#Donation For migrant workers

[persimmonlions]

.

[anyab]

REMAN, a group of African migrants in Lebanon, are coordinating an emergency response to support the migrant women and their families in the face of this crisis.

We are asking for your support to enable members of REMAN, the Réseau des Migrant-e-s d'Afrique Noire in Lebanon, to organise and provide this vital support to people displaced by the bombing, and provide basic necessities.

[gayvampyr]

CNN:

Hundreds of families gathered in the West Darfur capital of El Geneina on June 15, plotting their escape from what had become a hellscape of blown-out buildings scrawled with racist graffiti and streets strewn with corpses. The state governor had just been executed and mutilated by Arab militia groups, leaving civilians with no choice but to flee.

What followed was a gruesome massacre, eyewitnesses said, believed to be one of the most violent incidents in the genocide-scarred Sudanese region’s history. The powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and its allied militias hunted down non-Arab people in various parts of the city and surrounding desert region, leaving hundreds dead as they ran for their lives…

…residents set off en masse from southern El Geneina, many trying to reach the nearby Sudanese military headquarters where they thought they might find safety. But they said they were quickly thwarted by RSF attacks. Some were summarily executed in the streets, survivors said. Others died in a mass drowning incident, shot at as they attempted to cross a river. Many of those who managed to make it out were ambushed near the border with Chad, forced to sit in the sand before being told to run to safety as they were sprayed with bullets.

“More than 1,000 people were killed on June 15. I was collecting bodies on that day. I collected a huge number,” one local humanitarian worker, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told CNN. He said the dead were buried in five different mass graves in and around the city.

Conflict erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese army in April. Since then, more than one million people have fled to neighboring countries, according to estimates from the International Organization for Migration.

Now, a telecommunications blackout and the flight of international aid groups have all but cut off Darfur from the outside world. But news of the June 15 massacre began trickling out of the region from refugees who escaped to Chad. The evidence uncovered by CNN suggests that, behind a curtain of secrecy, the RSF and its allies are waging an indiscriminate campaign of widespread killings and sexual violence unlike anything the region has seen in decades.

The RSF’s official spokesperson told CNN that it “categorically” denied the allegations.

“To say you were Masalit was a death sentence,” said Jamal Khamiss, a human rights lawyer, referring to his non-Arab tribe, one of the biggest in Darfur. Khamiss was among those who said that they fled from El Geneina to Chad, surviving a series of RSF and allied militia positions by concealing his ethnicity.

The United Nations raised the alarm in June over ethnic targeting and killing of people from the Masalit community in El Geneina, after reports of summary executions and “persistent hate speech,” including calls to kill or expel them.

The vast majority of those who managed to make it out of El Geneina alive sought refuge in the Chadian border town of Adre, about 22 miles (35 kilometers) away from the city.

On June 15, the town received the highest number of migrants in a single day, along with the highest number of casualties — 261 — since the Sudan conflict broke out, according to Doctors Without Borders, widely known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which runs the only hospital in Adre. The number of wounded people that arrived at the hospital was even higher the next day: 387.

“The last time we recorded the death toll in Geneina it was 884,” one local humanitarian worker from El Geneina, who works for a Western non-profit organization, told CNN. “That was June 9. After June 9, it was a different story. The dead became uncountable.”

Action Against Hunger is accepting donations to provide health, sanitation and nutrition services to Sudanese refugees in Chad.

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - November 28, 2023

🐑 - Why did Fiona the sheep become a mountaineer? She was tired of the "baa-d" jokes at sea level!

1. Pope Francis dines with transgender women for Vatican luncheon

Pope Francis hosted a group of transgender women — many of whom are sex workers or migrants from Latin America — to a Vatican luncheon for the Catholic Church's "World Day of the Poor" last week.

The pontiff and the transgender women have formed a close relationship since the pope came to their aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were unable to work. Now, they meet monthly for VIP visits with the pope and receive medicine, money and shampoo any day, according to The Associated Press.

2. New York just installed its first offshore wind turbine

The first wind turbine installation at South Fork Wind, New York State’s first offshore wind farm, is complete.

The 130-megawatt (MW) South Fork Wind will be the US’s first completed utility-scale wind farm in federal waters.

3. Anonymous businessman donates $800k to struggling food bank

But this Thanksgiving, a longtime prayer of food bank leaders was finally answered: an anonymous benefactor donated the full $800,000 they needed to move out of a facility they've long outgrown. That benefactor, however, preferred to stay anonymous.

"Very private company, really don't want attention," said Debbie Christian, executive director of the Auburn Food Bank. "It's a goodhearted person that just wants to see the work here continue, wants to see it expand."

4. Empowering woman saving hopes and mental health of suffering Ukrainian kids

Kenza Hadij-Brahim is at the forefront of promoting Circle of Toys

Hadj-Brahim is helping to launch the Circle of Toys initiative. A project that provides Ukrainian children in need of some normality with preloved toys. This new initiative connects people with old toys they might otherwise throw away, with Ukrainian families in need who want to provide some comfort to their children in this distressing time.

Find Refuge said : “The endeavour is driven by a sincere purpose: spark joy, foster play, and bring a hint of normalcy back to the young lives in Ukraine.”

5. TWO LOST CITIES HIDDEN FOR CENTURIES WERE JUST DISCOVERED IN BOLIVIA

Researchers have found these areas not only housed structures and pyramids but it has been uncovered that there were advanced irrigation systems, earthworks, large towns, causeways, and canals that cover miles.

Dr. Heiko Prümers from the German Archaeological Institute, who was also involved in the study comments that “this indicated a relatively dense settlement in pre-Hispanic times. Our goal was to conduct basic research and trace the settlements and life there. The research sheds light on the sheer magnitude and magnificence of the civic-ceremonial centers found buried in the forest”.

6. Sheep dubbed Fiona rescued from cliff in Scotland where she was stuck for more than 2 years

And at last, some positive climate news:

7. Three positive climate developments

Heating

When the Paris Agreement was adopted, the global reliance on fossil fuels placed the world on a path towards a 3.5C rise in temperature by 2100. Eight years on, country commitments to reduce their carbon footprints have pulled that down slightly, putting the world on a path for a 2.5C to 2.9C by the end of the century.

Peak emissions

Annual greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change have risen roughly nine percent since COP21, according to UN data. But the rate of the increase has slowed significantly. Recent estimates by the Climate Analytics institute find global emissions could peak by 2024

Rising renewables

Three technologies—solar, wind and electric vehicles—are largely behind the improved global warming estimates since 2015.

---

That's it for this week :)

This newsletter will always be free. If you liked this post you can support me with a small kofi donation here:

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Also don’t forget to reblog this post with your friends.

[read-marx-and-lenin]

Liberals: Of course I participate in political actions other than voting! Liberals: Well, not that boycott. I mean, you can't expect me to give up *all* Coke products, right? Liberals: And don't you think that strike was a bit disruptive? I mean, those workers had kids to feed! You can't blame them for crossing the picket line! Liberals: And don't get me started on that riot you call a "protest". You can't expect to be taken seriously if you throw things at the police, can you? Liberals: Why should I donate to some half-baked community fund? They're not even an accredited charity. What if the people running it are scammers? Liberals: It's laughable that you think any third party could ever win an election. Why don't you work within the Democratic Party? It worked for the Nevada DSA. Briefly. Liberals: The Democrats might not care about migrants, the homeless, the disabled, the unemployed, or Palestinians, but there has to be someone they care about, right? Trans people! They've only somewhat thrown trans people under the bus, unlike the Republicans. If you don't vote blue, you hate trans people! Liberals: See? I'm politically active! I'm protecting trans people by voting for the Democrats. What have you even done for trans people, tankie?

[xueyuverse]

Links for donations to Sudan

UNHCR ACNUR: People are being forced to flee amid fighting and refugees are arriving in neighboring Chad in desperate need of help.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is on the ground assisting newly arrived refugees and providing life-saving support.

CICV: Health care could collapse at any time, despite the best efforts of Sudanese health teams, who continue to work in extremely difficult conditions, caring for injured people and providing other essential services to the population.

There are severe shortages of water, energy, food and essential medical supplies.

Sudan Relief Fund: CRISIS APPEAL: Nearly 7.1 million people displaced in Sudan. Destruction of healthcare facilities, disruption of critical healthcare services like immunizations, newborn care and availability of healthcare workers is putting many at risk of death and life-threatening complications. We need every bit of help in generating a relief fund to continue our efforts in Sudan.

Sudanese family of 8 struggling to escape the War.

Emergency response in Sudan: UNICEF continues to call for an immediate ceasefire across Sudan, and reiterates its call for all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian and human rights law – including ensuring that children are protected – and that rapid, safe, unimpeded humanitarian access to children and families in affected areas is facilitated. Without such access, critical lifesaving humanitarian support will be out of reach for millions of vulnerable children.

Despite the challenges, UNICEF and partners have provided life-saving assistance to more than 6 million children inside Sudan and in neighbouring countries, including water, health, nutrition, safe spaces and learning.

Sudan: A deepening humanitarian crisis: Sudan has plunged into a conflict of alarming scale, leaving half of the population in need of urgent assistance to survive.

This comes on top of existing challenges including economic hardship, disease outbreaks and climate-related hazards.

Families are struggling to access water, food, fuel, and other critical commodities and they need urgent help.

Be a lifeline to Migrants in need: With almost 25 million people - half the population - in need of some form of aid, the situation is particularly dire for the more than 7 million people displaced within Sudan.

Periods Don’t Stop for War! Stand with Sudanese Women and Girls: They Need Your Help Now!: SIHA Network will partner with the PNDS (Fawta Tsed Alkhana – Pad Needed, Dignity Seeded) Initiative and Sustainable Development Response Organization (SUDRO) on a campaign to collective donations and use them to buy and distribute the crucial menstrual dignity kit items Sudanese women and girls desperately need right now.  

Through providing menstrual products, the risk on women and girls’ health can be decreased and their well-being can be improved. 

You can also donate to MSF International here and for MSF Sudan here.

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 13 June 1973, thousands of mostly migrant workers at the Broadmeadows Ford plant in Australia walked off the job, smashed up their factory, fought off police attacks, and forced their union to endorse their stoppage. In retaliation, the company threatened to relocate production to Malaysia. But the strike continued and received strong support from the local community. The Greek orthodox church donated to the strike fund, while doctors set up free clinics for strikers’ families and glaziers refused to fix windows broken in the riot. After 10 weeks, Ford eventually gave in, agreeing to numerous demands from the workers including hiring women, hiring more workers, slowing production, increasing the number of toilet breaks and increasing pay. More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8491/broadmeadows-ford-strike https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=643428447830374&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[stillnaomi]

the race riots continue in the UK. everyone knows by now that the initial justification for it was based on a lie — those children weren't stabbed by an immigrant – so this is for the people who still might be reached

immigrants aren't here to take your jobs. capitalist governments allow immigration to bring skills into the economy and push wages down, by increasing competition for jobs. this isn't the fault of immigrants, it's the natural result of a system where businesses try to maximise private profit by manipulating government policy. they do this legally because political donations and giving plush jobs to former ministers is built into the system, as is the right of businesses to stop investing in the economy if they don't like government policy. a few riots won't stop that since it's profitable, and it won't stop desperate people from arriving. we need to change the underlying system

it was the underlying, capitalist, system that allowed industry to be off-shored because it was more profitable. it was the underlying, capitalist, system that required the unions to be broken and workers rights to be stripped. and it's the underlying, capitalist, system that insists some people live in poverty. The term Reserve Army of Labour describes the phenomena of capitalism requiring unemployment to push wages and working conditions down

likewise, it's the underlying system and its thirst for profits that saw us invade and sanction Iraq and Afghanistan, among many others, killing and maiming people we could have worked with peacefully, and creating many of the refugees we see arriving today

immigrants aren't our enemy, and especially not asylum seekers, who are escaping from the most dangerous conditions and aren't even allowed to work when they arrive. our enemies wear suits and have chauffeurs. they own the workplaces that deny us jobs or that exploit us with terrible conditions, and they own the ministers who set the policies which keep your family poor. you have more in common with the average migrant from any country than you do with any of the wealthy layabouts who get rich off other people's labour

if you want a secure future for you and your loved ones, with guaranteed work, good pay, and guaranteed housing and healthcare, you need to fight the political system, not other poor people

[deathlygristly]

A lot of local places are donating some or all of their proceeds for the next bit to hurricane relief.

I saw that one of them was the bakery down the street next door to our favorite restaurant. We always wanted to try it, and that gave us the extra push.

The top cake is chocolate tres leches, and the bottom pink one is Cheerwine tres leches. :)

The owner immigrated here from Colombia, and he does a lot of activism. They’ve also given bread to migrant workers on North Carolina farms and given donations in Ukraine. He also recently opened a cafe inside a local church that hires people who need second chances, and all the profits from the cafe go into the church for donating.

So a very worthy bakery to support at all times, and I am glad we pushed past our autism spectrum social anxieties to finally go in and get some awesome food. :)

[ayashitetsuko]

I have an idea.

Seeing the discourse that has been going around the OFMD fandom recently (which, sadly, was started off as a racist accusation against a mini fic that I wrote), I see the need for us as a community to rethink the way we support POCs in the fandom and beyond.

I mean, tweeting is easy. But it can be harmful as it gives us a false sense of contribution. You know, “I have tweeted so I have done something about it.” I have been guilty for this, honestly.

So, here’s my proposal. If you’re an Izzy Canyon resident, next time you see any accusations against members of our little community, instead of responding and creating an endless cycle of discourse, I’d encourage you to donate or share about any projects that are supporting POCs in real life.

While these projects may not be perfect, I see them as making concrete steps in improving the lives of POCs. Way more concrete than any of the discourses that we have ever had.

I would like to recommend you to check out, promote, and support the works of the following organisations:

Kopernik Indonesia

Poverty eradication initiatives in rural Indonesia

It’s Raining Raincoats

Support for migrant workers in Singapore

Why Indonesia and Singapore? Well, simply because these two places are near and dear to my heart, and I want to make a difference in the most vulnerable communities in these countries. Feel free to contribute to other places that feel more relevant to you.

But, yeah. Consider this the cards I placed on the table.

We can emerge stronger as a community.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Kevin (KAL) Kallaugher

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 23, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 24, 2024

On Thursday, Moody’s Analytics, which evaluates risk, performance, and financial modeling, compared the economic promises of President Joe Biden and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Authors Mark Zandi, Brendan LaCerda, and Justin Begley concluded that while a second Biden presidency would see cooling inflation and continued economic growth of 2.1%, a Trump presidency would be an economic disaster.

Trump has promised to slash taxes on the wealthy, increase tariffs across the board, and deport at least 11 million immigrant workers. According to the analysts, these policies would trigger a recession by mid-2025. The economy would slow to an average growth of 1.3%. At the same time, tariffs and fewer immigrant workers would increase the costs of consumer goods. That inflation—reaching 3.6%—would result in 3.2 million fewer jobs and a higher unemployment rate. 

Trump’s proposed tariffs would not fully offset his tax cuts, adding trillions to the national debt. 

Michael Strain, director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said that Trump’s tariff policy “would be bad for workers and bad for consumers.” Chief Economist of Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi said: “Biden’s policies are better for the economy.”   

In the New York Times today, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute at the Yale School of Management, debunked the notion that corporate leaders support Trump. Sonnenfeld notes that he works with about 1,000 chief executives a year and speaks with business leaders almost every day. Although 60 to 70 percent of them are registered Republicans, he wrote, Trump “continues to suffer from the lowest level of corporate support in the history of the Republican Party.”

Among Fortune 100 chief executives, who lead the top 100 public and private U.S. companies ranked by revenue, Sonnenfeld notes, not one has donated to Trump this year. 

While they might not be enthusiastic Biden supporters, unhappy with his push to enforce antitrust laws and rein in corporate greed, the president has produced results they like: investment in infrastructure, repair of supply chains, investment in domestic manufacturing, achievement of record corporate profits, and transformation of the U.S. into the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world. 

In contrast, they fear Trump. The populist plans that thrill supporters—like hiking tariffs and taking financial policy away from the independent Federal Reserve Board and putting it in his own hands—are red flags to business leaders. Such positions have more in common with the far left than with traditional Republican economic policies, Sonnenfeld says. Those policies reflect that Trump has surrounded himself with what Sonnenfeld calls “MAGA extremists and junior varsity opportunists,” while the more senior voices of his first term have been sidelined. 

On Saturday, Trump spoke in Philadelphia with a message that The Guardian’s David Smith described as “light on facts, heavy on fear.” He appears to be trying to overwrite his own criminal conviction with the idea that Biden’s immigration policy has brought violent undocumented migrants to the United States, creating a surge of crime. He told rally attendees that murders in their city have reached their highest level in six decades, while in fact, violent crime in the city is the lowest it’s been in a decade. 

In February, Trump pushed Republican lawmakers to reject a strong bipartisan border bill so he could use immigration as his primary issue in the election. That focus on immigration was key to the rise of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to power, and it is notable that Trump’s picture of the United States echoes the rhetoric of the authoritarians hoping to overturn democracy around the world.  

On Friday, during a podcast hosted by venture capitalists, Trump blamed Biden for starting Russia’s war against Ukraine by calling for Ukraine’s admission to NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that resists Russian aggression. This statement utterly rewrites the history of Trump’s support for Russia’s annexation of the same Ukrainian regions it has now occupied: as Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort testified, the Kremlin helped Trump’s 2016 campaign in exchange for the U.S. permitting Russian incursions there.

More significant in this moment, though, is that Trump, who is running to become the leader of the United States, is siding against the United States and parroting Russian propaganda. Mark Hertling, a retired lieutenant general of the United States Army who served for 37 years and commanded U.S. Army operations in Europe and Africa, wrote: “This statement is—to put it mildly—stunningly misinformed and dangerous.”

Trump told host Sean Spicer that the U.S. is a “failing nation,” claiming that airplane flights are being delayed for four days and people are “pitching tents” because their flight is never going to happen. In reality, as Bill Kristol pointed out, with 16.3 million U.S. flights, 2023 was the busiest year in U.S. history for air travel, and the cancellation rate was below 1.2%. This was the lowest rate in a decade. 

Trump is insisting at his rallies that crime is skyrocketing under Biden. In reality, crime rose rapidly at the end of Trump’s term but is now dropping. From 2022 to 2023, according to the FBI, the only crime that went up was motor vehicle theft. Murders dropped by 13.2%, rape by 12.5%, robbery by 4.7%, burglary by 9.8%. The first quarter of 2024 showed even greater drops. Compared to the same quarter in 2023, violent crime is down 15.2%, murder down 26.4%, rape down 25.7%, robbery down 17.8%, burglary down 16.7%. Even vehicle theft is down 17.3%. 

Trump’s negative picture might play well to his die-hard supporters, but portraying the U.S. as a hellscape has rarely been a recipe for winning a presidential election.

President Biden and Trump are scheduled to debate on Thursday, June 27, and Trump’s team is trying to lower expectations for his performance. He became so incoherent in Philadelphia that the Fox News Channel actually cut away while he was talking. The Biden-Harris team has taken simply to posting Trump’s comments, prompting Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo to note: “It’s pretty bad when one candidates rapid response account just posts the other guys quote verbatim with no explanation at all.”

After months of insisting that Biden is mentally unfit, now Trump and his surrogates are saying Biden will perform well in the debate because he will be on drugs. There is no evidence that Biden has ever used performance-enhancing drugs, but curiously, Trump’s former White House physician Ronny Jackson (whom Trump repeatedly misidentified as Ronny Johnson last week) gave Fox News Channel host Maria Bartiromo a very detailed list of drugs that could sharpen attention and clarity. One of the ones he mentioned, Provigil, was on the list of those widely and improperly distributed by the White House Medical Unit in the Trump White House. 

Jackson said that he was “demanding” that Biden take drug tests before and after the debate. A White House spokesperson responded: “[A]fter losing every public and private negotiation with President Biden—and after seeing him succeed where they failed across the board, ranging from actually rebuilding America’s infrastructure to actually reducing violent crime to actually outcompeting China—it tracks that those same Republican officials mistake confidence for a drug.”

With the evaluation that Biden is better for the economy and Trump’s apocalyptic vision of the U.S. is not based in reality, it jumps out that on Thursday, a filing with the Federal Election Commission showed that the day after a jury convicted former president Donald Trump on 34 criminal counts, billionaire Tim Mellon made a $50 million donation to one of Trump’s superpacs. Since 2018, Mellon has contributed more than $200 million to Republicans, giving $110 million to Republican candidates and funding committees in the 2024 election alone. He has also given $25 million to independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. 

In a 2015 autobiography, Mellon embraced the old trope that “Black Studies, Women’s Studies, LGBT Studies, they have all cluttered Higher Education with a mishmash of meaningless tripe designed to brainwash gullible young adults into going along with the Dependency Syndrome,” saying that food assistance, affordable health care “and on, and on, and on” had made Americans on government assistance “slaves of a new Master, Uncle Sam.” “The largess is funded by the hardworking folks, fewer and fewer in number, who are too honest or too proud to allow themselves to sink into this morass,” he wrote. 

It is this trope that the Biden administration has smashed, returning to the idea that the government should answer to the needs of all its people. The last three years have proved the superiority of this vision by creating a roaring economy; rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, supply chains, and manufacturing; cutting crime rates, and reinforcing international alliances. 

As Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor and chief executive officer of the energy company Canary, told Wall Street Journal reporter Tarini Parti about Mellon: “He’s clearly terrified of Biden remaining the president.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[anyab]

November 5th update:

Help Amelie Azmy evacuate her family

Fundraiser progress:

£27,696 £28,078 raised of £48,000 goal

Very slow campaign. Goal shifted to support family needs as winter approaches

Support Mahmoud's family in Gaza

Fundraiser progress:

€7,369 7,554 8,527 9,461 9,946 raised of €60,000 goal

campaign has been very slow. Last donation 2 days ago

Support displaced people in lebanon

Fundraiser progress:

US$14,934 18,130 22,453 27,346 raised (no goal set)

Support migrant workers' emergency needs in Lebanon

Fundraiser progress:

£2,689 4,728 5,516 8,196 8,688 raised of £10,000 goal

Campaign started strong but progress is slowing significantly

[uniteds]

here’s a hot take but westerners that hyperfocus on human rights violations in Qatar but fail to condemn the numerous human rights violations and war crimes by western nations and offering no sense of nuance to Qatar are simply racist. But at the same time, ignoring the human rights violations and jumping on people boycotting it are playing into a system where vulnerable communities are exploited and abused and that’s fucked up.

The MOST important thing is to listen to migrant workers and donate to human rights organizations helping them. It’s also important to keep this energy in four years when the United States and Canada are hosting the World Cup. 2022 was the deadliest year for migrants in the United States. Jamaican migrant workers likened conditions in Canada to slavery.

If you’re serious about helping migrant workers, and not just using it to be racist, start helping. Here is one suggestion I have and that is Migrant Legal Aid. However, I encourage people to reblog for more places to donate.

[sensitively-taken]

please donate to this fund to help migrant workers who have been abandoned by their employers in lebanon, amidst the israeli strikes. many of them do not have their passports, phones, or money. any donation goes a long way!

[tunneldweller]

tw: human rights violations, injuries, death

In early August 2021, asylum seekers started showing up in unusually large numbers in Poland near the border with Belarus. The border area is mostly covered with forests and bogs with farming villages past the woods. It's chock full of gorgeous landscapes, including Europe's largest remaining stretch of primeval forest west of Russia - the Białowieża Forest, a largely pristine ecosystem with so damn much biodiversity. Bison, lynx, three species of shrew, the last remaining European populations of various insects, tons of birds, fungi, mosses, you name it. Scientists and environmentalists love it [and forestry officials want to manage it, but that's a story for another day].

So: asylum seekers. Hungry, filthy, exhausted people from places like Afghanistan or Syria, which incidentally do not share a border with Poland. The locals, being decent folk, started feeding and helping these new arrivals, because that's just what you do when a tattered wraith shows up on your doorstep speaking some weirdass language and making the universal gesture for "I'm hungry". The Border Guard, being in violation of national laws as well as international conventions Poland had ratified, started trucking these asylum seekers back to the border and forcing them to cross back to Belarus, which is called a pushback. The Polish government, elected in part due to vicious anti-refugee propaganda, stated that the border must be reinforced to prevent the entry of "waves of unauthorized persons" participating in "hybrid warfare" and declared a state of emergency along the entire border. These migrants, they said, were extremely dangerous. Culturally foreign.

Why would seeking asylum be considered hybrid warfare? This links back to Europe's last remaining dictator west of Russia: Alaksandr Lukashenka, Supreme Ruler and Deathless Emperor of Belarus. His people allegedly came up with a clever racket: they started selling Belarusian visas in various poorer countries many people want to emigrate from and transporting migrants to the Polish border, claiming that this would be their gateway to a better life in the European Union.

So: asylum seekers. According to Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. [Incidentally, Poland is a signatory of the UDHR.] Regardless of their country of origin, people crossing over from Belarus have the right to request asylum in Poland. And they do. Every time they get caught. In English, in Polish, in their native languages… Upon hearing a request for asylum the Border Guards are supposed to transport the migrants to a processing center where they would then wait for their application to be reviewed. But because these migrants are extremely dangerous, the Border Guards trash their belongings and dump them on the Belarusian side without shoes, without meds, phones, jackets, in any kind of weather, regardless of any injuries. And there are many. The terrain can be tricky to cross if you're not used to this type of boggy temperate forest. Or if you haven't had your meds in a while. Or if you're six. It won't be easy even if you're a - just like the current government's fearmongering election ads warned a few years ago - healthy young male with a cell phone.

When Belarusian Border Guards come across these ejected migrants, they force them back toward the Polish border. People keep ping-ponging between two walls of armed, uniformed enforcers who are getting more violent with every passing week. Some manage to get through and make it to Germany to request asylum in a law-abiding country. Others don't. 48 bodies were recovered along the border so far. NGO workers creep through the woods handing out hot soup and donated shoes to migrants; according to them, this is a fraction of the real number of casualties and some bodies will simply never be found. Volunteer medics get their tires slashed, aid workers get harassed, detained and charged. But the Border Guards don't kill, yet. Not directly. We're Europeans, after all! We're civilized!

It's a humanitarian crisis and an international shame. And the [abridged] wall of text above provides the necessary context to why I can't schadenfreudenly cackle over the latest government scandal, even though I love to point and laugh when that bunch steps on a rake.

See, earlier this month a Deputy Foreign Minister got fired for helping with a work visa racket. When the border crisis began to unfold, he'd already been ~facilitating procedures~ for like a year. This country needs workers; a significant chunk of the workforce up and emigrated, including many healthy young males, and the national birth rate is still failing even though the government did everything like the Catholic Church said. The deputy minister wouldn't even come up with a list of in-demand jobs; diplomatic missions are slammed with work after other changes he did implement, so he'd personally order consulates in some Asian and African countries to expedite certain applications. And all that time his party has been openly approving of unconstitutional pushback procedures targeting people from similarly "culturally foreign" [read: Muslim] countries. Incidentally, this far-right party is called Law and Justice. Hypocrisy is a virtue and cruelty is the point.

I wanted to end this with a punchy, quotable call for action, but my words ran out. The border crisis is still happening, even though it's clear by now that Poles and Poland can handle an influx of refugees far larger than the groups coming through Belarus. Summer is almost over and the coming months are likely to be cold and rainy. All I can do is signal boost and donate to aid groups.

[barrzut]

Design for Culture of Solidarity X Rabbis for Human Rights current campaign raising funds towards vulnerable and marginalized communities affected by the war in Israel-Palestine: Crucial aid and food security towards survivors and evacuees from the 7/10 massacre facing poverty, Bedouin communities in the Negev, Palestinians displaced due to settler violence, asylum seekers and migrant workers.

Please consider donating and sharing <3

Link attached