Turning back the boats

[hatcheckgirl]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-15/us-calls-on-asian-countries-to-help-save-migrants-at-sea/6471634?section=world

 

This sad story is being repeated everywhere people are fleeing desperate conditions in their countries - fleeing in leaky boats to so-called "better lands".  We've seen this here in Australia for decades now, but with our current government the boats have stopped landing on our shores.  Why? Because they are being turned back.  End of problem for Australia, but now what?

 

This news report shows these desperate people are drifting in open seas and are being left to die.  Poorer Asian countries just can't handle the influx onto their shores.  This is similar to the situation in Europe, with Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of having to deal with the refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

And who can blame these sad people from wanting to leave their desperate conditions and seek a better life in a more affluent country?  Obviously, though our hearts bleed for humanity affected by this all-too-common dangerous migration of displaced people, we can see this as a sad outcome of man's inhumanity to man - and a culmination of the signs of the last days: wars, famines, persecution etc.

How clear it is that only Jehovah's Kingdom is the solution!  Our latest meeting part on the KM and focus for this month's activity is to reach people of every language with the many tools Jehovah has been providing to help the ones who have risked their lives to reach our shores - a better future for all awaits.

[surfergirl]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-15/us-calls-on-asian-countries-to-help-save-migrants-at-sea/6471634?section=world

 

This sad story is being repeated everywhere people are fleeing desperate conditions in their countries - fleeing in leaky boats to so-called "better lands".  We've seen this here in Australia for decades now, but with our current government the boats have stopped landing on our shores.  Why? Because they are being turned back.  End of problem for Australia, but now what?

 

This news report shows these desperate people are drifting in open seas and are being left to die.  Poorer Asian countries just can't handle the influx onto their shores.  This is similar to the situation in Europe, with Italy and Greece bearing the brunt of having to deal with the refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

And who can blame these sad people from wanting to leave their desperate conditions and seek a better life in a more affluent country?  Obviously, though our hearts bleed for humanity affected by this all-too-common dangerous migration of displaced people, we can see this as a sad outcome of man's inhumanity to man - and a culmination of the signs of the last days: wars, famines, persecution etc.

How clear it is that only Jehovah's Kingdom is the solution!  Our latest meeting part on the KM and focus for this month's activity is to reach people of every language with the many tools Jehovah has been providing to help the ones who have risked their lives to reach our shores - a better future for all awaits.

 

 

Yeah I feel for these people. All they want is a fair go. Is a slight statement on the Fair Go Aussie Policy huh..Not everyone can get A Fair Go. I heard tonight 800 people drowned. SO many are losing their lives.  We surely do need Jehovah. 

[Dustparticle]

 There so many bad things that is happening to people at once. I'm glad only Jehovah can see this and understands it too. Who knows, they might survive Armageddon.

[crazylee]

iAll this is bad news, but on Jehovah's viewpoint it may be good news, since Jesus died for all, they will be resurrected.

 

It is sometimes hard to look at it this way since we all want those to live in peace.  There is NO peace in this world! Only Satan's propaganda.

 

 Keep busy in the preaching work. That\s all Jehovah has for us to do. 

[comtemplate]

They are leaving their countries due to religious violence. It all has to do with religion not the economic situations of the countries. 

[comtemplate]

This is why the UN has made a statement regarding religion yesterday.

[Luezette]

I agree they are leaving too for religious violence. I also think they're leaving for other reasons such as economic, housing, etc. Though I think of how they're feeling, we can't imagine the depth of their misery, and then be so close to the promise land as they see it, and then be turned back...back to die in their land of oppression whatever that land or oppression is, or to die at sea. Can't imagine the depth of their sorrow, :(

Yes, Jehovah's kingdom is truly the only hope. Also, just thought of this but we can't imagine the depth of Jehovah's pain in seeing the people that his son died for...being oppressed like this, often through no fault of their own, victims of man's. domination.

Edited May 19, 2015 by Luezette

[retroHelen]

It's like the nasty situation of the thousands travelling by faulty rafts and leaky boats from Libya to Italy and Greece. Hundreds are drowning every week because Italy can no longer afford the rescue mission boats and was bearing a heavy brunt of dealing with thousands from different cultures and languages landing on their shores in poor areas of Italy. One ship of Moslems arrived at Europe having thrown all the Christians overboard!

 

Britain was criticised for only sending Navy ships to help Italy with the rescues of thousands a week, but not wanting to take a quota of them. However, because English or French are  a second language for many of them, these countries are already inundated. Britain had a known influx of 300 000 immigrant adults last year - like a fair sized city's worth - as well as an unknown number of illegal immigrants. There is also reckoned to be over a million children with them - including many sent alone unaccompanied by a relative, also including those expected by many pregnant women coming because of our NHS hospitals offering free treatment (this may change soon). It's a sad problem without end for as long as ISIS/Moslem extremists close in on many places across Africa and the Middle East . All the West seems to want to do is destroy the boats at source and leave persecuted/destitute people stranded - What a World! Time for change!

[hatcheckgirl]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-28/hungarian-police-say-10-migrant-injured-after-van-overturns/6733982

 

Those poor souls who perished a terrible death by suffocation trying to get to a "better land".

 

Germany is expecting 800,000 requests for asylum this year! Four times that of last year.  Doesn't that just show the desperation of people?  Are we there yet????

 

And another boat full of refugees sinks off Libya, with 200 missing.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-28/at-least-30-die-as-boat-with-200-migrants-sinks-off-libya/6731388
 

[bohemian]

The image published widely today is of a 3-year old boy washed ashore drowned as his family tried to reach Greece from Turkey.

Islam - the religion of peace and humanity, they say - has not influenced nearby Islamic states to help in this crisis; no refugees have been taken by any of them.

The West removed dictatorships in the middle east but there was no underlying political process to replace them. In other words, the only stabilizing factor in those nations was the dictatorship. So the West must bear some responsibilty for creating the resultant crises.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

I think the first lines have some significance in the USA, don't they? Perhaps the US will start to help these refugees too?

Of course, all current efforts are only temporary and God's Kingdom is the permanent solution, but it breaks my heart to see such suffering. I don't know how the politicians can remain so unmoved.

[trottigy]

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vietnam-war/vietnamese-boat-people/

 

Remember the Vietnamese boat people? War has a way of causing people to have to migrate. Solutions can be found.

 

 

No one can be sure how many people took the decision to flee, nor are there any definitive casualty figures. However, the number who attempted to flee has been put as high as 1.5 million. Estimates for deaths vary from 50,000 to 200,000 (Australian Immigration Ministry). The primary cause of death was drowning though many refugees were attacked by pirates and murdered or sold into slavery and prostitution. Some countries in the region, such as Malaya, turned the boat people away even if they did manage to land. Boats carrying the refugees were deliberately sunk offshore by those in them to stop the authorities towing them back out to sea. Many of these refugees ended up settling in the United States and Europe. The United States accepted 823,000 refugees; Britain accepted 19,000; France accepted 96,000; Australia and Canada accepted 137,000 each. 

 

As someone noted earlier:

 

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Edited September 3, 2015 by trottigy

[Dustparticle]

 Basically I can't read  this article, it tares me apart.

[hatcheckgirl]

This has become a massive humanitarian disaster, and the mass movement of refugees is unprecedented in Europe since the end of WW2.  Yesterday a program on tv was exploring why has there been a massive acceleration in people pouring into Europe now.  One answer from the UNHCR spokesperson was that the war in Syria, now 5 years on has been a major contributor, with neighbouring countries of Lebanon and Jordan carrying the massive burden of refugees fleeing Syria. 

 

"The situation in the neighbouring countries, which is hosting four million Syrian refugees, are facing tougher and tougher conditions due to the fact that the humanitarian programs are underfunded, people can't get their basic needs met, that countries like Lebanon and Jordan are literally creaking under the strain of hosting so many refugees and more and more people are therefore moving further afield."

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4305801.htm

 

So they are trying to get into Europe any way they can.  Plus those leaving Afghanistan/Iraq try to come to Australia by boats, as do those trying to flee persecution in Nepal and Burma.  Technology has helped many get in contact with people smugglers willing to make money on human movement.  Desperation as this world sinks further down has caused this to be a problem which is affecting more of the globe than ever before.  We no longer need a World War to affect the globe.  We are globally linked and interdependent.  So these effects are far reaching, and so sad to watch unfolding.

[bohemian]

And if anyone is wondering where so many refugees come from.......

[hatcheckgirl]

The former Prime Minister of Australia had much to advise Europe regarding his government's "successful" policy of stopping the boats coming to Australia.  He was at a black-tie event to honour Margaret Thatcher's ideals and achievements.  So his advice to Europe?

 

"All countries that say 'anyone who gets here can stay here' are now in peril, given the scale of the population movements that are starting to be seen. There are tens - perhaps hundreds - of millions of people, living in poverty and danger, who might readily seek to enter a Western country if the opportunity is there.

"And who could blame them? Yet no country or continent can open its borders to all comers without fundamentally weakening itself. This is the risk that the countries of Europe now run through misguided altruism."

 

... he said Australia was the only country that had successfully defeated people smuggling, and "our experience should be studied".

 

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-urges-europe-to-adopt-boat-turnbacks-in-response-to-refugee-crisis-20151027-gkk6z9.html

 

(from the transcript of his speech)

 

"Implicitly or explicitly, the imperative to "love your neighbour as you love yourself" is at the heart of every Western polity. It expresses itself in laws protecting workers, in strong social security safety nets, and in the readiness to take in refugees. It's what makes us decent and humane countries as well as prosperous ones, but – right now – this wholesome instinct is leading much of Europe into catastrophic error."

 

Proverbs 11:12, 14 Whoever is lacking good sense shows contempt for his neighbor, But the man of true discernment remains silent. When there is no skillful direction, the people fall, But there is success through many advisers.