Scorned Migrant Boat Exposes Raw Feelings Among European Allies

The ENTIRE 1st world is raising its drawbridge as the stream of refugees. immigrants and people displaced by a majority of its policies/wars continues unabated. The wars rage still (decades going on) in the Middle East, Africa and in pockets of South America. People simply have no other place to go to seek safe passage, as the refugee camps become overcrowded wastelands. (where they do exist) The mismanagement and incompetence of many government (most that have collapsed due to said wars/strife) leads to large lawless areas, and people trying to escape. That the 1st world is stripping the 3rd world of its resources is not helping the matter. The failed war on drugs has created warlords and corrupt ''governments'' that contribute to the wave of people. The violence to keep control of the crops has led to entire generations being wiped out, and their children knowing only of said carnage. The walls will not be able to be built high enough, unless the 1st world deals with their cause to these numbers. They can turn away people. vehicles and boats, but they will keep on coming. They are only pursuing life, liberty and happiness too.

It comes down to the cost of supporting the refugees and immigrants is what they really are arguing about but aren't willing to openly admit. The question is why they aren't passing the cost on to those profiting from the sale of arms to the countries where the fighting has caused the refugee crisis. Why aren't they passing the cost on to the corporations profiting from the resources plundered from their lands and lined in the pockets of those few leaders in those countries who park their money in Zurich and London? If the ill-gotten gains were made to pay for the cost in human suffering and paid Italy and France for each refugee taken, the story and reaction would be quite different. The profit is privatised, the costs are socialised and the refugees, immigrants, and countries where they arrive take the brunt of the animosity. It's the 21st century and we haven't figured out how to put social costs on to 14th century balance sheets. We still live in a world where the market says the desk is an asset and the person behind the desk is a liability and expense. Until we change how we value humans, we will not value human life.

Italy did the right thing. They have become a dumping ground and don't want it any more. The altruists of what is left of the EU can take them in if they wish to continue ruining their countries with economic migrants. As in the US, citizens are tired of being dictated to by the powerful. In ten years the EU experiment will be over and all its poorest members ruined.

There's no way one can deny that solely to their geographicl locations, both Italy and Greece have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to the influx of migrants sailing across the Mediterannean, especially since the E.U. has essentially left them holding the bag while enforcing austere measures on their households. There's also no doubt that Europe is having a problem with the relentless wave of refugees and immigrants that continue to flow onto their shores -- but no one wants to seem like the proverbial 'bad cop' and say this has simply got to end, which is what Italy's new government has done. And it's about time. If only because this tidal wave of humanity is also feeding the forces of right-wing nativism and xenophobia which threatens not only the European continent, but the rest of the world. Unfortunately Brussels hasn't gotten the message, so this kind of finger-pointing and tit-for-tat is bound to go on, as countless lives continue to sink beneath the waves, with no end in sight.

The EU has thrown Italy, one of the most important members of NATO because of its US airbase, and Greece, which guards the EU's eastern border, under the bus when it comes to migrants. Italians and Greeks are rightly angry. Although the EU probably felt it has to let the former Soviet bloc countries in to co-opt Russian influences, allowing these emerging fascist countries, like Poland and Hungary, into the EU was a HUGE mistake.

The EU's choice remains the same. Either strengthen the external borders or accept internal borders.

The migrants issue has been a source of contention in the EU for years. Italy, Greece and Spain, the closest countries to the jumping off places in Africa have been receiving thousands of desperate people coming from violence torn areas and from economic desperate lands. It is the sheer number of these poor people that has aroused fear and rejection all over Europe. A vivid proof is the fact that when a system of quota was proposed, it was rejected by many, and Italy was left to deal with waves of newcomers by itself. It is this unwillingness to share the burden that has impelled the newly formed government to take drastic action. It is important to note that Salvini, the leader of the Northern League named himself interior minister precisely to be able to control this problem. He has been in opposition to migrants for years, even complaining about southern Italians going North to look for work. A French politician recognizes what provoked Italy: “Italy’s political situation is the result of the European Union’s egotistical approach to migration,” he added. “Italy is forcing us to face our responsibilities.” Europe is now clearly faced with a decision: find a common solution or stop blaming other people for the lack of solidarity toward needy human beings.

I understand the concern in Europe. Africa has one billion people and growing. What is stopping hundreds of millions from migrating to Europe in the future. In time Europe will be overrun with Africans.

5 millions citizens and legal migrants are unemployed or are actively seeking for a full time job in France, and there are 2 millions families on the waiting list to access moderate rental public houses. Giving immediately a job and a public house to those 650 migrants would be unfair to citizens and legal migrants who waited for years. Asking those migrants to wait at the end of the list will be considered as a racist move. It's easy to criticize, especially when you're the typical American liberal who love migrants except when they move in the house next door and when they apply for upper middle class jobs.

This is not new. In the 1990's Germany was forced to accept hundreds of thousands of workers who were fleeing poverty and violence in eastern europe. Those men and women were supposed to return to their home countries in a few years. When the time came, the men simply disappeared from records, and the women had become pregnant and were allowed to stay. The counties that have migrants going to Europe did not suddenly become poor and violent; this has happened over decades, and it is unfair for any country to be forced to strain their resources for large numbers of migrants without resources or help from other EU countries or the UN.