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The
asylum seekers are most likely to be swayed by the presence of their
own community in a country of destination, so maybe it’s not that
Great Britain is that great after all. Mostly, they are trying to
escape from (civil) wars and the like, and if they’re fleeing wars
or human right abuses, unlike other immigrants they’re not likely
to be deported.
Which
begs the question “What are ‘other’ immigrants ?” Well,
other immigrants such as economic migrants. They’re often refused
the right of residence, so they try to creep into the country
illegally.
Although
GB claims to be #1 concerning asylum seekers in Europe, the GB
asylum applications represent less than 1% of the world's refugee
population.
|
This
table shows the recent development of asylum
applications in the UK. |
 |
- This
can be considered the ‘Top-10 list’
- although
it does not consist of the world’s most
- wanted terrorists, but of
asylum seekers in GB.
|
Fighting
The Refugees – A Useless Game ?
Sangatte
– a small French town, which had once about a thousand inhabitants
– now it’s got about a thousand inhabitants plus about 1,600
refugees, who are longing to cross the English Channel to get to
Britain. GREAT Britain, I forgot.
The
rules of this game are quite simple: Every night they try to get
over, using self-made dinghies, trying
to hitchhike trains (in other parts of Europe known as ‘train-surfing’)
or just walk the tunnel.
And
every night they try to get over, they get caught by the police and
get deported back to Sangatte. And that’s where they stay during
the day to have a new try next night. The show must go on, and
that’s why they are there in the first place.
 To
make the rules of the game more obvious, the police has invented
signs such as this hilarious one: -
although they seem to forget that most of
the immigrants can barely read.
Amazingly
enough, in addition to those apalling signs, they fine lorry drivers
crossing by ferry to Dover £2,000 if they are found to be carrying
unauthorised passengers. Now it seems to be the driver’s fault if
some insane migrant creeps into his truck. So now it’s their job
to search their car for
stowaways, and I can really imagine what happens to them (the
stowaways) if they’re found – they’re
either beat up or thrown over-board, if they happen to be discovered
after the boat has left the harbor. Exactly the same thing that
happens if captains find stowaways on their boat.
They
say that about £3 million were invested in security on the French
side.
“A
20-mile perimeter fence, topped with ribbons of razor wire,
surrounds the freight terminal and track that leads to the tunnel
entrance. Guards with Alsatian dogs patrol the area and every bit of
track is intensely floodlit.”
But
obviously that ain’t enough – now that the tunnel is
appropriately guarded, the refugees try to get in stowing away on
boats and the like. It’s every night the same old game, and slowly
the guards seem to get kinda bored, but what are they supposed to do
else ?
Back
to the topic – why does everybody want to go to Great Britain ?
Why not stay in France you may ask. I bet you, the food is better in
France. But the refugees say that they either don’t speak the
language, and England would be better to work and to live. And after
all, the football would be better. Football. Yeah, that’s why
we’re here in the first place, right.
 England is a very good
country. It is somewhere to work.
- Better than France and
better than Afghanistan.
But
actually, not only that the refugees don’t want to stay in France,
people in France neither want them to stay. The folks in Sangatte
are getting upset (if not mad) at those wacky refugees who are
hanging around in the
bakery all day, and therefore allegedly are destroying business:
- People used to come to
the shop to buy good bread, but we have lost their custom.
We do not have room in
our shop [because] it is always full of refugees.
Yeah
sure. As if there were such business in a boring 1000-people village.
A hotel owner accuses Sangatte’s bad reputation to be responsible
for about 10% less rents.
It
occurs that Sangatte has become a notorious city (OK, town. village.
backwater.) overnight.
Notorious
for its refugees, who have meanwhile outrun the number of native
inhabitants.
Which
has even caused some of those morons to form a resident group that
wants the shelter, were the
refugees spent the day (before they try to get over again) closed.
[The
refugees] are quite detached from what is going on in the town. They
are not aggressive, but we are on our guard," said Madame
Toroval, who has formed a residents group that wants the shelter
closed.
Hell,
what do you want ?
They’re
on the run already.
by Keno
<c> all photos
and statistics: http://news.bbc.co.uk
 Asylum: Statistics and graphs:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1296000/1296529.stm
Destination UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/uk/2001/destination_uk/default.stm
Countries
of origin http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/uk/2001/destination_uk/default.stm
'England
is our goal' http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1524000/1524746.stm
The long
road to Essex: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1643000/1643430.stm
Sangatte's
angry locals: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1526000/1526592.stm
Statistics and
graphs: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1296000/1296529.stm
good link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1552000/1552715.stm
A world on the move: |Really
good BBC article|
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