Hello World,
Majority of the asylum seekers in the EU region are from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkiye and Iraq (besides others from the Middle-East) who are now being targeted by far right anti-immigration groups. These asylum seekers are being considered threats to the EU citizens and economy.
US & NATO-led Coalition Forces conducted multiple collaborative military operations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Turkiye became the first country to host refugees running away from civil conflict in the Middle East. To help Turkiye hold the refugees, Turkiye was promised a dedicated fund (that can support the burden of caring for the refugees as a result of the conflict that US/NATO-led forces participated in).
Subsequently, the conflicts grew in scale and many more refugees ran for their lives from the Middle-East. However, the EU began shifting towards broader migration-management instruments and refused to renew the funding program to support Turkey (refugee burden share). EU used the foreign policy divergence as a reason to stop aiding Turkiye in handling refugee burden. Turkish coastline/land routes are used by refugees and most of refugees from Turkiye (who have applied for asylum) are not Turkiye citizens.
One cannot miss the fact that the EU collectively (either as EU member states or as NATO members) funded and contributed to the collaborative military operations in the Middle East. The governments of EU member states and NATO members are democratically elected governments who made the decision to spend their citizens' tax money on military operations in the Middle-East. When a democratically elected government makes a decision, it is, in democratic sense, considered to reflect the will of the citizens who voted them in to power.
Countries that sent forces (as part of US-led coalition forces) to Syria: The UK, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway
Countries that sent forces (as part of NATO or US-led coalition forces) to Afghanistan: The UK, Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Romania, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belgium, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Croatia, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro
Countries that contributed to FRiT funding given to Turkiye: All 28 EU Member States (The fund came out of the EU Common Budget and member state contributions). Top contributors are Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Austria.
What EU is facing currently (since 2014) is a consequence of the electoral decisions made by the citizens of EU/NATO member states. They are paying for the mistakes their democratically chosen leaders did more than a decade ago. However, it has to be noted that EU/NATO members decided on the coercion of the US. In summary, Europe followed the suggestions of the US and is now paying for it while US is not extending any support.
Interestingly, EU/NATO member states contributed funds and forces for military operations in the Middle-East but are only contributing funds and equipment to Ukraine which is much closer and allied to EU (despite not being a member).
Europeans failed to think straight inside their voting booths and are now calling out Islam as the adversary. If Islam, as per populist claims in the EU, is the adversary and Christianity is the savior, EU must be fighting Russia along with Ukraine. However, Ukraine is on its own and all EU has done so far is to provide military equipment and funding.
If France is not French anymore, Germany is not German anymore and the Netherlands is not Dutch anymore (as per the far right claims), it is a result of what those countries did to the Middle-East. If US/NATO-led forces had not gone to the Middle-East, the refugee count would've been far less and EU will not be facing a migrant crisis.
What European Union is going through right now is a lesson for the entire world.
What goes around comes around.
#antimigrantprotestsinEU #IrelandisFull #IrelandFirst #migrantcrisis #Europe #Germany #france #Immigration #immigrationreforms
Best regards,
