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So, they are, belatedly, going to use the law

European countries are poised to begin the process of returning refugees to Greece, as migrants seeking reunification with their family members – mostly in Germany – step up protests in Athens.

In a move decried by human rights groups, EU states will send back asylum seekers who first sought refuge in Greece, despite the nation being enmeshed in its worst economic crisis in modern times.

Germany has made nearly 400 resettlement requests, according to officials in Berlin and sources in Athens’ leftist-led government. The UK, France, the Netherlands and Norway have also asked that asylum seekers be returned to Greece.

Greece’s migration minister told the Guardian the first returns were expected imminently.

You do absolutely have a right to asylum. You also only have that right in the first safe place you get to. The EU goes on further and says you have it in the first EU state you get to. What you don’t get with an asylum claim is the right to pick and choose.

Gonna be messy, innit?

19 thoughts on “So, they are, belatedly, going to use the law”

  1. This move will be ultimately self-defeating. the Greek middle class is abandoning the country for safer climes. My local hospital is full of well-qualified Greek doctors who are working here because they can’t get paid in Greece, and very good they are too. This further degradation of the birthplace of western civilisation as a dormitory for Germany’s errors of judgement bids fair to finish the business of gutting the country and leave it a failed state.

  2. If followed through with Germanic thoroughness it will fuck Greece well and truly.

    However, nowadays Germanic thoroughness isn’t terribly thorough so perhaps it’ll just be a montrous clusterfuck.

    There’s no good ending I can see.

  3. Bloke in North Dorset

    Does Greece get to send the, back to Turkey? That could lead to really interesting times.

  4. Germany hasn’t got the balls to deport these people so sends them back to Greece. How noble of them. Funny how suddenly the Law becomes important again when it is in their interests.

  5. @Pat

    “And on a mundane, practical level, how do the Greeks keep them in Greece?”

    In the old airport, behind a chainlink fence, under guard.

    And around there is not a place to hang out at night, I can tell you. Very scary spot.

  6. Never mind Greece.

    Round the self-imported up and ship them back to North Africa along with the leftists who are their friends and allies.

  7. What a fantastic self-inflicted wound. The great shame is that Angela Merkel who should be shouldering much of the blame emerges largely unscathed.

  8. The great shame is that Angela Merkel who should be shouldering much of the blame emerges largely unscathed.

    Because the media, which should be tearing her a new arse, are 99% supportive of her decision.

  9. The Times journalists were wailing yesterday that Italian police had “used force” to remove 800 illegal immigrants from a square in Rome. Of course, Times journalists make sure they live and work in places where their lives are not blighted by homeless, illegal immigrants, and fuck everyone else.

  10. if they are refugees then shouldn’t the a to be to provide temporary refuge until the situation is safe for them to return home anyway, not sure why it’s assumed they should all stay

  11. BniC

    Sometimes the state from which they have fled does not recover or a hostile government takes office. If such refugees are held in camps, they become permanently displaced and you end up with a situation where generations of people are stuck in camps, which is why it may be more sensible to give them the right to work etc.

    Asylum seekers who are given asylum generally gain residency rights and a path to citizenship.

    The main issue is that many “refugees” and “asylum seekers” are not. Economic migrants should be expelled and permanently barred.

  12. To: Greece
    From: Pcar

    Subject: MENA migrants

    Depopulate Gavdos then send all the MENA migrants/refugees there with a letter saying:

    “You’re safe from war/despot you fled. Build your desired society. Bye, bye”

    Regards,

    Pcar

  13. BniC – how long should people be refugees? There are Palestinians who are grandparents who have never lived in the homes their parents fled from.

    People who fled the Taliban in Afghanistan. How safe is it for them to return?
    People who fled Syria?
    People who fled France to Britain?

    The problem Greece, Italy, Turkey etc have is their location is such that a lot of asylum seekers arrive. They either settle there, creating problems for the locals who they could outnumber in an area, or they drift on to other parts of that country or further to more distant countries.

    Until the UN allocates a large island somewhere (Australia? Antarctica? Britain? Greenland?) to put all refugees, asylum seekers and migrants who have not yet been accepted by a country as residents then there will remain problems in gateway countries.

  14. If the Greeks had an ounce of cunning they would immediately grant them Greek citizenship and then, as if by magic, under free movement they would be able to go to Germany quite legitimately

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