PRETENDED REFUGEES

MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI

Speaking about refugees, many of us have dramatic scenes in mind. Crowds of people risk their life when trying to get to Europe. One can see both women, young kids and teenagers, healthy men there. How to distinguish between real refugees, that is, those defined by the Geneva Convention, escaping from areas touched by war in order to save their life, from economic emigrants or terrorists, that is, those who are pretending to be refugees? It is nearly as difficult as belief in the words of the Polish prime minister Ewa Kopacz, that her government will cope with it. Many immigrants going across the borders of the European Union, do not have any documents, because they lost them, or threw away into the sea. There are also others, showing their passports, who are not able to escape any suspicions. Falsifying documents is not a problem for them. It is possible to buy a passport or gain a new identity for a only few hundred euros. Dutch journalists noticed it, when gaining both a passport and ID for the prime minister of Holland Mark Rutte. They sent his photo, gave a fake name and surname – Malek Ramadan – paid for it and the prime minister became a Syrian refugee. Filling forms and seals were original, because they had bought them from fighters of the Islamic Country ISIS, who had taken over many passport offices with complete equipment. It is also easy to buy personal data in Turkey, from a dead Syrian person. This way is used by both terrorists, who 'lose' their identity when gaining new documents, and ordinary economic immigrants. While the first ones will probably organize and activate terrorist centres in Europe, the latter ones mainly hope for improving their material existence. They often demand it in a definite and aggressive way. Even many of those who got to Germany and Sweden, complain about poor conditions, saying that they were cheated. For example, a Libian family of five people arrived in Germany and were protesting outside a police station, throwing around food they had got, because they said that the 66-meter-square flat, which had been given to them, was too small. They may even get compensation, like newcomers from Tunisia living in Italy in refugee camps, and complaining about unsuitable conditions. The European Tribunal of Human Rights gave each maltreated person 10 thousand euro as a compensation. In its statement it based on the 3rd article of the European Convention of Human Rights, concerning.....the prohibition of tortures and inhuman treatment of people. But it probably concerned those real, not pretended refugees.

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„Niedziela” 41/2015

Editor: Tygodnik Katolicki "Niedziela", ul. 3 Maja 12, 42-200 Czestochowa, Polska
Editor-in-chief: Fr Jaroslaw Grabowski • E-mail: redakcja@niedziela.pl