Mark Linnhoefer – On Wednesday, the Hungarian government decided to shut its borders to Serbia in an effort to curb the influx of refugees. As that did not sit too well with those seeking asylum in Europe, a violent crash broke out, with the police in riot gear shooting water cannons and tear gas, with the protesters pelting the officers with rocks.
During those clashes, 29 people were arrested and are now being detained, among them reportedly one “terrorist”.
The Hungarian government closed off its borders with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants and refugees, and it is the first European country to take that kind of direct, violent action on this issue.
The refugees are fleeing en masse from countries like Syria, Iraq, and Libya as they’re being killed by the IS. Germany has altered its immigration policies, now allowing asylum to be granted to refugees even if they have been in another EU-state previously. This attracted thousands of refugees seeking a better life and a new beginning in Germany. The journey of those fleeing from their oppressors and killers usually leads them via boat to Greece and from there thgrough Serbia and Hungary and then through the border-free Schengen-zone to Germany.
This massive migration of refugees has split Europe apart politically and socially – right-wing extremists are literally trying to kill refugees in Germany and elsewhere. More liberal-minded people are building new shelters, and others are just completely delusional and believe this to be an American-Jewish ploy to replace the European population. Whatever the opinions are, they are dividing not only nations and friends, but the entire damn Union, and things are getting more heated and extreme. Germany is leading the more open countries against the mostly Eastern European countries that are condemning the “welcome culture” of “the West”.
Now, Hungary is the first country to actually act out in the way extremists have been wanting to do for years – keeping the refugees out of their country by weaponized force. Humvees, water cannons, and tear gas. And they’re contemplating building fences as well.
The Serbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, harshly condemns the Hungarian government’s actions, calling them both “brutal” and “non-European” but also saying that he will find “a way to protect his borders according to European values” should the EU not react. His government is currently sending police reinforcements to the Serbian-Hungarian border to keep the migrants away from the fences as Hungarian Humvees mounted with guns have appeared there.
Vucic is not the only person outraged by this – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was appalled by the events and calls them both alarming and shocking, as does Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Guterres calls for immediate access to Hungary for the refugees and says that he is “shocked and saddened” by the fact that entire families with small children are being stopped at a European border with “water cannon and tear gas.” Mr. Victor Ponta, the Romanian Prime Minister, even accuses Hungary of making things “look like Europe in the 1930s” with their dogs and fences, saying that all putting up a fence achieves is that the problem is ‘outsourced’ to Romania, Croatia, and Serbia.
Germany has an equally hard stance on Hungary, proposing financial sanctions and mandatory quotas so as to ensure that everyone complies with plans to get as many refugees as much help as possible. Although Germany has been cancelling refugee trains since Wednesday as capacities are running low and used to have some of the worst asylum and immigration laws, the nation is proving to be more willing to accept refugees than a lot of others. Hungary actually blames Germany for accelerating the influx of refugees by altering their laws – and Hungary does have a twisted point, but to have the audacity to say something like that whilst literally attacking refugees…
Anyhow. More and more nations in Europe are starting to drift to the far-right when it comes to immigration and asylum, and it is sad to see, really. Of course you have got to be careful, as terrorist organizations are known to smuggle in agents with the refugees, but in the end, so what? If you’d rather see thousands die in poverty and misery than to take the risk of letting a few bad apples in the pie, you’re a horrible person. And naturally, not every country can even feed and support and handle thousands and thousands of refugees, that idea is utopian, but if every damn country in the fucking EU just took in a few thousand each month, we’d be good. Don’t be fooled by those Nazi fucks – Europe, as a whole, has the resources to take care of any refugee that might come. We’re just not willing to. As much as a few countries try and do, there are still far too many countries still stubbornly enforcing their outdated, pre-crisis asylum and immigration policies and deporting refugees and migrants on a daily basis.
In the midst of this haze of anger and fear and aggression and paranoia, we are slowly losing our humanity. People would rather listen to some fat slimy fuck who’s never lived a day in his life without food or shelter talk about how the refugees are just here on vacation and only look for some nice, fat welfare checks than to help dying and starving human beings. Well, guess what? Welfare checks aren’t as big as the average bigot makes them out to be. Shelters for those seeking asylum are no damned five-star hotels. Those people are not happy that they had to leave their home countries. But they had to. Because Washington could just not leave the Middle East alone, and in a plot to destroy the Taliban or Al-Qaeda or some other “terrorist threat”, they funded a guerilla organization of freedom fighters that gladly took the money and the training and used it to form what is today known as the “Islamic State”. Well done.
But I digress.
The Hungarian Prime Minister said to the German newspaper Die Welt that if the EU actually decided to enforce an obligatory asylum quota, his nation would comply. So there is still some hope that using legal force, a culture of openness may still be established in the European Union. On the other hand, a German emergency plan to distribute 160,000 refugees to various countries failed to find enough support amongst the EU Ministers, meaning that the xenophobic obstacles have already climbed their way up to the highest political spheres, which is very worrying to say the least.
This reporter surely hopes that Hungary will come to its senses or be forced to let the poor refugees in, otherwise I fear that the situation in Europe might quickly devolve into a xenophobic, racist, bigoted, inbred fuck-fest with only a few voices still speaking out for those that are currently muted by their circumstances.
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