Migration is not a crime

[webfact]

EDITORIAL

Migration is not a crime

By The Nation

 

By jailing 300 Uighurs in 2014, Thailand was caught in an international bind, eased somewhat by the escape last weekend of the few still remaining in custody

Thailand’s awful track record in dealing with asylum seekers and other refugees from overseas suggests that Tuesday’s government announcement – about formalising human rights as part of the national policy – is mere hypocrisy. Until the rights of undocumented foreigners are genuinely respected in this country, Thailand – particularly under military rule – cannot hope to be taken seriously.

 

Most recently we have seen six senior Immigration police officers in Songkhla kicked out of their posts (urgently transferred elsewhere, in official terminology) after 20 Uighur prisoners escaped from a detention centre. Without a more forthright response, though, the underlying issues will not be addressed and neither state practice nor Thailand’s reputation will improve.

 

In March 2014, more than 300 foreigners believed to be Uighurs were found to have entered the country without the proper documentation. No one seemed bothered by the reason they came – systematic abuse by the government of China, which promptly demanded their repatriation. Thailand promptly began complying.

 

The 300 were divided into three groups. The first group, numbering 172 people, was sent to Turkey, as per their wishes and proof of nationality. The second group of 109 was in July 2015 put on a plane bound for China – against their will – because they were accused there of violating the law. The incident drew international condemnation of the Thai authorities amid concerns that the Uighurs would be tortured upon their return to China.

 

The remaining prisoners got stuck in Thailand because their nationalities could not be verified, and they were held in custody, their captors saying only that they should be grateful that their bellies were filled with Thai rice. Some were subsequently resettled in third countries, leaving just 25 – old and young, men and women – with nowhere to go beyond the detention centre in Songkhla. Their relatives’ pleas that the prisoners had merely been fleeing repression in China and should be freed to travel on to Turkey went unheeded, as did appeals from the Thai Muslim community.

 

Sometime overnight Sunday or Monday, the captive Uighurs tunnelled through their cell wall and descended to the ground outside via blankets tied together. Five stayed behind, too old or ill to take the risk. The escape could not have been too difficult, but people familiar with the Uighurs’ predicament say they must have had inside help – or at least that the authorities turned a blind eye.

 

Wisut bin Lateh, director of the Southern Coordination Centre’s Sheikhul Islam Office (Chularajamontri, as it’s locally known), believes the dramatic escape takes the pressure off Thailand to deport the prisoners to China and allows the escapees a chance to reunite with relatives now living in third countries. It’s an attractively optimistic view, but it ignores the fact that Thailand must appear to the world as absurdly irresponsible. If the authorities did indeed condone or assist in the escape, why were these people arrested in the first place?

 

If respect for human rights actually is being incorporated into the national agenda, we have an example here of a good place to start. Whenever people arrive claiming to be refugees, they must be officially classified, fed and sheltered, and assisted in getting safely to where they wish to go. Jail is a place for people who commit crimes, not for strangers who ask for help. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/opinion/30332301

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-11-23

[ukrules]

There are no 'human rights' in Thailand, not for anyone who's not Thai anyway.

[Orton Rd]

Something to admire the Thais for is their no nonsense approach to so called asylum seekers and illegal migrants, illegal immigration IS a crime.

[greatwhitenorth]

55 minutes ago, Orton Rd said:

Something to admire the Thais for is their no nonsense approach to so called asylum seekers and illegal migrants, illegal immigration IS a crime.

 Escaping persecution  should not be a crime in even the most twisted of minds. 

[Briggsy]

They were arrested so they would have to pay the police to escape. No absurdity there. No morality or consistency either. Mai pen rai, cash is king. Same MO as with the Rohingyas but the Thais got carried away and got a liking for mass murder there. That is what happens when there is no moral underpinning to a section of society.

[coulson]

Likening Uighers to animals and sending them back to China to an unknown fate, prompting a terrorist attack on civiloand at the Erawan shrine, however, should be recognized as a crime.

[Old Croc]

There's something like 15,000,000 Uighurs living peacefully in Xinjiang province in China.

Much like Muslims in southern Philippines or southern Thailand there are separatist groups who see terrorism as a path to forming their own state.

To call a small group illegally crossing borders, probably fleeing consequences of their crimes, to be migrants, is somewhat disingenuous.

[Orton Rd]

1 hour ago, greatwhitenorth said:

 Escaping persecution  should not be a crime in even the most twisted of minds. 

Only a very small percentage actually are facing persecution, and then they are meant to claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in, not the one they fancy living in the most!

[Thian]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The second group of 109 was in July 2015 put on a plane bound for China – against their will – because they were accused there of violating the law. The incident drew international condemnation of the Thai authorities amid concerns that the Uighurs would be tortured upon their return to China.

 

So why does the international opinion condemn this and at the same time does loads and loads of business with China??

 

They could just tell China to not violate human rights or loose their exporting business worldwide.

[gandalf12]

3 hours ago, ukrules said:

There are no 'human rights' in Thailand, not for anyone who's not Thai anyway.

You mean not for anyone who is not Thai and rich

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, greatwhitenorth said:

 Escaping persecution  should not be a crime in even the most twisted of minds. 

 

Perhaps. But an awful lot of economic migrants jump on that bandwagon.

 

And in fleeing persecution the first sanctuary is where they go. Not this cherry picking of which country they fancy.

 

Besides which, no country has to accept any migrants it doesn't want to. Unless governed by the likes of Merkel.

[connda]

Until the rights of undocumented foreigners are genuinely respected in this country, Thailand – particularly under military rule – cannot hope to be taken seriously.

Ok, I want to claim economic refugee status and I want to stay in Thailand forever and toss all my documentation, and live just a like a Thai under Thai social welfare programs like health care!!!  

How's that fly friends?  <imagine the vision of pigs with wings>  
 

[Enoon]

 

1 hour ago, connda said:

Until the rights of undocumented foreigners are genuinely respected in this country, Thailand – particularly under military rule – cannot hope to be taken seriously.

Ok, I want to claim economic refugee status and I want to stay in Thailand forever and toss all my documentation, and live just a like a Thai under Thai social welfare programs like health care!!!  

How's that fly friends?  <imagine the vision of pigs with wings>  
 

 

7 billion people on the planet.

 

150,000 + years of human movement around the planet is not going to stop because you and less than 2 billion other white folks have made your "stash".

 

A stash that primarily exists as a result of the application of cannon, whip and maxim gun, by the ancestors of said white folks, to the majority population of the planet.

 

What goes around, comes around.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2017 by Enoon

[Foozool]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Migration is not a crime

But there will be no welcome banner or red carpet for migrants who cross borders without proper ducuments. 

[foxboy]

The World is a little bit more full than it once was, so control of migration is wholly necessary. Every country has some level of immigration control, and for very good reason. We can't just all move to the 'best' place, as that 'place' will quickly have their resources diluted to a point where it becomes more like the place where those people came from. 

Your country is your birthright, and the privileges it affords should be protected. Why should you have a moral conscience to share it with the rest of the world? 

[Bluespunk]

11 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Something to admire the Thais for is their no nonsense approach to so called asylum seekers and illegal migrants, illegal immigration IS a crime.

The Uighurs are fleeing persecution and violence.

 

There is nothing supposed or 'so called' about their need to seek asylum.

[Orton Rd]

some people will believe any old sob story, and they all have one!

[Srikcir]

12 hours ago, webfact said:

Migration is not a crime

It is in Thailand.

Thailand has never ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not recognize the status of refugees. As a result, asylum seekers are not distinguished from other immigrants, legal or illegal.

 

If the Junta is serious about incorporating human rights into the national agenda., it can start by having its rubber stamping NLA ratify the Convention. If it doesn't, everything else it does is just smoke.

[MyFriend You]

On 11/23/2017 at 7:15 AM, greatwhitenorth said:

 Escaping persecution  should not be a crime in even the most twisted of minds. 

Why not, you don't like your country and their laws, so you decide to go live in some other country, they other country is just supposed to accept you?????????  Never have agreed with that, not in this modern day & age.........persecution in the eyes of one is law enforcement in another's.   We in the US have put up with these 'economic migrants' for far too long, I don't fault another country for doing so.

[connda]

On 11/23/2017 at 11:27 AM, Enoon said:

 

 

7 billion people on the planet.

 

150,000 + years of human movement around the planet is not going to stop because you and less than 2 billion other white folks have made your "stash".

 

A stash that primarily exists as a result of the application of cannon, whip and maxim gun, by the ancestors of said white folks, to the majority population of the planet.

 

What goes around, comes around.

 

 

 

 

So 2 billion white folk are responsible for Thai immigration policy as a "result of the application of cannon, whip and maxim gun."    Ok.  Sure.  Why not? 
Current Thai immigration policy then is not doubt due to an overuse of products containing Hydroquinone by the Thai public.   

Edited November 27, 2017 by connda

[overherebc]

On 25/11/2017 at 2:48 PM, TunnelRat69 said:

Why not, you don't like your country and their laws, so you decide to go live in some other country, they other country is just supposed to accept you?????????  Never have agreed with that, not in this modern day & age.........persecution in the eyes of one is law enforcement in another's.   We in the US have put up with these 'economic migrants' for far too long, I don't fault another country for doing so.

If their home country has been so bad to them then stand up in public, destroy your religious 'uniform', shave and work at any menial task you are offered for the minimum wage.

Don't just arrive and demand a free life style and demand that your host country should respect your religious 'uniform' because it's obvious your own country doesn't.

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, connda said:

So 2 billion white folk are responsible for Thai immigration policy as a "result of the application of cannon, whip and maxim gun."    Ok.  Sure.  Why not? 
Current Thai immigration policy then is not doubt due to an overuse of products containing Hydroquinone by the Thai public.   

Once my dad punched out a neighbour. I must seek out the neighbours offspring and offer them my apologies and maybe cash compensation. Sounds good to me, not.

[RawboneFunksta]

Unfortunately, every country to which muslims migrate experiences problem once the migrant population reaches a certain point. It's simply a fact.

Often the problems are begun by extremist types who kill a few or more of the locals . . . . .sometimes as in the case of Europe they are allowed to continue their dissent and establish elements of their own laws/religious behaviours and in others like Burma the locals over react by expelling all of them. 

[Xonax]

On 11/23/2017 at 5:31 PM, Bluespunk said:

The Uighurs are fleeing persecution and violence.

 

There is nothing supposed or 'so called' about their need to seek asylum.

They could just have chosen to live in peace with the other 15,000,000 Uighurs in China, who are not being persecuted.

[Bluespunk]

3 minutes ago, Xonax said:

They could just have chosen to live in peace with the other 15,000,000 Uighurs in China, who are not being persecuted.

You need to read up a little more on what is happening in China.

[greatwhitenorth]

1 minute ago, Xonax said:

They could just have chosen to live in peace with the other 15,000,000 Uighurs in China, who are not being persecuted.

Chances are they were living in peace with the other 15,000,000 Uighers.  It is not Uigher persecuting Uigher 

It is Han Chinese ( 17% of the worlds population) persecuting Uighers

[Srikcir]

18 minutes ago, Xonax said:

They could just have chosen to live in peace with the other 15,000,000 Uighurs in China, who are not being persecuted.

This isn't about the rest of China with about 1.4 billion (excl. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) of which 91.5% are Han Chinese. As to 15 million Uighurs in China, what is your source? As an atheist state, doesn’t survey its people on their religion.

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/china-population/

 

The region where these Uighurs live has had unlike other parts of China intermittent autonomy and occasional independence, but what is now known as Xinjiang came under Chinese rule in the 18th Century. An East Turkestan state was briefly declared in 1949, but independence was short-lived - later that year when Xinjiang officially became part of Communist China. There was no asking.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26414014

 

So the question becomes, "Why can't Communist China live in peace with the Muslim Uighurs?"

Edited November 27, 2017 by Srikcir
typo

[overherebc]

9 hours ago, Srikcir said:

This isn't about the rest of China with about 1.4 billion (excl. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) of which 91.5% are Han Chinese. As to 15 million Uighurs in China, what is your source? As an atheist state, doesn’t survey its people on their religion.

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/china-population/

 

The region where these Uighurs live has had unlike other parts of China intermittent autonomy and occasional independence, but what is now known as Xinjiang came under Chinese rule in the 18th Century. An East Turkestan state was briefly declared in 1949, but independence was short-lived - later that year when Xinjiang officially became part of Communist China. There was no asking.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26414014

 

So the question becomes, "Why can't Communist China live in peace with the Muslim Uighurs?"

Why can't tbe muslims live in harmony with the Chinese???

[wakeupplease]

On 11/22/2017 at 10:50 PM, ukrules said:

There are no 'human rights' in Thailand, not for anyone who's not Thai anyway.

For anyone who is not an elite scum bad, its as simple as that The Hub of Human rights abuses

[Srikcir]

29 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Why can't tbe muslims live in harmony with the Chinese???

It is the Chinese Communist government who can't live in harmony with the Uighurs in Xinjiang.

For the reasons why I covered in my response Post #27 to Xonax.