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Calais Migrant Crisis: Faced With War, Poverty And Rape, Wouldn't You Come To Europe Too?

Forget 'Swarms' And 'Marauders': This Is Why People Are Coming To Europe
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By 

Politics Reporter, HuffPost UK

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They have been branded "marauders" and a "swarm" by the British government, but the migrants currently landing on European shores are fleeing nations where executions, torture, rape and poverty are commonplace.

"The movement of people across the globe is primarily a consequence of the vast inequalities that exist and which express themselves both in terms of sheer poverty but also wars and political instability," Don Flynn, director of the Migrants Right Network, told the Huff Post UK.

After David Cameron branded refugees in Calais a "swarm", his defence secretary following in quick succession by referring to African migrants as "marauders" on Monday, many people might have lost sight of what thousands of displaced people are actually fleeing.

One-third of all those who claim asylum in the UK have been victims of torture, one charity claims, while hundreds of thousands flee war-ravaged, fractured homelands, making for Europe in a bid to save their families from rape, human rights abuses and death.

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The UK takes one of the lowest number of Syrians fleeing civil war

"The current situation at the external borders of Europe is first and foremost a product of a humanitarian crisis," Flynn tells The Huffington Post UK, "and it will not be solved or even managed down to a tolerable level by what are essential tough cop police measures.

"But we should not let the politicians lead the public mood into a fit of pessimism and despair that anything at all can be done about the situation," he adds.

"Europe is a region of 500 million people and, despite its recent economic travails, it remains rich and resourceful enough to attend to crises which sweep a tiny fraction of that number into the insecurities of refugee existence."

According to the UNHCR, the highest number of refugees coming into Europe by sea are those from Syria (34%), Afghanistan (12%), Eritrea (12%), Somalia (8%) and Nigeria (8%). Below we look at what is currently going on in those countries.

Migrants
Syria(01 of05)
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Members of Jabhat as-Sham make preparations before an attack on Daesh terrorists

Last week, Isis operatives kidnapped more than 200 Syrians, including several Christian families. Meanwhile three suicide bombers targeted pro-Asaad checkpoints in a co-ordinated attack near the central province of Homs.

These are just the latest events in a country which has been rendered almost unrecognisable by a brutal civil war, sparked in 2011 following the Arab Spring.

In 2012 evidence President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons on his citizens saw Britain's Upper Tribunal rule that "extremely high human rights abuses", committed by a regime which "appears increasingly concerned to crush any sign of resistance" meant that it was likely any failed asylum seeker, or migrant ultimately deported back there, was likely to face a "real risk of arrest and detention and of serious mistreatment during that detention".

So far the conflict has led to the deaths of 300,000 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says, and displaced millions.

All sides of the conflict are committing war crimes and attacks against civilians, the Home Office also claims.



That includes massacres, torture, rape, hostage-taking and enforced disappearance. Government forces have also been responsible for executions, indiscriminate shelling, barrel bomb attacks, large scale use of chemical weapons, chlorine gas attacks and airstrikes and recruiting and using children in hostilities. (credit:Photo by Huseyin Nasir/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Afghanistan(02 of05)
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Asadullah, a commander of local militia, talks with his men in Talawka village in Kunduz province

Afghanistan is the second-highest contributor of migrants to Europe.

On Monday a suicide bomber killed four and injured 17 in an attack on the country's biggest airport in Kabul, an incident that now barely makes news headlines around the world.

The attack came just days after the Taliban claimed responsibility for three separate attacks which claimed the lives of 50 people.

Afghanistan has the twelfth highest infant mortality rate (70 to every 1,000 live births) in the world, some three million drug users, and a literacy rate of 38.2%.

So-called 'anti-Government elements' (AGEs) in Afghanistan are large in number; they use threats, intimidation and abductions to intimidate communities and individuals and thus extend their influenceand control, targeting those who challenge their authority and ideas, the Home Office claims.

Taliban fighters have instructed civilians to keep away from “enemy military and intelligence gatherings,” and “electoral offices, votingbooths, rallies and campaigns (…) so their lives are not put into danger,” warning that those who failed to comply would risk being killed or injured. Around 20,000 innocent civilians have been murdered.

Despite the establishment of a new government and the presence of multi-national force under Nato, conflict within parts of the country continues to generate displacement.



(credit:AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
Eritrea(03 of05)
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The Danakil Depression, a valley bordering Eritrea, is the hottest place on earth, with temperatures reaching 63 degrees Celsius.

Eritreans make up some 12% of all refugees arriving by boat in Europe, according to the UNCHR .

However, failed asylum seekers sent home are viewed by their governent to be perceived as having left illegally and this fact, with few exceptions, will mean that on return they face a real risk of persecution or serious harm.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry blames the country's "gross human rights violations" for its population's exodus and claims that people leaving it are "faced with a seemingly hopeless situation they feel powerless to change".

Mandatory National service in Eritrea can be extended indefinitely and "soldiers" are routinely used on civilian labour projects in what Amnesty International says amount to "forced labour."

Some workers report they have been trapped in the system, without access to university and earning little more than $30 a month, for up to years at a time.

The Eritrean government has recently urged UN security council members to help bring human traffickers to justice, blaming its populus' exodus on smuggling groups, rather than human rights abuses.

At least 5,000 people flee the country each month, the UNHCR added, with thousands of them making up the numbers trying to cross the Mediterranean. (credit:Stephan Gladieu/Getty Images)
Somalia(04 of05)
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The Somali Olympic Committee President Aden Yabarow Wiish is carried from the Somali National Theater in Mogadishu, Somalia, after a bomb blast

According to EU-border control force 'Frontex', more than 2,900 Somalian migrants are currently risking their lives to escape to Europe, making it the country which is fourth largest in number of migrants crossing into Europe by sea.

The country was without a formal parliament for more than two decades after the overthrow of its President, Siad Barre, in 1991; the years that followed created an unsettling political landscape, leading many of its citizens to flee.

Somalia has been ill-equipped to deal with humanitarian crises, a series of which have gripped the country. In 2011, the country experienced its worst drought in six decades, leaving millions of people on the verge of starvation, and tens of thousands fleeing to neighbouring Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food and respite.


It also faces a growing problem from pirates, those hijacking trade as well as vessels and causing a scourge to the international shipping trade that costs up to $7billion a year.



Violence against women is a particularly prominent problem in Somalia, with abuse incidents occurring daily - either in the family or from National Army officers. Women and young girls face double victimization because, after being violated, they often have no effective justice and support system to turn to.

Female genital mutilation, meanwhile, continues to remain a perennial problem. Those from minority clans face particularly brutal and incessant attacks, the Home Office reports. (credit:AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Nigeria(05 of05)
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Workers combing bushes recover the bodies of at least 143 civilians killed by suspected Islamic militants

Nigera is besieged by terror groups and ranks fifth highest in the countries forcing the most amount of people to seek refuge in Europe.

Best well known to Brits is perhaps the story broken over a year ago that 270 schoolgirls had been abducted by Jihadists Boko Haram, with the campaign to locate and rescue the missing children supported by the likes of US First Lady Michelle Obama. It led to mass domestic and international outcry and the launch of a Twitter campaign, #BringBackOurGirls.

The terror organisation, which operates in the northeast of the country, frequently uses Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), car bombs, and periodic suicide attacks, as well as small arms crimes and arson to terrorise citizens into submission, US congressional research shows.

Life expectancy in the country is only 52-years, compared to 81 in the UK.



Six people were arrested on Monday after four soldiers and a police officer were killed by suspected pirates.

Security forces recovered arms and ammunition following the targeting of a military checkpoint in southern Bayelsa. (credit:Press Association)
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