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From the New York Times:
17,000 Migrants Stranded in Croatia by Border Crackdown
By DAN BILEFSKY SEPT. 18, 2015
A half hour ago, this headline began “15,000 Migrants.”
LONDON — As key nations tighten their borders, thousands of migrants and asylum seekers hoping to enter Western Europe are now bottled up in the Balkans, placing precarious new burdens on a region of lingering sectarian divisions that is exceptionally ill prepared to handle the crisis that has been shunted to it.
More than 17,000 migrants have entered Croatia since Wednesday, and were essentially trapped there, having been blocked from Hungary, sent packing from Serbia and unable to move on to Slovenia. The migrants have become a sloshing tide of humanity, left to flow wherever the region’s conflicting and constantly changing border controls channel them.
The shifting of the crisis to the Balkans has added a whole new dynamic to the crisis, threatening to reopen old wounds and distrust. The masses of migrants and refugees are struggling through the clutch of countries that once formed Yugoslavia, until the wars of the 1990s bloodily broke the former Communist state apart.
As hundreds of refugees continued to stream into Croatia on Friday, the government announced that it would close its borders with Serbia. Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said his country was overwhelmed, and Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic had a message for the migrants: “Don’t come here anymore. This is not the road to Europe.”
The remarks were revealing of the tensions the migrants are now sowing among nations with weak economies, uncertain futures in Europe, creaking welfare states and deep wounds from the past. Those factors are hobbling the region’s ability to respond to a crisis that even richer nations in Europe have struggled to address. …
But after gaining independence, countries in the region have struggled to bounce back — the average gross monthly wage in Serbia is 518 euros, about $585, while unemployment hovers at about 18 percent, according to the government statistics office. …
President Tomislav Nikolic of Serbia on Friday railed at members of the bloc for their hypocrisy, selfishness and lack of leadership in the face of the migration crisis. He said it was “absurd” that Serbia respected European standards more than those who are members and who are now “almost out of control — without receiving any criticism, advice, or order from Brussels.”
In a region long plagued by bloody conflicts over land, it is hard enough to police borders where regional rivalries still remain. Slovenia, the first former Yugoslav nation to join the European Union in 2004, and Croatia, which joined in 2013, cannot agree where Croatia ends and Slovenia begins — a dispute that dates to Yugoslavia’s collapse.
Slovenia is part of the Schengen accord that allows freedom of movement among member states; Croatia is not. Macedonia and Greece have battled over who has claims to the name Macedonia.
Thanks, Germany!
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The European powers wrangling over problems in the Balkans? What’s there to worry about? I mean, nothing important ever starts in the Balkans
Putin must be laughing.
So, all these former Warsaw Pact nations joined the West… only to be overrun by the Near East.
They thought they were merging with Germany but found themselves re-merging with the Ottoman Empire.
All Roads Lead to Berlin.
Top two readers picks among the 500+ comments
Croatia is attempting to rid itself of the hot potato by bussing the migrants to Hungary and Slovenia. This is a disaster in the making. It was phenomenally stupid of the Croatian prime minister to say that he would allow safe passage through his country a few days a go. Who is he trying to please?
We should call them Merkle’s Kids. (As in Jerry’s Kids).
That might give the Arab refugees the idea that they are goats. That might be a possible solution to the refugee crisis. I think Jonathan Swift might approve.
Another NY Times comment for this article
______________________
Elizabeth Renant New Mexico 12 hours ago
Europe’s response hasn’t been “confused” at all – except for Germany, of course. Which first issued a virtual “open door” invitation to most of the Middle East (and by default, the rest of the Middle East and Africa) and then realized that large as it was, even Germany didn’t have that much room. It’s the old “give ’em an inch, they’ll take a yard” adage come true. The rest of Eastern Europe, the UK, Scandinavia – have not been confused at all about not wanting to take in hundreds of thousands, and behind them millions, of Muslim immigrants that will eventually collapse their formerly successful welfare benefits systems and further erode their home cultures – something those countries have already been grappling with.
The UK and Denmark and Spain and France and Southern and Eastern Europe are all taking the minimum they can get away with as their arms are twisted by one woman in Berlin and a corrupt bureaucrat in Brussels whose eventual retirement to a chateau in his small, rich, nearly all white billionaire’s tax haven will not in any way be impacted by this invasion of Europe (not for the first time) by Muslims. I think Luxembourg agreed to take, umm, what, 500? Norway: 4,000. France: 24,000 over some years, UK:20,000 over give years. The response isn’t confused: it’s angry, rejecting, aware of its host populations’ resistance. And it may finish off the EU.
No confusion: they do – not – want – them. This should never have gotten this far. They should be in Saudi Arabia.
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On the ground here in Croatia. Everyone, absolutely everyone except for a small handful of foreign-backed NGO employees is cursing the Government’s handling of this crisis and are actively cheering Orban on. This government is on its way out in elections scheduled to take place before Christmas. Even their own supporters are screaming at them.
There are worse places to be “stranded” than Croatia — many Europeans vacation in Croatia — in fact, the German word for beach is Strand — komisch, oder?
OK, they acknowledge the Balkans are a region of lingering sectarian divisions, and the reader can infer that adding more muslim immigrants might tip this delicate ethnic balance. Yet they still cannot or will not acknowledge this basic fact about mass immigration. Namely it always leads to a changing of the delicate balance of a region’s demography, and thus puts burdens and tensions that either weren’t there to begin with, or reawakens ones that were lingering.
But I think the point is to punish certain nations.
E.g., I don't see the NYT suggesting that the "migrants" could be sent to, say, Nigeria or Kenya or Uganda for all the opportunities there. I mean, isn't Nigeria's soon-to-be-1-billion-population touted as the up-and-coming new low-price global labor force--including by the NYT??? Aren't we constantly being told of the magnificent future of Africa--all those "natural resources," all those people eager for jobs, all those lovely diseases to create lucrative patents for pharmaceuticals?
So it sounds to me like there's plenty of opportunity there for the "migrants."
Plus, in going there, it's not like they'll reduce the GDP. In fact the opposite is likely.Replies: @Reg Cæsar
He is phenomenally stupid. A lot of the confusing crap he pulls really is him following orders or trying to please somebody in his incompetent way, but some of it is just him being an imbecile, pure and simple.
As someone else said on that thread, why can't we have nice things?Replies: @Niccolo Salo
And you really have faith in the HDZ to handle the situation?
This begs the question, just how many Germans, Austrians, Danes, Swedes etc are really in favour of welcoming dodgy-looking refugees. Sure, some die hard liberal baby boomers are opening their doors to the less scarey-looking immigrants with cute kids and hundreds of SJWs are out in the streets with welcome signs, but there is no clear evidence that the majority of the population is so keen.
It will be interesting to see what effect this latest refugee wave has on the next round of national elections.
“We should call them Merkle’s Kids.”
That might give the Arab refugees the idea that they are goats. That might be a possible solution to the refugee crisis. I think Jonathan Swift might approve.
BINGO!
But I think the point is to punish certain nations.
E.g., I don’t see the NYT suggesting that the “migrants” could be sent to, say, Nigeria or Kenya or Uganda for all the opportunities there. I mean, isn’t Nigeria’s soon-to-be-1-billion-population touted as the up-and-coming new low-price global labor force–including by the NYT??? Aren’t we constantly being told of the magnificent future of Africa–all those “natural resources,” all those people eager for jobs, all those lovely diseases to create lucrative patents for pharmaceuticals?
So it sounds to me like there’s plenty of opportunity there for the “migrants.”
Plus, in going there, it’s not like they’ll reduce the GDP. In fact the opposite is likely.
Or Brown 25.
“Macedonia and Greece have battled over who has claims to the name Macedonia.” Don’t worry, it’ll soon be Mohamedonia.
The Serbian PM is even worse.
I ask this seriously, or at least semi-seriously: why can’t Croatia just put all these people on a boat and take them back? Or better yet, a plane. Put them on a plane, land the plane in the middle of sub-Saharan Africa, bring another plane with food and water, and say buh-buy?
“But I’m from Syria!”
“Yeah, you were planning on walking to Germany, right? So just a different destination.”
Which planes to which countries?
The problem lies in Turkey, Germany, and the USA. Sailer has correctly titled this as 'hot potato'.
Because Croatia doesn't have the required boats and planes, nor the military resources to accompany them, to ensure that the boats and planes get where they need to go, unload the passengers, and get back safely. Plus they don't have the political will to deal with the $h##$t##m that would cause in the west.
"But I'm from Syria!"
"Yeah, you were planning on walking to Germany, right? So just a different destination."Replies: @Niccolo Salo, @Mark Eugenikos
Boat to where?
Which planes to which countries?
The problem lies in Turkey, Germany, and the USA. Sailer has correctly titled this as ‘hot potato’.
"But I'm from Syria!"
"Yeah, you were planning on walking to Germany, right? So just a different destination."Replies: @Niccolo Salo, @Mark Eugenikos
“…why can’t Croatia just put all these people on a boat and take them back? Or better yet, a plane.”
Because Croatia doesn’t have the required boats and planes, nor the military resources to accompany them, to ensure that the boats and planes get where they need to go, unload the passengers, and get back safely. Plus they don’t have the political will to deal with the $h##$t##m that would cause in the west.
“He” is actually a she. Croatia has a woman prime minister. I guess you must have missed the picture of the blonde MILF Croatian prime minister that Steve’s been posting.
As someone else said on that thread, why can’t we have nice things?
Croatia's President is a female, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. She served as deputy at NATO and did some schooling in the USA, I think at UCLA (too lazy to check). She is a rightist, patriot...about as much as one can be in Croatia without upsetting the EU/USA leadership.Replies: @Mark Eugenikos
I can totally be!ieve that Croatia and,to a far greater extent, Serbia totally want to stick it to the NATO weenies in Western Europe. I also have an easy time believing Serbia being the one behind that mob rush at the Hungarian border as well. Some…unsettled scores there.
That’s heartening news, in Hungary we’re under the impression (created by our leftist media) that it’s some sort of Hungarian-Croat conflict. It was all the more shocking because Hungarians usually are sympathetic to Croatia and tend to think of Croats as friends.
As someone else said on that thread, why can't we have nice things?Replies: @Niccolo Salo
Croatia’s PM is a male, Zoran Milanovic. His party is heading for a resounding defeat in elections that are due before the end of this year. This crisis is only compounding his problems. He is part of what is known as ‘The Golden Generation’, the sons and daughters of the old Communist Partisan leadership of the ex-YU. He is an anti-national shitlib/somewhat reconstructed communist.
Croatia’s President is a female, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. She served as deputy at NATO and did some schooling in the USA, I think at UCLA (too lazy to check). She is a rightist, patriot…about as much as one can be in Croatia without upsetting the EU/USA leadership.
A few years ago, the EU awarded Croatia and Hungary the title of the best state-level relationship in Europe. That soured with this present government (now outgoing) in Croatia due to the sale of INA (Croatia’s oil monopoly) to MOL by the very corrupt former Premier, Sanader. The present government tried to get that deal renegotiated but the Magyar Government didn’t let that happen.
Just to repeat: this government is under extreme pressure by Berlin to keep the refugees in Croatia. The Austrian PM was in Zagreb four days ago to pressure Milanovic as well. Most Croatians applaud Orban’s approach and would like to see that happen here but Milanovic opened his mouth to try and score some good foreign media PR by saying that Croatia is open to migrants. He made a mistake there, but I’m certain that it wasn’t entirely his fault but rather Vienna and Berlin pressuring him to do so. His relations with Merkel have been disastrous since the German-demanded extradition of former Communist secret police heads to Munich.
The real problem lies in Turkey and the lack of the ability of Greece to stem the flow, with Merkel only exacerbating the situation when she put her foot in her mouth a couple of weeks ago.
This, of course, builds on the basic errors of removing Gaddafi and trying to topple Assad.
Edit: latest opinion polls in Croatia show only 20% of the population in favour of letting the migrants enter Croatia at all, even just to pass. This 20% figure remarkably coincides with President Tudjman’s statement that 20% of Croatians are anational Yugoslavs 🙂
Croatia's President is a female, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. She served as deputy at NATO and did some schooling in the USA, I think at UCLA (too lazy to check). She is a rightist, patriot...about as much as one can be in Croatia without upsetting the EU/USA leadership.Replies: @Mark Eugenikos
Thank you, I stand corrected. President or prime minister, I admit I was more interested in looking at the bikini photos.
But I think the point is to punish certain nations.
E.g., I don't see the NYT suggesting that the "migrants" could be sent to, say, Nigeria or Kenya or Uganda for all the opportunities there. I mean, isn't Nigeria's soon-to-be-1-billion-population touted as the up-and-coming new low-price global labor force--including by the NYT??? Aren't we constantly being told of the magnificent future of Africa--all those "natural resources," all those people eager for jobs, all those lovely diseases to create lucrative patents for pharmaceuticals?
So it sounds to me like there's plenty of opportunity there for the "migrants."
Plus, in going there, it's not like they'll reduce the GDP. In fact the opposite is likely.Replies: @Reg Cæsar
Or Soylent Brown.
Or Brown 25.