Tuesday, September 29, 2015

After Decades of Discrimination, Farm Workers Get Pesticide Protections

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Monday, September 28, 2015

Common Dreams

After Decades of Discrimination, Farm Workers Get Pesticide Protections

Environmental Protection Agency creates new rules giving equal protection against pesticides to farm workers

Nadia Prupis, staff writer

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Workers harvest corn on a farm in Gilroy, California. (Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture/flickr/cc)

Farm workers will now have sweeping new protections from pesticides under new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules announced Monday—safeguards which labor leaders say eluded farm workers for decades due to racial discrimination.
The new rules, announced by EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, and United Farm Workers (UFW) president Arturo Rodriguez, include the following stipulations:

All pesticide applicators will be required to be at least 18 years old, rather than 16;
Whistleblower protections, including for undocumented workers, must be implemented so that farm laborers can safely file complaints over workplace abuse;
Workers or their representatives must be allowed easy access to records involving hazardous chemical exposure.

The full list of regulations can be found at the EPA website.
"Farm workers deserve to be healthy and safe while they earn a living," McCarthy said on a press call Monday. "We will not turn our backs on the people who help feed this nation."
As United Farm Workers (UFW) president Arturo Rodriguez explained, "Racism forced farm workers to be excluded from major federal labor laws since the 1930s, when some members of Congress made it very clear they didn't want black or brown farm workers to enjoy the same rights and protections as white workers. That discrimination continued when farm workers were exempted from pesticide protections first issued for all other U.S. workers in the 1970s by the Labor Department."
Monday's announcement goes a long way toward rectifying those disparities, UFW said. The union was involved in helping the EPA craft the protections, which McCarthy and Perez said was an example of the collaboration and outreach necessary to implement large-scale institutional reform.
"No one should ever have to risk their lives for their livelihoods, but far too many workers, especially those who work in agriculture, face conditions that challenge their health and safety every day," Perez said. "Workplace illness and injury contribute greatly to economic inequality, and can have a devastating impact on workers and their families. By promoting workplace safety, these provisions will enhance economic security for people struggling to make ends meet and keep more Americans on the job raising the crops that feed the world, and we are proud to support the EPA in this effort."
Perez also noted that accountability would be ensured through federal investigations and on-the-ground action to inform workers of their new rights.
Farm workers have long campaigned for the EPA to update its pesticide protections. Laborers and advocates often note the government's own statistics that between 10,000 and 20,000 farm workers experience pesticide poisoning every year; as late as 2011, an average 57.6 out of every 100,000 workers experienced "acute pesticide poisoning, illness or injury each year, the same order of magnitude as the annual incidence rate of breast cancer in the United States," according to Beyond Pesticides, an advocacy group.
"The same rules that have protected other American workers from dangerous cancer- and birth-defect causing pesticides are finally going to protect farm workers," Rodriguez said Monday. "It's been a long time coming, but it has come today."
"It's never too late to do the right thing," he said.
Last week, environmental legal nonprofit Earthjustice produced a video chronicling the history of farm workers' exposure to pesticides to illustrate the need for stronger protections. Watch below:

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Sunday, September 27, 2015

Mum's The Word In Washington Concerning Mexico's Terrorism

The Missing 43: Mexico Marks One Year Since Disappearance of Students

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Web Exclusive, Mexico, Anabel Hernández, Steve Fisher

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Sept. 26 marks the first anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in Mexico. The students were attacked by local police and subsequently went missing from Iguala in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. A report released earlier this month by independent experts with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found no evidence to support the government’s claim that the students were incinerated in a trash dump in a neighboring town. We speak to two journalists who have closely investigated the disappearances. Anabel Hernández is a Mexican investigative reporter. She was the lead author of the investigation, "Iguala: The Unofficial Story." She and Steve Fisher are fellows at the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Pope Francis’s historic visit to the United States drew tens of thousands of the faithful, who braved the crowds just to get a glimpse of the pontiff. But one delegation of women traveled nearly 2,000 miles, from Ayotzinapa, Mexico, to try to meet with the pope in Philadelphia, hoping to bring attention to the plight of their missing sons. Saturday, September 26th, marks the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa’s teachers’ college in Mexico. Parents of the missing students met with President Enrique Peña Nieto ahead of the anniversary of the students’ disappearance.
AMY GOODMAN: The students were attacked by local police and subsequently went missing from Iguala in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. The initial series of attacks killed six people, one of whom was found with the skin of his face peeled off. The disappearance of the students has sparked ongoing protests and demonstrations. The unrest only intensified last November after then-Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam announced that suspects in the case had admitted to killing the students and incinerating their bodies, and that the attack was ordered by the mayor of Iguala, who had turned the students over to a local drug gang. However, a report released earlier this month by independent experts with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights found no evidence to support the government’s claim that the students were incinerated in a trash dump in a neighboring town of Cocula. Francisco Cox, one of the five members of the group of experts commissioned by the IACHR, spoke to the unlikelihood that the 43 students could have been burned there.

FRANCISCO COX: [translated] The flame of seven meters would have had to tilt toward the dump, igniting all the plastic that still existed. It is a rather dry dump, and therefore there should have been a forest fire, a fire that would have burned this whole area. For all these reasons, the GI has formed the belief that the boys were not incinerated in the dump of Cocula.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Mexico has announced it will now seek a new investigation. Though the group of experts affirms the doubts the families of the missing students had of the Mexican authorities’ account that the students’ bodies were burned, it offers no answers as to what may have happened to the students. Family members are still left wondering what happened to their loved ones.

FAMILY MEMBER: [translated] People who have been brought in to make statements, supposedly, regarding the issue of the garbage, simply, the testimony is not consistent. Scientifically, it’s not viable that the, quote, "story" happened. But also, it’s a day of sadness, a day of sadness because we are on the verge of completing a year, and there’s nothing known about the whereabouts of the missing students.

AMY GOODMAN: For more on this first anniversary of the disappearance of the Ayotzinapa students, we’re joined by two journalists who helped break the story last year.

Anabel Hernández is a Mexican investigative reporter. She was awarded the 2012 Golden Pen of Freedom Award. Her latest book is called Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers. She was the lead author of the new investigation, "Iguala: The Unofficial Story," which was published in the Mexican magazine Proceso, currently a fellow at the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Steve Fisher is with us, fellow at the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, as well, with a focus on U.S.-Mexico relations, producer of the award-winning documentary, Silent River, in which a young Mexican woman defies death threats to defend her town against industrial pollution.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Anabel Hernández, it’s the first anniversary of the death of these 43 teachers’ college students from this teachers’ college called Ayotzinapa. Tell us what you believe happened to them. What is known at this point?

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: Well, that night, on September 26 of 2014, more than 100 of students were attacked that night in the middle of Iguala, downtown Iguala, not just by the municipal police. We have documents, testimonies, videos, audios, that shows, that proves that in that attack not just participate the local police. In that attack, also participate was involved the federal police and the army, the militaries of Mexico. Since the beginning, the Mexican government, the federal government, tried to cover that. Since the beginning, the Mexican government said, "We didn’t know anything about the attack. Of course we didn’t participate. This was just something that was done by the mayor, José Luis Abarca, and by the local police, not us." Now, one year later, all this independent commission from the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights proves also what we said since last December, where we published our first article about our investigation that guessed the federal police and the army participated. And the point is that until now these members of the government have been really not been investigated by the federal government.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And has the government now acknowledged the participation of federal—of federal troops and federal police? And if so, was this an order by a local commander, or did this come all the way from Mexico City?

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: Well, that is a good question, because the federal government knows that since the beginning. I mean, the federal government was monitoring to these students since four hours before the attack. And the federal government, not just local members of the federal government that was in Iguala at that night, also other high members, for example, exist in Mexico, many, many ranks in the militaries. And as you know, when one base in Iguala—when the base in Iguala start at 7:00 p.m. to produce—producing information, monitoring to the students, other ranks of the militaries also at the same time was noticed about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Steve Fisher, what are your thoughts on this new independent expert panel, the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights report on what happened to the students? And do you believe they were incinerated?

STEVE FISHER: First of all, having been working on this investigation with Anabel for 10 months, there was very little in the report that actually surprised us. It more corroborated the more than six articles that we had published from thousands and thousands of documents. We were looking at the same documents that the Inter-American Commission looked at. But yes, I think it just reiterates the fact that this was not, you know, a local mayor and his little gang of municipal police, and, you know, they did away with the students to a landfill. That was sort of like a way to tie it up in a neat little bow and say, you know, the responsibility is very local. And I think this, as we have been reporting, sort of highlighted the fact that this is very much a federal government issue. Were they burned in the landfill? It seems that there are so many studies that have been done now, including the Inter-American Commission study, that shows that it was almost entirely impossible that they would have been burned there that night.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how is it—is it possible to have any kind of independent commission really look into what happened in Ayotzinapa? Because obviously if the federal government was directly implicated in one way or another, it becomes even more difficult to get to the truth.

STEVE FISHER: I think the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, the group that was selected to do this investigation, I think that they’re very capable, they are very highly regarded, very professional in their work. And yes, I do believe it is—we are able to get to the truth of what happened that night. But I think, based on the thousands of documents that we’ve seen and seeing the investigation that the Mexican government has done, it’s hard to see how they will be able to actually carry out an investigation into their own federal forces and do so and find the truth.

AMY GOODMAN: Anabel Hernández, the Mexican government says they’ll reopen the investigation now that the Inter-American Commission has come up with their report. And Mexican President Peña Nieto has just met with a group of parents.

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: Yesterday.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes. What came out of that meeting? Do you have any faith in the Mexican government reopening an investigation? Could the mass protests around the killing of these 43 young men, these students who were training to be teachers, lead to the downfall of Peña Nieto?

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: Well, first, it’s important to say that, even that, the president said, "We will reopen the case." The problem is that many of the proofs were disappeared—videos, bullets, blood, T-shirts with blood, shoes, that were proofs about who did it and who disappeared and all these things. These are not there anymore. So, reopening the case will be—is not really the answer to find the truth, also because the government had been protecting to all the members of the government, of course. So, this announcement will not stop the protest in Mexico. I mean, the families, the relatives are very disappointed. They expect more, even more compassion, from the Mexican president. They said that Peña Nieto was very indifferent yesterday. He was very indifferent to their pain. So, I think that the protests will be huge in Mexico—and not just in Mexico. I know that there will be protests also in other parts of the world, as you know, have been happening in all these months since that happened. So I think that the federal government is getting inside one bigger problem, because the federal government apparently has in their hands one burned piece of one of the students. And the big question is—

AMY GOODMAN: You mean that they say—

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: Remains.

AMY GOODMAN: —they’ve got the DNA of the—of one of the students, incinerated remains.

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah. The point is, if the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights says that the Cocula was impossible, that that didn’t happen, the question—

AMY GOODMAN: The incineration of the students.

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: Why the government has that piece? Where did the government get it? I think that is one of the big questions for the next weeks and months.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And the impact of this tragedy and this cover-up on Mexican society? You were talking about all the big protests that have occurred. What has this done to general public opinion in Mexico over the past year?

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: You know, the problem is that, of course, Mexicans knows—really can feel that government is lying. Of course, many people feel very, very angry about this case, because this case is not just about the 43 students. As you well know, in Mexico, thousands of people disappear, are murdered, are killed on the streets. But this is a good example what is—what is happening in Mexico, how many young people—not just these students, other young people—is really suffering this impunity and abuse of power and don’t—and the no respect of the human rights. So, I think that the public opinion really, really understand what is happening and really is with the relatives of these students.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think it’s possible that the students are still alive? In April, two relatives of the missing students joined us in our studio here on Democracy Now! We asked Antonio Tizapa if he thought his son, Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño, was still alive.

ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Absolutely, 100 percent. Like the rest of the parents, we are sure that they are alive. Independently, that what others say, that is completely false. We know that they are alive. We know that they are holding them alive, because they are being detained. We don’t know the reason. We do not know the reason.

AMY GOODMAN: What has the Mexican government told the families? Why don’t you believe it?

ANTONIO TIZAPA: [translated] Because the government says that this is a case that is a closed case. However, there is no evidence. There is no evidence that show us, that prove what the government says happened to them. And while there is no proof, we maintain that they are alive 100 percent.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Antonio Tizapa talking about his son, Jorge Antonio. He believes that his son is alive. Is that possible, Anabel?

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: It’s a very hard question, you know, because—well, I’m an investigative journalist. I just can tell about the proofs that we have seen in these months. And sadly, the videos, the photographs, things, new proofs that we just get, shows that it’s difficult to think that they are still alive.

AMY GOODMAN: And the significance of the pope coming to the United States, families trying to meet with the pope in Philadelphia?

ANABEL HERNÁNDEZ: That is very moving, I have to say. That is very moving, because these people, these relatives, haven’t found justice in Mexico. The expect that maybe one word from the pope could change the heart—the heart—the heart of the Mexican government. And I don’t know if that will happen.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you both for being with us, Anabel Hernández and Steve Fisher, both investigative reporting fellows at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. They broke the story of the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in the southern state of Guerrero in Mexico. It’s the first anniversary of their disappearance. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Thanks for joining us.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Europe taking a page US handbook: 'Migrant" problem? Close the borders!

Europe taking a page from US handbook: 'Migrant' problem? Close the borders!

Harrison Koehli
Sott.net
Tue, 15 Sep 2015 09:37 UTC

© Ruptly
A razor-wire-equipped train wagon seals off the final section of Hungary's anti-refugee fence near Roszke village.

Just over a week ago, Hungary decided to allow around 12,000 refugees passage through the country, on their way to Germany via Austria. This was after plans were proposed to build a fence along Hungary's border with Serbia to prevent any more 'illegal crossings'. Well, the razor-wire fence has now been completed. The border is now closed, ahead of schedule, after Sunday saw a record 5,809 refugees enter the country on that day alone. Hungary's total number of refugee border crossings this year is estimated at around 190,000.

But Hungary isn't the only country to close its borders and tighten up security measures in the past few days. The Schengen system of open borders between EU nations seems to be falling apart.

Germany, which has willingly received the bulk of the refugees so far, stepped up their border controls this week, halting trains from Austria and stationing more police on their border with Austria. Slovakia (which has said it only wants Christian refugees - they have no mosques, apparently) has done the same on their borders with Hungary and Austria. Austria in turn sent the army to its borders. Hungary had done the same, with authorities planning to arrest and jail anyone entering the country illegally. Police in riot gear blocked the main railway track used by migrants. Hungarian police detained 9 Syrians and 7 Afghans, accused of 'breaching' the new razor-wire barrier. The government has made a decision to declare a crisis in the south of the country because of the 'problem'. Finland plans to increase its border monitoring; along with the Czech Republic and Poland, too.

Today, Tuesday, after the detentions in Hungary, migrants have begun a sit-down hunger strike.

On Monday, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council met to discuss 'temporary' border controls and a limit to the number of refugees the EU would accept. France and Germany coordinated the proposed solution, to be finalized on October 8: a set number of refugees (120,000) who would be distributed among all EU countries. The EU has also approved the use of military action against vessels out of Libya, in order to break up human smuggling networks operating from there.

At the same time, the French Interior Ministry suggested the following:

EU's Frontex agency, which is in charge of European border management, should be granted the right to send economic migrants back to their home countries, without providing them with asylum rights... Frontex officials should also be provided with arms to fulfill such duties, French minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on the sidelines of emergency meeting in Brussels, as cited by TASS.

Country-specific quotas have yet to be agreed upon.

In the 1800s one could travel from Paris to St. Petersburg without a single border check or visa. Things have changed since then of course, worldwide. But the EU has fairly strictly maintained its own internal policy of open borders between EU nations. Now that is changing. There are plausible reasons of course: language barriers, cultural differences, racism, divergent income systems that drive populations from poorer countries to wealthier ones. But there's more going on. Border control not only prevents 'undesirables' from getting in; they stop people from getting out. Nazi Germany did the same thing. The more paranoid and psychopathic the people calling the shots, the fewer freedoms enjoyed by the people.

In just two weeks, after the refugee crisis really started dominating the news, a clear pattern has emerged. First there is the 'problem': a humanitarian crisis that can provoke any number of 'reactions': e.g. tugging the heartstrings of ordinary citizens with a conscience (and who may not be politically aware enough to question what's really going on). Germany has been making use of the opportunity for some good PR by taking the lead in welcoming refugees and criticizing other EU states about their lackluster, and sometimes rather openly racist, response.

But now we're seeing a hint at some of the 'solutions' on the table: closed borders, detentions, a justification for a souped up war in Syria. We're only a step or two away from even more radical 'solutions': What to do with all these refugees in need of shelter? Well, ~~concentration~~ refugee camps, of course! In a strangely symbolic way, 21 refugees are already being housed in Buchenwald, an infamous Nazi concentration camp.

As I wrote last week, there's also the potential of more deliberately created 'problems' unfolding from the situation. Germany seems to be breaking the mold, and if recent reports can be trusted, may be moving away from the U.S. and aligning with Russia in its stance on Syria, even considering joining a Russian-proposed anti-ISIS coalition. You can almost hear the blood pressure spiking in the US State Dept. So it's a very simple matter to stage a minor false-flag in the country, ignite the media storm, and stoke the fires of public fear and indignation that will have the people clamoring for getting rid of the problem by whatever means necessary. It's all happened before, and it can all happen again.

The UK Sun tabloid carried this 'poll' where 52% (allegedly) voted to 'bomb Syria now'... for baby Aylan of course.

European Refugee Crisis - The Anatomy of a Cover-up

European Refugee Crisis - The Anatomy of a Coverup

10.Sep.2015 |

SCG

The real story behind the refugee/migrant crisis in Europe is much stranger than fiction.

If you watch the news, you've probably heard about the refugee crisis in Europe (or the "migrant crisis" as some are referring to it). Hundreds of thousands asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa are flooding across the borders. As of July, European countries had received over 437,000 Asylum applications for the year. In 2014 just over 840,000 applications were received.

So why is this happening? Where are migrants/refugees coming from? Why are there so many of them?
The corporate media and the political establishment on both the left and the right will answer those questions with a combination of half truths and outright lies. This shouldn't be surprising. It is in their interest to cover up the role they played in creating the crisis.
Let's take a look at the top 7 countries origin for these refugees, Syria, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Eritrea, Serbia, Pakistan, Iraq. (Hmmmm... is there a pattern in that list?)
A lot of attention is being put on Syria, because that's where the largest numbers are coming from. Hundreds of thousands are fleeing a conflict that has raged since 2011, and many are using this to push for an escalation of military force by the West. Because obviously if we bomb the heck out of the place, everything will go to normal.
Of course it sounds perfectly rational to take down ISIS, these guys are nasty, but upon closer inspection we find that the West is much more focused on removing President Assad from power. That might strike you as absurd, considering that the Syrian government is one of the last forces preventing ISIS from completely taking over the region. But it makes much more sense once you see how ISIS rose to power in the first place. Who funded them? Who armed them? Oh they don't like to talk about that do they?
Since at least 2011 the U.S. and its allies have been backing rebel groups in Syria, the goal of course being regime change. This escalated right after they had finished toppling Libya. There's a reason for that. The weapons from Gaddafi's armories were shipped through Turkey into Syria and distributed to combatants. Even at the time it was clear that the majority of these weapons were ending up in the hands of jihadists.
The official narrative was that these rebels were freedom fighters, and that this was an organic uprising, an extension of the Arab Spring. The media and the political establishment in the both United States and Europe stuck to this story until it became impossible to hide the atrocities being committed by these so called freedom fighters. A Department of Defense document from 2012 showed that the U.S. government was fully aware of the fact that these fighters were connected to AQI or Al-Qaeda in Iraq (ISIS before they rebranded). The document showed that the U.S. knew that the fighters they were supporting intended to form a caliphate.
Not only did they know what was happening, they viewed it as a good thing. In fact in 2012 the CFR released an article openly stating that "In short, the FSA needs al-Qaeda now."

Publicly Washington continued to claim that the West was only assisting the "moderate rebels", the FSA in particular. However the FSA was very open about the fact that they regularly conducted joint operations with Al-Nusra, and Al-Nusra had direct alliances with ISIS.

No matter how you cut it the U.S. and its allies brought ISIS to power, and in doing so they created a flood of refugees.
And let's not forget how this all started. Who toppled Iraq and Afghanistan creating a power vacuum, unleashing decades of chaos and destruction, and creating breeding grounds for extremists? It's no accident that these are among the top countries of origin for refugees.
While it might be convenient for Europeans to pin the blame entirely on the U.S., the reality of the matter is that European leaders have not only enabled Washington by refusing to call them out, but they also have played an active and direct role in the aggression. The blood is on their hands too, so it's not in their interest to tell you the truth.
These factual omissions play right into the hands of a right wing backlash which frames this debate as simply an immigration issue, and plays off of the public's distrust of Muslims. Those who actually created the mess are perfectly happy to let the victims become scapegoats.
This is a classic case of Problem, Reaction, Solution. You're being tricked. You're being herded towards more war, more chaos, more suffering. Which ironically will just create more refugees.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Mexico - and Central America - stop playing the hide and seek game too

In Escape from Brutality, Refugees March on Foot Towards Austria

March for freedom comes after Hungarian authorities spent days preventing thousands of refugees, many fleeing war in Syria, from boarding trains to Germany

Common Dreams staff

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Hundreds of refugees frustrated at being stuck at two train stations in Hungary set off on foot for Austria on Friday. (Photo: Frank Augstein/Associated Press)

No longer willing to wait for passage by train or official approval in Hungary, thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa—but mostly those fleeing war in Syria—undertook a dramatic 150-mile march from Budapest towards the Austrian border on Friday as they sought safety and relief from a treacherous journey that has now captured the attention of the world.
As the Associated Press reports:

The moves for freedom came after Hungarian authorities spent days preventing thousands of refugees, many fleeing war in Syria, from boarding trains to Germany amid a surging number of desperate people from Asia, Africa and the Middle East seeking refuge in Europe.
Most hope to eventually reach Germany or elsewhere in the West and are trying to avoid registering in Hungary, which is economically depressed and more likely to return them to their home countries than many Western European nations. Under European law, asylum seekers will be approved or disapproved in the countries where they are first registered.

Migrants walk on the railway tracks between Bicske and Szar, some 40 km west of Budapest, Hungary, 04 September 2015. (Photo: EPA)
According to the UK Independent:

Frustrated by the lack of action, [the people] set off for Austria on foot, aiming to reach Germany. Amira’s time in Hungary has shaken her belief in Europeans. "We don’t trust them: they will take us to the camps and beat us," she says. "I hope that when the train comes it will take us away from here; that is all that I want."
Amira crossed four borders to get to Budapest during a harrowing journey that is becoming a rite of passage for thousands seeking a better life in Europe.
Some 200,000 people have crossed the sea between Turkey and Greece, paying hundreds of pounds to smugglers for a space on overcrowded dinghies. “It’s the worst thing I have ever done in my life,” says Mountaha, 23, who fled from Idlib in Syria. She and her husband, Anas, 24, a computer engineer, initially fled to Turkey. But after six months there they decided they wanted a better future for their son Mohamed, who is two months old.

Most refugees have come to Hungary through the southern border with Serbia. (Photo: AP)
The World Post adds:

Photographs of the march show children in strollers, elderly people in wheelchairs and people on crutches making the journey. The crowd broke through barricades that Hungarian authorities had set up outside Budapest, and chanted, "Germany, Germany," Reuters reports.
Also on Friday, Hungary closed one of its southern border crossings with neighboring Serbia after hundreds of people escaped from a nearby refugee camp. In the western Hungarian town of Bicske, hundreds of migrants refused to disembark from a train and transfer to a refugee camp. A Pakistani man reportedly died after falling on train tracks while escaping the Bicske train station.

In a surprise late announcement, according to AP, the Hungarian government announced it would offer buses to transport hundreds of migrants remaining in Budapest to the border with Austria.
In the United States, where criticism has focused on the inadequate response of the world's most "exceptional" nation, Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley on Friday made a gesture of goodwill by declaring his support for a massive increase of refugees from Syria.
"I support the call from humanitarian and refugee organizations for the United States to accept at least 65,000 Syrian refugees next year," he said in a statement Friday. "If Germany —a country with one-fourth our population—can accept 800,000 refugees this year, certainly we—the nation of immigrants and refugees—can do more."
Having covered the developments of the refugee crisis in Europe throughout the day, the Guardian offered this latest rundown of developments as part of its comprehensive coverage:

David Cameron has bowed to overwhelming domestic and international pressure and announced that Britain will accept thousands more Syrian refugees.The prime minister said his government would “act with our head and our heart” in response to the crisis and refugees’ suffering. This afternoon, he also pledged an extra £100m in humanitarian aid, which would bring the UK’s total contribution to over £1 billion.
The UN said that Britain had agreed to take 4,000 more Syrian refugees. “Those spaces are going to be critical to the lives and future of 4,000 people,” spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told AP. It later said it may have spoken out of turn and that it had not received confirmation of the number of additional refugees to be taken by the UK.
The humanitarian agency ActionAid said Cameron’s pledge to resettle thousands more Syrians falls well short of what’s need. Its head of humanitarian Response Mike Noyes said: “The promise that the UK will only take 4000 refugees, if correct, is nowhere near enough. It is the equivalent of only six refugees per parliamentary constituency and represents only 0.1% of the total number of Syrian refugees.”
Scotland’s first minister Nichola Sturgeon said Scotland should accept 1,000 refugee as a “first step”. She said: “When the world is looking for leadership, courage and a simple display of common humanity, we will be found standing eagerly at the front of the queue.”
The UN high commissioner for refugees has called on the European Union to admit up to 200,000 refugees as part of a mass relocation programme that would be binding on EU states. António Guterres said the EU was facing a defining moment.
The Syrian boy whose death galvanised public opinion and put pressure on European governments to tackle the continent’s refugee crisis has been buried in the town of Kobani alongside his mother and brother. Aylan Kurdi’s father, Abdullah, who survived the capsizing that killed his family, wept as the bodies were buried in the predominantly Kurdish Syrian border town.
People stranded in Budapest started a protest march to Austria after days of being refused train travel out of Hungary.Hundreds of people were filmed joining the march.
Hundreds of people living in the Jungle camp in Calais have gone on hunger strike. A group of more than 100 Eritreans, Syrians and Sudanese people marched from the camp towards Calais town centre this morning carrying banners and chanting “freedom, freedom.”
The EU’s migration chief Dimitris Avramopoulos was the butt of angry protests as he made his way to the island’s seafront town hall this morning for talks with mayor Giorgos Kyritsis. Locals, enraged by what they have described as uncontrollable waves of “illegal immigrants” landing on their shores, screamed “traitors, get out of here” .
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, remains defiant on his country’s hardline anti-immigrant stance, with a waring that Europeans risk becoming a minority on their own continent. Hungary shut its main border crossing with Serbia after about 300 migrants escaped from a nearby refugee camp.
The Hungarian parliament has also introduced emergency anti-migration laws in response to the record number of refugees and migrants crossing the country’s border. These include three-year jail terms for people climbing over the newly built razor wire fence on the border with Serbia, as well as new border “transit zones” to hold asylum seekers while their applications are being processed.
The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have rejected any quota system for accepting migrants. The four EU leaders said the bloc’s approach should include “preserving the voluntary nature of EU solidarity measures.”
Migrants and refugees have clashed with the security forces during angry protest on the Greek island of Lesbos. Greece’s Coast Guard and police used of stun grenades to deal with the uprising. Around 1,000 Afghans tried to occupy Blue Star 1 ferry shouting “Athens- Athens”. An occupation was avoided when the ferry’s gates closed.
According to Amnesty International, refugees on the Greek island of Kos were attacked in the early hours of Friday by “thugs” with bats, telling them to “go back to their countries”. And at Budapest’s Keleti station this afternoon, Hungarian right-wing extremists threw fire crackers into a makeshift refugee camp.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

US Mexican Border Is A Microcosm of Global Crisis

Refugee crisis builds pressure on U.S.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/04/politics/barack-obama-migrant-crisis-us-response/index.html

By Stephen Collinson, CNN

Story highlights

U.S. will likely face pressure to become more involved in the migrant crisis
State Department spokesman says he expects U.S. to take in more migrants

Washington (CNN)It took a tragic photo of a drowned toddler on a Turkish beach to make the refugee torrent pouring into Europe a problem for America too.

Until now, the agony of the four million refugees who have fled Syria's civil war has been background noise in Washington -- even amid tales of some drowning on ill-fated voyages to safety across the Mediterranean have emerged.

But the heartbreaking photo of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who died along with his young brother and mother in an attempt to reach Greece, was splashed across U.S. front pages this week and sent the refugee exodus up the political agenda.

It also focused attention on the fact that the United States has so far only accepted 1,500 refugees from Syria. The process is complicated by a long security vetting procedure meant to ensure that only desperate refugees -- and not extremists from groups like ISIS -- reach American soil. The process is so onerous that it typically takes 18 months before a refugee designated for resettlement in the United States actually sets foot in the country.

Like all apparently insoluble challenges, what is being called Europe's worst humanitarian disaster since World War II is certain to end up on President Barack Obama's desk, amid calls for Washington to do more to resettle desperate refugees. State Department spokesman John Kirby told CNN on Friday that the United States expected that figure of 1,500 accepted refugees to double before the end of the year.

"I expect to see the U.S. will take in even more going forward," Kirby said.

READ: Drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi laid to rest in Syrian city he fled

But aid agencies and others say that is not enough -- especially since the Syrian exodus is being exacerbated by refugee flows from other conflicts and shattered states, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Somalia. Oxfam America is calling on the U.S to accept 70,000 Syrian refugees for resettlement and for the U.S. government and others to do more to resolve the underlying cause of the crisis: Syria's relentless civil war.

'Tragic'

"It's tragic we had to see the images of that young boy in order for people to see the urgency of this and start to move on an issue that is not going away," said Shannon Scribner, Oxfam America's Humanitarian Policy Manager.

Another group, the International Rescue Committee, wants Washington to resettle 65,000 Syrian refugees before the end of next year, warning that the countries around Syria are being overwhelmed by the size of the humanitarian crisis.

"The U.S. has historically been the world leader in recognizing the moral obligation to resettle refugees," said IRC president and CEO David Milliband in a statement this week.

"But in the four years of the Syria crisis, there has been inertia rather than leadership," he said. "As the German government calmly says that it expects 800,000 refugees and asylum seekers in 2015, it is vital for the U.S. to step up its response."

Ultimately, however, the refugee crisis will only be solved with the resolution of the underlying cause -- the dismembering of Syria by a vicious civil war between President Bashar al-Assad and rebel groups.

"It is time for people to start talking about solutions to end the conflict. It will continue to grow in terms of human suffering until world leaders come together," said Scribner.

But there is little hope for peace soon. Previous U.S. efforts to end the conflict failed partly because of the desire of states like Russia and Iran to retain Assad as a geopolitical ally in the divided Middle East.

READ: European migrant crisis: A country-by-country glance

Obama said in 2011 that the time had come for Assad to leave, but he remains president, at least of the rump of territory still controlled by his Allawite minority sect.

Republican presidential hopefuls are blaming Obama for pulling back at the last minute in 2013 from a threat to attack Syrian government targets after its forces crossed his "red line" by using chemical weapons. They argue that he is overcompensating for the costly U.S. interventions in Iraq as part of a loose doctrine of avoiding more Middle East wars and say his neglect has allowed the Syria nightmare to get worse.

2016

GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who has been running a campaign anchored on expelling illegal immigrants, said on MSNBC the situation was "so horrible" that Washington should probably accept more refugees.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Obama "has allowed these folks to be slaughtered."

"I frankly can't imagine as president of the United States how you could permit this to happen on this scale, and now we're seeing those results," he said this week at a campaign stop in New Hampshire. "And it's much different when you read about it. And when you see it, it becomes even more powerful."

It was that kind of attack that might have prompted Hillary Clinton to sense a potential general election vulnerability, given her role as Obama's former secretary of state. She pointed out Friday that she, along with other senior members of the Obama administration, had wanted to be more aggressive in identifying and training Syrian rebels when the conflict first broke out to fight Assad.

"I advocated for a more robust policy," Clinton said in an interview with MSNBC, and called on the "entire world" to come together to solve the crisis.

One of Clinton's Democratic rivals, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who has been struggling to make an impact in the race, tried to outflank the former secretary of state on the refugee crisis on Friday, backing the IRC call for the U.S. to accept 65,000 refugees.

"Americans are a generous and compassionate people. But today our policies are falling short of those values. We must do more to support Syrian refugees -- and we must certainly welcome more than the proposed 5,000 to 8,000 refugees next year," he said.