EU Immigration Crisis Megathread

[mongers]

About 30 people showed up, there are both more police and more "anti-fascists" and the latter two are now fighting.

So why don't the leftist hold pro-immigration rallies,then the fascists will turn up and fight the police instead. 


Better still, the police could hold a 'We're bored with this' demo and then the leftists and fascists would turn up and fight each other instead.   

[Solmyr]

"But you can go out to the disco with a woman here," adds Johanna brightly. "Although remember, even if she dances with you very closely and is wearing a short skirt, that doesn't mean she wants to have sex with you."

The end of the article is not very hopeful, is it?

Considering even native Finnish men still have trouble understanding this, I think everyone is mostly on the same line.

[Solmyr]

Some neo-nazis under the name of "Soldiers of Odin" organized street patrols in some towns to "keep the peace" (in reality to keep immigrants intimidated). So of course, some people organized a movement called Loldiers of Odin, whose members dressed as clowns walk behind these street patrols singing and dancing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03g49x9

And the high priest of Odin in Iceland also told these neo-nazis off and said they have no idea what Odin is about.

[Solmyr]

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.3411988/troupe-of-clowns-mock-anti-immigration-group-patrolling-finnish-streets-1.3411990

[Duque de Bragança]

More fun and games in Calais with leftists of the No Borders variety being what they're best at, useful idiots, stirring up more trouble as if it were needed. Their view of de Gaulle, among other things, is counter-factual at best. Not to mention their spelling "Nik la France" i.e "Fuk France" (sic). The Mail says they are British-led but they come also from France (not Calais), Germany and the Netherlands.
A video of the tense situation with "migrants" and leftists invading some local property is getting lots of play (first seen on RTL.FR mainstream radio)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc1G_pa1-c8

Corbyn visited Calais earlier in the day. 
Not mentioned in the article is a really peaceful counter-demonstration organised by Calais locals, shopkeepers mostly, complaining about lost business.

British anarchists led violence in Calais and defaced statue of de Gaulle in invasion of ferry port by 500 migrants
Port of Calais in France closed after migrants storm the harbour and make it on to The Spirit of Britain ferry
Around 500 migrants broke through police lines with 50 thought to have boarded P&O vessel
British anarchists from 'No Borders' were among the 35 people arrested after leading the 'scandalous' invasion
Others defaced a statue of France's wartime leader and former president Charles de Gaulle
Road Haulage Association called for the French military to be deployed

By PETER ALLEN IN PARIS and JOSEPH CURTIS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 17:58 GMT, 23 January 2016 | UPDATED: 20:14 GMT, 24 January 2016

British anarchists were among some 35 people under arrest in Calais on Sunday after leading a 'scandalous' invasion of the ferry port by some 500 migrants.

Not only did the thugs tear down security fences and threaten violence, but they also defaced a statue of France's wartime leader and former president Charles de Gaulle.

Masked agitators from the left-wing group No Borders were filmed during the trouble on Saturday afternoon as they tried to get people to the UK.

The Port of Calais has been closed after more than 100 migrants stormed the harbour, pictured, in a bid to get to Britain

It followed a 2,000-strong protest against the living conditions in migrant camps at the French city that turned into an escape attempt

Xavier Bertrand, the president of the French region which covers Calais, said: 'The attitude of No Borders in Calais is scandalous – there must be a punishment,' said

'I demand that the government urgently holds a crisis meeting,' Mr Bertrand added on Twitter.

It later emerged that eight of those arrested in Calais for the storming of the ferry were to face immediate trial.

Six migrants and two activists from No Borders face a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a fine equivalent to £2,800 if convicted.

The eight were among the larger group who stormed on board the P&O ferry, the Spirit of Britain, on Saturday.

Nine of those arrested were members of No Borders, the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said in a statement.

Gilles Debove, of the Calais police union, said: 'I cannot understand why British citizens come to Calais to incite migrants to break the law and defy the French authorities'.

Images posted on social media show masked thugs with political flags leading a rally attended by around 2,000 people in support of free immigration to Britain.

Many of those attending were residents of the so-called 'Jungle', the vast refugee camp containing around 5000 people all desperate to start a new life in the UK.

At one point some of the demonstrators break off to paint slogans and stickers on a famous statue of De Gaulle and his wife, Yvonne.

The couple were married in Calais in 1921, two decades before General de Gaulle led the struggle against Nazism from Britain.

As president, De Gaulle also stood up to his own army officers and risked a coup d'etat to hand back the colony of Algeria to its own people.

Yet 'Calais Solidarity', another anarchist group involved in Saturday's trouble, posted a picture of the vandalized statue, saying De Gaulle was a 'reactionary mass murderer, coloniser and chief torturer of Algerians.'

Hundreds then broke through the perimeter of the Calais ferry port, storming up the gangplanks of the P&O ferry Spirit of Britain.

Police today confirmed they had arrested 24 migrants, and a further 11 people believed to be from No Borders, some of them British.

'Identification is difficult because few carry passports or other identification cards,' said a Calais police source. 'All want to keep their identities a secret.'

All face a range of charges, ranging from public disorder to trespass, said the source.

Water canons, pictured, have been used on board the ship in an effort to get the migrants to disembark

Richard Burnett (centre), CEO of the Road Haulage Association, called for the French military to be deployed at Calais port

The Port of Calais was forced to close on Saturday evening after a storm of migrants broke into the harbour.

Around 500 migrants stormed the site and around 50 made it on to the Spirit of Britain ferry, where they remained for several hours until they were removed by police, with the port now reopened.

The incident triggered fresh calls for the French military to be deployed at the port by the Road Haulage Association.

Its chief executive Richard Burnett said the incident was just the latest in a string of instances.

'This shocking breach of security clearly shows that the migrant mayhem in and around Calais is not being tackled,' he said.

'This latest episode has made the headlines, but the many incidents of attacks and intimidation faced by our British drivers on a daily basis are going unreported as, depressingly, they are now being regarded as routine.

'It is now time for the authorities to acknowledge and meet our demand for the French military be deployed to secure the port and its approaches.

'I am now publicly calling on government to join my call for this decisive action.'

Mr Burnett said immediate action was necessary, warning that it is 'only a matter of time before our worst fears become a reality and a UK-bound truck driver is killed'.

The incident came after a protest organised by French leftists to support migrants living in squalid conditions in the northern city of Calais drew around 2,000 people, according to organisers.

It followed a visit by British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the region, which is temporary home to about 4,000 migrants camped out in hopes of finding a better life in Britain, across the Channel.

French officials said a group of 500 people forced their way through police lines and headed to the port, and 150 people were able to get into the fenced-off area.

The Mayor of Calais Natacha Bouchart closed the port and said around 50 migrants made their way on to the P&O-operated vessel.

Police were at the scene and water canons were used on board the ship to try to get the group to leave. Officers removed all of the migrants shortly before 9pm and the port was reopened.

P&O said the ship had just crossed from Dover, on the English side of the Channel, and 'a few trucks' were still onboard but there were no passengers when the boarding occurred.

Footage has been uploaded to the internet of around 150 migrants breaking through the fence at the port, pictured

The person videoing the break-in then moves around a building to film more people running towards the fence with cheering heard

'The proximity of the camp and the unprecedented number of migrants make it impossible to secure the (port) infrastructure, however much the state invests,' port director Jean-Marc Puissesseau said.

Long lines of cars and lorries are now building up outside the port and the incident has led to fears of travel chaos ahead of planned closures to the Eurotunnel from 9pm tonight.

The tunnel is shutting so an overnight safety exercise can take place and all services will be suspended, with the last UK departure at 9.20pm and the first departure leaving the UK at be 6.20am tomorrow and from France at 7.20am. 


At the time of the disruption, P&O Ferries Updates tweeted: 'The Port of Calais is resolving a security incident. As a result our vessels are subject to delay of between 90 and 120 minutes.'

The travel giant then tweeted at around 8pm that the situation was still ongoing but vessels were being allowed to dock at the port again and loading would commence shortly.

In a video filmed by a bystander, crowds can be heard cheering as migrants try to force their way through the fence.

According to Reuters, port staff said some of the migrants have left the Spirit of Britain voluntarily and the rest will be removed by police if necessary.

Migrants are filmed breaking into the port, pictured, by a bystander and then making their way towards the ferry

Crowds can be heard cheering as the migrants bash their way against the fence, pictured, before forcing it open

Hundreds of migrants run towards Calais port during protest

Danish firm DFDS Seaways called the incident a 'migrant invasion', adding the port would be reopened once police had cleared them out. 

Witness Ben Ferguson said: 'Demonstrators broke police lines & headed to the port. In spite of clouds of teargas a group prised open fence b4 (sic) crowd followed.'

A statement from the Port of Dover said the French port was experiencing 'migrant activity' which had caused disruption to services.

It read: 'The Port of Calais is currently experiencing migrant activity which has caused disruption to ferry services. Therefore services to and from Calais via the Port of Dover are affected, but DFDS Seaways services are still running to Dunkirk as normal.

'The Port of Dover remains open for business, but the duration of this disruption to services remains unknown.'

P&O has confirmed it is running at a delay of between 90 minutes and two hours after migrants boarded the Spirit of Britain

Migrants, pictured running towards the port, are reported to have had tear gas fired at them by French police officers

A group is believed to have ripped open a fence in order to get access to the harbour in Calais, pictured

The incident comes hours after UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited the region and said more had to be done to help migrants deal with 'disgraceful conditions'

Some people from Britain were present at the demonstration while others carried banners saying 'refugees welcome here'.

But France is under pressure from Britain to secure the region and the French premier said this week that Europe cannot welcome everyone.

Mr Corbyn's visit comes amid a growing urgency over the migrant crisis, with French prime minister Manuel Valls warning the huge influx is putting the European Union's future in 'grave danger'.

During his visit, Mr Corbyn was given a tour of the site meeting refugees and aid workers before speaking of the 'dreadful situation' faced by people camped in the swamp-like conditions.

He said: 'What I'm trying to achieve here is to understand the nature of the refugee crisis that's facing the whole of Europe.

It is understood the group that invaded the port is larger than 100 people, disrupting services at the harbour

It is unknown exactly how many migrants were able to make their way onto the Spirit of Britain, pictured, but more than 50 are believed to be aboard, according to the Mayor of Calais

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (centre) inspects clothes on a visit to the Auberge Des Migrants Help Refugees warehouse near Calais

'Also, there are the human needs of people. We have got people here who have been here for months, if not longer than that, with no proper education, no access to doctors, no access to dentists, limited access to food - in very cold, very wet conditions.

'These conditions are a disgrace anywhere. We as human beings have to reach out to fellow human beings.'

Mr Corbyn said Britain should be part of a pan-European effort to help the people affected by the crisis.

[Valmy]

Their view of de Gaulle, among other things, is counter-factual at best.

It is not the first time I have heard english speakers talk as if de Gaulle was responsible for the war in Algeria rather than the ender of it. Very weird since his work to end the French Empire, for the most part, was the main thing he did outside of the WWII stuff.

[Eddie Teach]

He's a monster for bringing baseball to California.

[citizen k]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/25/the-long-history-of-muslims-and-christians-killing-people-together/?ref=yfp

The long history of Muslims and Christians killing people together
By Ishaan Tharoor January 25 at 11:00 AM


In 1683, a vast Ottoman army camped outside the gates of Vienna. For centuries thereafter, the siege and final decisive battle that took place would be cast as a defining moment in a clash of civilizations -- that time the forces of Islam were halted at the ramparts of Christendom.

Yet look just a little bit harder, and that tidy narrative falls apart. The Ottoman assault had been coordinated in league with French King Louis XIV. And perhaps more than half of the soldiers seeking to capture the Austrian capital were Christians themselves. There were Greeks, Armenians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs, all fighting alongside Arabs, Turks, Kurds and others in the Ottoman ranks.

One of the main figures leading the Turkish charge was Imre Thokoly, who was a Protestant born in what's now Slovakia and an avowed Hungarian nationalist. Tens of thousands of Hungarian peasants who were angry at the rapacious behavior of the Catholic Church, and the imperial Habsburg dynasty in Vienna had rallied to Thokoly's banner.

It reflected, writes British academic Ian Almond in his 2009 book "Two Faiths, One Banner: When Muslims Marched With Christians Across Europe's Battlegrounds," how "little use terms such as 'Muslim' and 'Christian' are to describe the almost hopelessly complex web of shifting power-relations, feudal alliances, ethnic sympathies and historical grudges" that shaped much of European history.

That sense of nuance fades over centuries, and certainly wasn't apparent last year when another Hungarian nationalist -- the country's current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán -- cited the legacy of the Ottoman conquest to justify keeping Syrian refugees from passing through Hungary's borders.

"I have to say that when it comes to living together with Muslim communities, we are the only ones who have experience because we had the possibility to go through that experience for 150 years," Orbán told reporters last year, apparently referring to the period of dynastic warfare and mayhem that was sparked by the initial Ottoman invasion in the 16th century.

Orban has hardly been alone with this sort of grand, historical rhetoric. A host of Eastern European leaders, representing various right-of-center, nationalist governments, echoed Orbán's line, painting the migrant influx as an existential threat, an "invasion" of people whose cultural identity is wholly alien to Europe. A coalition of far-right activist groups in the region last week warned of "Islam conquering Europe" and announced plans for joint protests.

Further west, from France to the United States, conservative politicians -- including Republican presidential candidates -- also have gestured at a clash of civilizations when proposing bans on refugees or even halting Muslim migration altogether.

[More European nations are barring their doors to migrants]

"Today, words such as 'Islam' and 'Europe' appear to have all the consistency of oil and water," Almond writes. But, he goes on, "the fact remains that in the history of Europe, for hundreds of years, Muslims and Christians shared common cultures, spoke common languages, and did not necessarily see one another as 'strange' or 'other.'"

The starkest proof of that lies in the battlefield, where Muslims and Christians died next to one another over many centuries.

It wasn't just the Ottomans who had multi-confessional armies. Muslims and Christians fought on all sides of the struggles in medieval Spain, where the last Muslim kingdom was snuffed out only in 1492. The Grand Catalan Company, an infamous mercenary outfit, ended up employing thousands of Turks even after it had been paid to fight them.

Frederick II, a 13th-century king who became the Holy Roman Emperor, deployed thousands of Arab Muslim archers and warriors during his wars with rival factions in Italy, including the armies of the pope. Chroniclers at the time documented the presence in the emperor's ranks of elephants bearing wooden towers bristling with Saracen, or Muslim, soldiers.

The Crimean War of the mid-19th century, a conflict a bit closer to our modern moment, saw a similar mishmash of identities and loyalties. Algerian soldiers were conscripted into the French army; Tatar Muslims were in the Russian ranks; all sorts of Christians -- including Cossacks, Romanian militias and Greek doctors -- were in the service of the Ottomans.

The point is not to romanticize this past -- which, in any event, was rather bloody and brutal. But it's worth bearing in mind these historical footnotes when thinking about the ideological divides and political rhetoric of the present.

"Strategically choosing when to talk about religious differences and when to keep quiet is the oldest trick in history," Almond writes. It's a pretty useful tactic in politics, too.

The comments section from the link is pretty good.

So Ishaan Tharoor  had to go to 17th century  to find an example of Christians cooperating with Muslims to kill people.  Truly grasping at straws, terrorist apologist.

[Valmy]

Yet look just a little bit harder, and that tidy narrative falls apart. The Ottoman assault had been coordinated in league with French King Louis XIV. And perhaps more than half of the soldiers seeking to capture the Austrian capital were Christians themselves. There were Greeks, Armenians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs, all fighting alongside Arabs, Turks, Kurds and others in the Ottoman ranks.

Wait so the Ottoman's used troops from their own territory in their armies?

Anyway did you know that the Poles also used troops from their own territory in their army in this battle? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipka_Tatars

I am not sure that nations using their vassals in a battle means that narrative falls apart, people in the 17th century understood it. When Sobieski wrote his letter to the Pope he did caution him that this was not a victory for Christendom because the Ottoman's had Christian vassals and allies, right? And I am sure the Grand Mufti would have been all 'this is not a victory for Islam but of Christian-Muslim cooperation! All gratitude to our French allies and our glorious vassals!'.

But it's worth bearing in mind these historical footnotes when thinking about the ideological divides and political rhetoric of the present.

Except you do not need to go to history for this stuff.

Muslims have fought for the Western Powers in every single war since Imperialism became a thing and they still do to day. Even though this is an obvious and much discussed fact political rhetoric has no problem dealing with that, so probably what happened in 1683 is not going to shake anybody.

[garbon]

Yet look just a little bit harder, and that tidy narrative falls apart. The Ottoman assault had been coordinated in league with French King Louis XIV. And perhaps more than half of the soldiers seeking to capture the Austrian capital were Christians themselves. There were Greeks, Armenians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbs, all fighting alongside Arabs, Turks, Kurds and others in the Ottoman ranks.

Wait so the Ottoman's used troops from their own territory in their armies?

Anyway did you know that the Poles also used troops from their own territory in their army in this battle? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipka_Tatars

I am not sure that nations using their vassals in a battle means that narrative falls apart, people in the 17th century understood it. When Sobieski wrote his letter to the Pope he did caution him that this was not a victory for Christendom because the Ottoman's had Christian vassals and allies, right?

Anyway so big whoop. Muslims have fought for the Western Powers in every single war since Imperialism became a thing.

I think the 'article' ends on what it hopes people will take away from it.

[garbon]

Muslims have fought for the Western Powers in every single war since Imperialism became a thing and they still do to day.

Every single war? With a sufficient number of Muslim fighters for that to be notable?

[Valmy]

Every single war? With a sufficient number of Muslim fighters for that to be notable?

Some more than others.

[Admiral Yi]

Very odd article making a very odd point.

[garbon]

Very odd article making a very odd point.

I must say I'm not sure why it got posted here.

[Eddie Teach]

Very odd article making a very odd point.

I must say I'm not sure why it got posted here.

Cause we're a bunch of history nerds and most of us have played the EU series at some point. LOL Can I be Ottoman Empire?