illegally. 130,00 would be nothing for him.
Greece recalls ambassador from Austria over EU refugees row
Athens accuses Vienna of undermining efforts to reach Europe-wide response by siding with hardline EU members who refuse to take refugees
... the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, threatened to veto EU agreements if action wasn’t taken to ameliorate the situation.
“We will not accept turning the country into a warehouse of souls,” he told the Greek parliament after blasting Austria for its “unacceptable” behaviour.
... the Greek migration minister, Yannis Mouzalas, said Greece would not be left by the rest of the EU to become the “Lebanon of Europe” by hosting millions of migrants and refugees.
“A very large number here will attempt to discuss how to address a humanitarian crisis in Greece that they themselves intend to create,” Mouzalas told reporters. “Greece will not accept unilateral actions. Greece can also carry out unilateral actions.
Greece will not accept becoming Europe’s Lebanon, a warehouse of souls, even if this were to be done with major [EU] funding.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/25/greece-wont-be-lebanon-of-europe-yannis-mouzalas-refugees-eu
This racist backlash against refugees is the real crisis in Europe
The European coalition of the inhumane – contriving to trap refugees in Greece – cannot go on. A humanitarian evacuation plan is urgently needed
A coalition of the inhumane is rising in Europe. A group of political leaders have been meeting this week in Vienna to coordinate how to seal the western Balkan refugee passage. The countries involved, including Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia, don’t want to risk hosting thousands of stranded people in their poor societies. They expect that by intentionally causing a humanitarian disaster in Greece they are going to stop the misery of the world getting in their backyard. Only this week Greece pleaded with Macedonia to reopen its border as 4,000 refugees became stranded.
Meanwhile the four Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) who have not been not invited to join these discussions, are also at the forefront of this ideological campaign to seal the Balkan route. Their motivation is based on an Islamophobic narrative, as advocated by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, a self-declared enemy of liberal democracy and consolidator of a Christian front against the Islamisation of Europe.
Consider for a minute the “invasion” these leaders are moving against. Figures show 34% of refugees are children, thousands of them unaccompanied. Another 20% are women. The vast majority of these people are families fleeing conflict. Just under half are Syrians escaping Islamic extremism themselves. The refugee influx amounts to less than 0.5% of the European population. This was never an unmanageable problem for the EU: it is an issue only for nation states. But resorting to nationalist fixes is a cheap solution.
Democratic communities can do what states have failed to achieve by reacting to the real crisis Europe is facing today: the racist and nationalist backlash throughout the continent. There are a lot of people out there who remember well that the failure of Europe has been blamed on the weak in the past and where this leads. We will fight against it.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/25/racist-backlash-against-refugees-greece-real-crisis-europe
Of course the real Donald does not have to go to Europe. The continent has plenty of RW populist "Donalds" who have been around for a long time.
NIMBY seems to be the right's policy towards refugees. "Keep them in Greece, just not in my country." Or even better, "Keep them in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon. The farther away the better." Of course all of the right's 'solutions' don't change the fact that the refugees are still refugees. Their 'solutions' just shove the problem on to poorer countries - Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, etc. - and away from relatively rich folks.
"The refugee influx amounts to less than 0.5% of the European population. This was never an unmanageable problem for the EU ...".
= new reply since forum marked as read
for those lacking in a sense of humour.)