The following informational brochure was composed by a European
reader who volunteers for an organization that assists refugees in her
country. She created this guide to counter the hype and disinformation
surrounding the European “migration crisis”, and suggests that her
brochure be reproduced and distributed to anyone interested in what is
happening. Her explanations serve as an antidote to the all the media
propaganda that currently saturates the airwaves and the intertubes.
This text is available in PDF format. It’s in a very readable font, and comes to seven pages when printed.
Refugee Crisis: Facts and Myths
How to answer the objections of pro-refugee friends and family
1. We have a duty to help those who flee war.
Answer: No war zone at the moment shares a border with the EU. Does our duty to help those who flee war also extend to those who have already been in safe areas, but chose to put themselves in harm’s way to reach Europe using smugglers?
2. If we don’t take the Syrians in, they are going to stay in Syria and die!
Answer: Again, most Syrians who reach Europe were already in Turkey, which is a peaceful country and welcomes Syrian refugees. Those who chose to come here were by no means under bombs and bullets before they came here, and could have stayed there and allowed the law to take its course and the UNHCR to resettle them in an orderly fashion.
3. But aren’t these boat refugees the poorest of the poor that we have to take pity on and care for anyway?
Answer: The average boat refugee has paid somewhere between $600 and $20000 (depending on how far he has traveled and by which means) dollars per person to the criminal human traffickers and smugglers to get to the country of his choice in Europe.
People with that kind of money at their disposal in the Third World are not poor by any means and can have a relatively comfortable life in whatever Middle Eastern region that they live in, and don’t need to come to us for help.
By contrast those refugees who are not leaving their camps in the Middle East and stay there patiently are the poorest ones, and they should be the object of our compassion. But now, unfortunately, because of this illegal influx of boat refugees, no time, money, or attention is left for us to devote to them, and this is indeed an unjust state of affairs that should have never been allowed to come about.
This text is available in PDF format. It’s in a very readable font, and comes to seven pages when printed.
Refugee Crisis: Facts and Myths
How to answer the objections of pro-refugee friends and family
1. We have a duty to help those who flee war.
Answer: No war zone at the moment shares a border with the EU. Does our duty to help those who flee war also extend to those who have already been in safe areas, but chose to put themselves in harm’s way to reach Europe using smugglers?
2. If we don’t take the Syrians in, they are going to stay in Syria and die!
Answer: Again, most Syrians who reach Europe were already in Turkey, which is a peaceful country and welcomes Syrian refugees. Those who chose to come here were by no means under bombs and bullets before they came here, and could have stayed there and allowed the law to take its course and the UNHCR to resettle them in an orderly fashion.
Answer: The average boat refugee has paid somewhere between $600 and $20000 (depending on how far he has traveled and by which means) dollars per person to the criminal human traffickers and smugglers to get to the country of his choice in Europe.
People with that kind of money at their disposal in the Third World are not poor by any means and can have a relatively comfortable life in whatever Middle Eastern region that they live in, and don’t need to come to us for help.
By contrast those refugees who are not leaving their camps in the Middle East and stay there patiently are the poorest ones, and they should be the object of our compassion. But now, unfortunately, because of this illegal influx of boat refugees, no time, money, or attention is left for us to devote to them, and this is indeed an unjust state of affairs that should have never been allowed to come about.