Migrating Illegals

The RCMP has alerted Asian countries of passage to be alert to human smuggling of Sri Lankans into Canada.  Canada prefers to encourage people, from wherever they emanate, to use legal means of entry to the country by applying as emigrants from their country of origin.  Or by Canada accepting legitimate refugees, which Sri Lankans are no longer considered to represent, Tamils no longer being persecuted as they were when the Tamil Tigers were challenging the government of Sri Lanka.

The United States has an ongoing social and political debate about the huge numbers of illegal migrants entering the country from Mexico, many of whom have lived there, illegally and without working papers for decades.  Raising families, living in fear of detection, and being the recipient of ill will from Americans in general.  Germany had problems with the Turkish workers they brought in as temporary help, when they balked at returning to Turkey.

Australia has 'solved' its illegal refugee and human smuggling problem by isolating them when caught, and keeping them in prison-like areas where they can be controlled until they can be sent back to wherever they came from.  France and England continue to bicker over problems they share of illegal migrants.  And in Eastern Europe in particular, though not primarily, Roma are discriminated against, and hope to emigrate and Canada is disinterested in accepting them.

Africans are swarming desperately out of their countries in conflict, flooding into neighbouring states, hoping for refuge from drought and starvation conditions, from the depredations of violent Islamists and alternately tribal and national animosities.  The world is on the move, with refugee camps springing up everywhere, from the Middle East to Africa and beyond.  South Africans began assaulting Zimbabwean refugees whom they accused of taking their jobs when the country was flooded with them.

And Israel, that small nation of seven and a half million people that considers itself a haven for Jews worldwide, is experiencing problems with African infiltrators seeking to improve their lives and their futures.  Black populations are not unknown in Israel, since for decades black Ethiopian Jews have been brought into Israel to share citizenship with other Jews from Europe, the Middle East and North America.

But the influx of 60,000 Africans over the past six years fleeing conflict and deprivation in Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea has created a situation of polarization and misery.  Street violence is occurring against African migrants who have flooded into Tel Aviv in such numbers that in some areas they appear more numerous than do Jews themselves.

They transit Egypt's porous borders to arrive in Israel, where they hope to be able to declare themselves refugees, be accepted, and become a part of the civil landscape.  Israel is less than happy at this for the obvious reason that it has no wish to diminish the majority-status of Jews by welcoming others to become citizens of the country; there are already one and a half million Muslims and Christians, Druze and Kurds in Israel.

"Deport the Sudanese", shouted mobs of people waving Israeli flags, in low-income neighbourhoods that have become overrun with anxious Africans.  Twenty people were arrested for assault and vandalism.  Window storefronts were smashed, and a crowd of protesters attacked a vehicle driven by an African, breaking the car's windows.

Many of the Africans are accused of criminal acts in Tel Aviv.  A young girl was recently raped while walking on the street, with three Sudanese migrants arrested for the crime.  They are in Tel Aviv because they have fled situations of poverty, authoritarian rule and militancy.  According to the mayor of Tel Aviv, 15% of city residents are "illegal foreign workers", with that number steadily growing.

Statistics released by the Ministry of the Interior indicate that 82% of the African migrants are men.  Some of them come to Israel looking for work, most for refuge.  The country is divided in opinion on how to deal with the influx of Africans; the great Israeli left has compassion for them and would consider allowing them to remain, while others would prefer they leave.

"The infiltrators are a cancer in our body", stated Likud MP Miri Regev, speaking to a rioting crowd.  Now that's exemplary behaviour on the part of an elected parliamentarian.  "We must put all these infiltrators behind bars in detention and holding centres, then send them home because they come and take work from Israelis", stated the Interior Minister.

Sounds harsh and dreadful, and it is.  And it is just what Americans do when they apprehend illegals in their country.  A Congolese migrant speaking fluid Hebrew who has been in Israel for 18 years seeking refugee status, states his concern: "The question is not if they will kill an African because he is black, but when."