Too often us Europeans express our outrage at how the U.S., irrespective of what President is in “charge”, deals with Refugees from Central and South America without looking too closely at our own, shameful, planned, inhumane and criminal way of “managing” our own Refugee situation.
Now, the day before yesterday the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos burned down, essentially leaving 12-15`000 humans stranded with no shelter, no infrastructure and no plan amidst a growing outbreak of Covid-19 amongst them. It’s an extreme humanitarian crisis that is a direct result of disgraceful, calculating European Politics, both on a national and an EU level.
Before this goes any further: I will try and keep this brief, this will not be an analysis of what legal issues are at play nor a historical account of how we got here. Also, I want to put something together to immediately help those on the ground, I’ll get to that at the bottom of this newsletter, so please read on and let me know how you feel about it.
Additionally, and let this be clear: “We”, and by that I mean all Nato Partners as well as the EU states are directly responsible for the so-called Refugee Crisis. “We” decided to play god for our Wall Streets when we started the War on Terror, killing and displacing millions of innocent civilians throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Whilst I believe that the war criminals in said board rooms and government halls should be put on trial, their profits used for reparations as well as creating the infrastructure to welcome and integrate any and all Refugees across the global northwest, it, as always, falls on us, without any help from those in power, to rectify this human catastrophe. Whilst we got this, I will indict and explain the mechanisms behind these criminal acts as well as offering solutions to help. Side note, but important nonetheless, due to the disruptive far-right campaigns to disintegrate Europe, I don’t place blame for any of this on Greece alone. I know too many people in that wonderful part of the world that have actively been sacrificing their entire free time for well over 5 years helping those humans so desperately in need. No, this goes right to the top.
For those unaware, Moria is a Refugee Centre on the Greek island of Lesbos. With the “Refugee Crisis” in full swing by 2015, the EU decided on a number of so called Hot Spots on our Mediterranean Coast, Spain, Italy, and Greece for example. Moria, whilst not a singular place or event, simply serves as representative example of the EU’s criminal fortification of this Economic bloc.
Daniel Howden, who is a migration expert and managing director of the investigative journalism organization Lighthouse Reports writes:
Moria, in all its miserable, dehumanizing squalor, was designed to be that way. It was not a mistake. The camp was the product of political calculations in Brussels and European capitals and that calculus has not changed. It is fireproof.
When thousands, and then tens of thousands, of asylum seekers began to arrive by sea on Greece's islands in 2015, the European Union's strategic response was the creation of so-called "hot spots." Moria was the largest and most notorious of these, and its architecture and evolution most graphically demonstrated its true intention.
Its concrete terraces, nested fences and razor wire amounted to an anti-shelter. It was not meant to receive and give shelter, it was a spectacle intended to deter future asylum seekers.
Moria became the emblem of an EU deterrence policy in which the warehousing of asylum seekers in humiliating circumstances was the point. Any other approach was and is seen as creating a "pull factor" that will attract another 2015-style surge of arrivals.
To cut this horrible story short, the camp, that resembled nothing like the planned welcome centers that were meant to administer and place said Refugees across Europe but are essentially horrid, inhumane, prisons- was meant to hold no more than 3000 people at any given time. Even at that capacity, NGO’s such as Doctors Without Borders were screaming for more help for the past 5 years. Nothing happened. Well, that’s wrong, the EU entered a multi-billion dollar deal with Turkey’s proto-fascist religious extremist leader Erdogan to keep as many Refugees in Turkey and away from Europe - out of sight, out of mind.
Fact is, by the time the camp burned down on Wednesday it was “home” to over 12`000 people seeking refugee from war that we created and profited from, with no clear outlook as to where they could go, if they could go, with 40 people to one shower, 7 people to one tent, 120 people to one access point of drinkable water. With the outbreak of Covid-19 in said camp, the enforced quarantine, it was just a question of time until that cinder block went up in flames. I don’t blame them. Far from it.
I put all blame on our so called European Leadership, both on national and EU levels who not only have been played by external disruptive forces, but also by their own, narcissistic, greedy, megalomanic traits to remain in power. Make no mistake here, this isn’t a question of right-wing against left wing parties, all of them are complicit in these crimes.
I have been trying to put this semi-complex strings of events and ideas into context to explain it and this is the best I have for now:
The catastrophic refugee situation in Europe exists by design. It’s not a question of lack of money, Europe has more than enough, it is not a question of space, we have plenty of that too. Simply put, it is the direct result of Centrists politicians, both nationally and in the EU parliament being driven by power-hungry egos to remain in power and their fear of losing power to a minority far-right, organized block.
For the last 10 years we have seen a concentrated, well-financed and even better planned campaign to strengthen far-right movements in Europe, not, to politically shift the EU towards a white, christian Etho-state, as many of these fools believe, but primarily to de-stabilize the European block and stop it from becoming a factor in the power play between the U.S., Russia and China. The question who benefits from this is a different one, but this is a fact: It is not about changing the face of the EU but to destabilize it. It’s working extremely well I am afraid to say. Brexit being a horrific example thereof.
With that in mind, the Centrists, irrespective of parties, are driven by this semi-imaginary fear of losing power to the far right and do everything in their power to not work for the majority of Europe’s wishes, but appeasement of these radical factions by essentially blocking all efforts towards a real solution to this humanitarian crisis.
I’ll say it again, it is a humanitarian crisis of our own making, we are mostly responsible for it and the lack of solutions is solely down to power-politics at the top.
There have been plenty of well-researched proposal to solve this crisis, the money is there, the will of the people is there, the capacities are there but our leadership, afraid of confronting a right-wing minority, appeases them by having built a Fortress Europe, with prisons on our borders that imprison huge numbers of people, illegally ironically, for fleeing their own war-torn countries. This is especially disgusting considering they are the ones profiting from tearing entire regions apart.
Feel free to read this article here for more insight to the matter.
There are two points to be made about to change this and help. Immediately, I want to put out a charity shirt this weekend and donate the profits to Doctors Without Borders on Lesbos to help. I will also be sending out a separate newsletter later today about this and will also be running a questionnaire about said shirt over on IG shortly after sending that.
Secondly, and this is more of a long term project- we need to get out on the streets to send a clear signal to our corrupt and afraid “leaders” that this is no longer acceptable. Their willful ignorance, their willingness to play with human lives for political capital needs to end, and it needs to end now. We have ignored the crimes committed in the faux name of freedom and democracy on our account for too long. I know that we are all aware of this and we are willing to step up and help but we cannot be expected to do this alone whilst those with power are not only not held accountable but are actively working towards criminalizing our acts of solidarity. I call on all of you to research what organizations work on the ground in your hometown and volunteer your capabilities to help. Put pressure on our politicians by getting out on the street. Petitions don’t do shit, no do Social Media campaigns. Get out, stand up, be loud and make them truly afraid of losing the power we gave them, for humanities sake.