos, where warm-hearted Sappho loved and sung (or, as we now more usually say, sang), January temperatures drop below freezing and refugees are found dead of cold. They live without electricity or warm water, burn plastic bags and bottles to warm themselves (and some die from the fumes). Pregnant women and women with children they have newly borne live in tents on the mud, wear diapers at night because it’s too cold and too dangerous to go out to the toilets.
They are stuck on five Greek islands off the west coast of Turkey because, having got there by harrowing journeys from countries where they have been starved, bombed, or tortured, they are not allowed any farther into Europe.
Why does this happen? Because not enough of us can put our minds inside these cousins of ours who have been driven from their homes by miseries we too would not endure. You’ve heard of the presumption of innocence, a relatively recent invention of maturing societies. I think there is a presumption in favor of those who seek asylum.
__________
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Glint, there are several good reasons why asylum seekers are reluctant to stay in Mexico.
For one thing Mexico is not geared up to handle asylum applications. Of the nearly 14,600 asylum applications received by Mexico in 2017, more than half are still being processed. This is despite the fact that Mexican law stipulates that applications must be processed within 45 days. If the system cannot even process current applications, how will it manage the cases of every asylum applicant looking to go to the United States?
Mexico is a life-threatening place for migrants with no papers. They face human trafficking, recruitment for organized crime, abduction, extortion, sexual violence and disappearances.
Mexican authorities routinely force people to return to dangerous conditions in their home countries
The number of illegal border crossings into the US from Mexico has been declining for years. Border Patrol apprehended more than 200,000 people in 2000 compared to less than 50,000 in 2018.
I think it’s important to remember that the large numbers of migrants who arrive at the Mexico/US border are fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador where homicide rates four to eight times higher than the World Health Organization considers epidemic homicide levels.
Sorry for being skeptical, but I have doubts about the accuracy of the claim made here that refugees burning plastics to warm themselves have “die[d] from the fumes.” Is there any evidence supporting this statement?
Some deaths have been reported from CO poisoning as refugees use cook stoves for warmth in improperly ventilated tents. But that is different from the claim of deaths from toxins given off by burning plastic.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/09/oxfam-criticises-eu-inhumane-lesbos-refugee-camp-moria
Yes, according to the Guardian article the plastics give off a “dangerous smoky acrid atmosphere”, but the three deaths were due to “carbon monoxide poisoning … while trying to stay warm with makeshift stoves.”
Amen.
Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of human rights (1948) recognizes the right of persons to seek asylum from persecution
in other countries.
Notice the difference between “.. the right to seek asylum…” and “.. the right of asylum…”
I heard Mexico has offered asylum to the “caravan” members. I wonder why so many claiming persecution and camped at the U.S. border after transiting the entire length of Mexico have not taken advantage of this fair offer?
Mexico is a brutal place for migrants. Whole trainloads have been “disappeared” by armed gangs. You might look back at the experience of Ángel Amílcar Colón Quevedo:
http://universalworkshop.com/guysblog/2014/08/25/angel-amilcar-colon-quevedo/
True, but the Act states that asylum must applied for in the nearest country, at the nearest border. Not a “country of choice”.
From Wikipedia. Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” The wiki goes on to describe, as apparently procedurally accepted, Afghans seeking asylum in France and Iraqis seeking asylum in the US.
From Parliament of Australia. “Where asylum seekers are able to exercise choice in determining their destination country, factors such as the presence of social networks, historical ties between the countries of origin and destination, and the knowledge or belief that a certain country is democratic, where human rights and the rule of law are likely to be respected, are highly influential.”
From the World Socialist Web Site. “The world is pulsing with hundreds of millions of people desperate to flee their homes under the weight of the crisis of world capitalism. According to a recent Gallup study, a sixth of the world’s adult population—some 750 million people, not including children—want to flee their home countries to escape war, poverty, conflict and disease.”
Yes.