Jadhav*, 18, from Bangladesh, arrived in Italy 10 months ago, but is still haunted by memories of his journey with people smugglers across the Mediterranean Sea.
Only the poorest of the poor would risk such horrors, eh?
Determined to seek a better life in Europe, Jadhav had flown to Egypt via Dubai before reaching Libya by land. He worked for a year in Tripoli – in a supermarket, as a welder and laying roads – where he was jailed for 11 days, tortured, and released only after his parents sent ransom money.
Well, actually, no. To be able to afford that as a Bangladeshi he’s upper middle class at least. The poorest of the poor, the rickshaw drivers, the farmers on an acre of paddy, these folks are on 3,000 Tk (£30) a month. Plane flights don’t feature in their possibilities.
Watched ‘ Simon Reeves’s Mediterranean’ when it was on the Beeb a couple of years ago, and when he was in Morocco he interviewed hopeful illegal immigrants who admitted to paying thousands of Dollars to people smugglers to get them to Europe.
So no, these are not the poorest, most desperate people.
Alternatively his family borrowed the money from loan sharks or sold land to get him there. This is not as insane as it sounds given the genetic rewards that this offers the chap’s offspring in the short term. What’s better than a cosy life in the west? Trouble is that cosy life won’t be so cosy for long as we can’t subsidise illegal immigration in the guise of asylum seeking forever.
This chap clearly is not fleeing persecution in Bangladesh but will claim to be gay or something, and be coached by “charities” to give the answers required to get permission to stay. We are being taken for a ride, but so are the illegal immigrants and both sides are too stupid to stop it.
I got fed up of Reeves. The tours are interesting except for him pointing out how shit it is and how badly done to the locals are by TBPB. Yes, we know shitholistan is shit. It would actually be more interesting to find out how the locals are trying to get the country out of being shitholistan. But that’s not happening – those who could are trying to get here instead.
@TractorGent: if they were just trying, it’d not be the concern it is. But as it is, they are mostly succeeding.
Surprising to see people fleeing from countries that are on the mend. Bangladesh, Morocco, they’ve experienced stellar growth over recent years (Covid aside).
Tractor Gent, he is annoying but even so, his progs are generally quite interesting.
Andrew, the men he was interviewing in Morocco were sub-Saharan Africans, Pakistanis, Afghans etc, not locals.
Thanks Jonathan, that makes more sense.
No doubt these migrants are all applauding the similarly heroic settlers who’ve migrated to Israel, and deploring the wicked racism of the unwelcoming locals.
Indeed now I think of it, a similar process of Hindu immigration to Kashmir is said to be occurring. No doubt the Mahometans especially are wildly applauding this contribution to diversity.
Of course his parents paid the ransom, and probably for his flights, it’s a good investment. In 5 years there’ll be campaigns for their parents, siblings, aunts and uncles etc to join them.
What did he weld in a supermarket – the trolleys ?
I am a bit sceptical about the ‘fees’ being paid to cross the Mediterranean. Media articles often mention ‘thousands’ of USD. Let’s think about that. If twenty people on a boat, that would be say forty thousand USD, which seems very lucrative. I wonder that you can get a ride across the Med for much less than that. Even at 100 USD, that is 2000 USD for a boatload of twenty.
In fact, I wonder that people are paying as little as 20 USD for a ride.
But I don’t know.
Perhaps a journalist could got down to the beaches and purchase a ride.
It seems to be a volume business and wouldn’t surprise if there was competition which usually brings the price down. Next thing we know they’ll be regulations
I suppose the main barrier to entry is the established groups paying you a visit with weapons to explain why it’s not a good business move
If the boats are reused it’s a volume business. If not, and I think not, it’s more like launching rockets. Which is why I suppose they send them in the worst possible boats to reduce the expenses, and because they know the butters will pick them up just outside libyan coastal waters and take ‘3m to Europe. If we stopped doing that the boats would have to be more sturdy, which means higher costs which means fewer “asylum seekers”
We need to catch the bastards, rob them of anything they have worth anything–cash, valuables etc , beat them and return them as near to where they started as possible. A fortune paid and all it got them was beaten and robbed–that will stop them.
Not going to happen under shite like Johnson though.