Finalising Cruelty: The EU-Turkey Agreement on Refugees

Written on March 28th, 2016 in comment, politics Comments Off

UPDATE GRèCE – Cinq projections-débats en Suisse: le 28/03 à LAUSANNE, le 29/03 à VEVEY et le 30/03 à NEUCHÂTEL, by YANNIS YOULOUNTAS

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… Finalising Cruelty: The EU-Turkey Agreement on Refugees, published on Dissident Voice, by Binoy Kampmark, March 26, 2016.

It seemed a foregone conclusion, but here it was, a ghastly cuddling show between Turkish officials and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council. Both political forces had united behind a refugee containment system that is compromised from start to finish, one designed to frustrate and ultimately terminate the desire to flee lands in conflict.  

The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be finding much to muse in the arrangement, not least of all because of his boastful remark last November that he could flood Greece and Bulgaria with refugees. In stating that, the Turkish leader was very clear that he wanted some arrangement in place on how to deal with the refugee crisis in his country. There would be more cash – and incentives. The sense of blackmail in this measure has been palpable from the start.

The exchange of humans (“one-in and one-out”), which effectively monetises a humanitarian situation by convincing the Turkish authorities to accept the unaccepted human cargo from the Aegean, is again another brutal measure undertaken in the name of false logic. Such measures are designed to plug holes in the leaking edifice of regional security, one ever exacerbated by foreign interventions and power plays.

Good lashings of false generosity have been spun by public relations apologists. All sides to this seedy arrangement have suggested that they are doing asylum seekers and refugees favours while targeting the business of traffickers … //

… In the meantime, the good will of EU citizens, when manifested, will continue to demonstrate the vast gulf between institutional paralysis in Brussels and the community insistence that humanitarianism prevail. They will not be thanked for that.

(full text).

(Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne and can be reached here. Read other articles by Binoy).

(my comment: no escape, we the 99% have to push away such a cruel elite, otherwise the whole world will be soon one big prison for us all – Heidi).

Links:

Postcard from a Failed State, Attacks Cast Light on Belgium’s State Crisis, on Spiegel Online International, by Melanie Amann, Maik Baumgärtner, Sven Becker, Jörg Diehl, Martin Knobbe, Katrin Kuntz, Peter Müller, Fidelius Schmid and Barbara Supp, March 25, 2016 (Photo Gallery): with bombs set off in the airport and the subway system, the deadly Islamic State attacks on Brussels have struck the heart of the European Union. Belgium, once the nucleus of Europe, will now have to combat its reputation as a failed state;

New Zealand: Labour not shying away from big ideas, on Daily News, by Ross Henderson, March 25, 2016;

Japan considers giving away money to boost consumption, on RT, March 25, 2016;

China money rates fall on the week after largest c.bank injection in two weeks, on Reuters, Mach 25, 2016;

Banks awash with cash spurring sovereign bond rally, on Bankok Post, Marh 25, 2016;

What’s The Difference Between Minimum Wage and Living Wage in Iowa? on NewsMax, by Lisa Jacks, March 24, 2016;

CANADA: Council to consider boosting rent subsidy, on The Peter Borough Exminer.ca, by Joelle Kovach, March 24, 2016;

Nixon’s War on Drugs Began as Strategy to Attack ‘Antiwar Left and Black People’, on Common Dreams, by Nadia Prupis, March 23, 2016: amid new global discussion about ending prohibition, a buried admission by a former presidential aide goes viral;

Over-Policed and Under-Protected – Grassroots Women Rally, on Grassroots Women.ca, March 18, 2016;

David Starkey and George Galloway Row Over Public Schools – BBCQT, 4.05 min, uploaded by smtm: Entertainment … more in autoplay;
George Galloway;

… and this:

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