THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS SURGE INTO SLOVENIA IN NEW ROUTE

[Blue_Tires]

Source: AP

PETISOVCI, Slovenia (AP) -- Thousands of migrants surged into tiny Slovenia on Saturday as an alternative route opened in Europe for them after Hungary sealed its border for their free flow, adding another hurdle in their frantic flight from wars and poverty toward what they hope is a better life in Western Europe.

The closure of Hungary's border with Croatia early Saturday caused redirection of thousands of people - including women and small children soaked in cold rain - further west toward Croatia's border with Slovenia.

The small European Union-member state has limited capacity to process large numbers wishing to head toward richer European Union countries such as Germany, Austria or Sweden.

This could leave thousands stranded in Croatia and further east and south in Serbia and Macedonia - the countries on the so-called Balkan migrant corridor. The Hungarian border closure is the latest demonstration of EU's uncoordinated response to the flow of people reaching its borders.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EUROPE_MIGRANTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-10-17-09-32-06

[Fred Sanders]

1. Migrants? Is that the new word chosen by the propagandists to replace "refugee" or "human being"?

The Western media is as sick as the Western governments now shunning responsibility for the long history of regime change they have waged for generations in the Middle East.

If these desperate folks terrorized enough by the historical accumulation of the consequences of Western imperialism to flee their own homes and country on foot are to now be called "migrants" then I feel safe in calling the West "warmongrels".

[Blue_Tires]

2. You know not everyone is "refugee" in the legal sense, right?

A good number of these folks are economic migrants just looking for better opportunity... And for the record, "Economic Migrants" is an official EU designation so it's not like it's some great insult to denigrate them

[Fred Sanders]

3. What to call "these folks", a number were children, that drowned off the coast of Turkey today?

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/twelve-refugees-drown-boat-sinks-turkey-report-397950510

[Blue_Tires]

4. Both terms would be accurate, and both are used in the story

It would be nice if more scrutiny was paid towards the human traffickers (who collect anywhere between $1,000 to $15,000 per head) who put their clients on floating death traps, not caring if they live or die because they're already collecting fees for the next group to leave port...

[WinkyDink]

6. How do you know they are all "desperate"? Don't desperate people take the first refuge offered?

[840high]

7. Yes they do. +1

[Igel]

8. Desperate for what?

For survival, for safety? Then yeah, they usually do.

For a better life, given that their status as a refugee in Lebanon or Turkey or Jordan is precarious and after the war they'd have to return home, and for now they're in limbo? Lots of economic migrants are desperate enough to risk death in the desert, leaving family and offspring or siblings behind and dividing their families, for a better job or to send money back home for those who remain to have a better life.

And there's the rub. Empathy and sympathy can be stultifying, esp. when it lines up with ideology. For many, there could be nothing better than to suddenly add 10-20% to Germany's population, forcing massive income redistribution, culture shifts, etc., etc. It doesn't affect them. Of course, by and large they only want those who have already left to have this right. There's usually little desire to move the remaining 100 million who haven't left and who are, in point of fact, in far more desperate straits.

Not that some wouldn't like that. Empathy is a two-edged sword, and often involves as much contempt for one side as actual compassion for the second.

[itcfish]

10. I Was Just Going to Post the Same

They are NOT migrants. They are refugees escaping war. Why does the media call them Migrrants? They are not seeking a better economic situation, they are fleeing for their lives.

The media wants to paint these people as greedy people looking for a better life. They are not. They are seeking safety.

[jalan48]

5. The Neo-Cons certainly stirred up a little shit pot in the Middle East.

Now-people are fleeing with little hope except something better down the road. What had been a much more stable region prior to the MICs big money making venture has descended into a hell-like chaos. We own it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. The Middle East is going to be empty.

Just a pile of rubble with the desert wind blowing sand or everything. It's already almost unlovable there.