SURVEY: Do you believe European countries are justified in seizing asylum-seekers assets?

[Shadychris]

Frankly, I am horrified (if not surprised) by the racist, xenophobic votes and posts here. We were all privileged to be born in well-off countries with world access, male, and English speakers. We've never had the threat of bombs dropping, levelling our houses, schools, and hospitals and drone attacks of our weddings and funerals.

Sure there may be a few fanatics among the refugees who perhaps could be revved up to become terrorists. But 99.999999999% are just people like you trying to make the best life for their families in a safe place.

Honestly, your lack of compassion for a problem our well-off countries, particularly the US, have created is appalling. If it were your family & community which was so threatened, you, too, would trek thousands of miles to safety. Show some respect for your fellow humans!

Well at least now you know what most people think

Someone who is so easily "horrified" clearly perceives on the emotive level, and this is evident by the hyperbole and pejoratives "racist...xenophobic..." labels. What person needs to insult another to make their argument seem the better? There is no indication that there are a "few fanatics" among these masses of people. All evidence points immediately and consistently to the fact that there are large numbers of people presenting various problems to the host nations, including rape, robbery, theft, public loitering, littering, intimidation, etc. The entire position above seems to be entirely predicated upon whether or not a person is a terrorist, and assumes anything short is acceptable. The assertion that people have a duty to accept the violent and abrupt decline in their lives is absurd.

There is zero indication that "99.999999999%" (there are not this many people involved in the equation) are just like me, living in a "safe place." The vast majority of these people are nothing like me at all. I do not believe women are property, children can be married, someone else is inferior because of their secret appreciation for god, or others are stained by god. I do not believe in slaves, the superiority of my race, nor the inferiority of others. The vast majority are young single males without families. The vast majority are not remotely similar to me. You keep citing the image of families seeking to live better lives but this is a fantasy unrelated to this problem. Families are the exception. Among the first observations supporters and detractors alike realized is the palpable absence of families, children, and even the old from the hoards descending into Europe.

Almost certainly the most accurate depiction of the reality of the current situation, and extremely well written!

[boomerangutang]

A guy gets his home bombed and drags his family across the the ocean in a rubber raft and walks halfway across Europe to find somewhere safer and now you want to 'seize' his worldly belongings. Help him or don't help him but taking what's left he's got in this world is just wrong.

I don't think the Swiss plan is to just seize everything and let him suffer. I think the Swiss are providing shelter and services, so they Swiss think that there should be some reciprocation. They're probably even giving free language lessons, medical care, job training and assisting in finding a job.

Perhaps this is a wrong analogy, but if you had daughter who was in her 40's, who suddenly showed at your house with her Syrian husband and 9 kids and a several added relatives of the husband (mostly men in their 20s and 30s) - because things were too tough where they were residing. You would probably help them out, but if they had money in the bank or valuables, you'd probably like some compensation for providing meals, shelter, counseling, rides, and such.

[simple1]

<snip>

Plus, if the "refugees" don't have all their documents, how will the host country know who is family and who isn't?

If refugees are unable to establish their identity they are not permitted asylum status, nor family reunion permitted

Don't know about the rest of the world but i know for a fact that you incorrect when it comes to Sweden regarding this thing.

Foolish to permit entry without establishing ID. Hasn't the Swedish gov't now passed legislation or about to do so to refuse entry for those without verifiable ID., plus cut back asylum seeker intake

[ravip]

"Where ever they go they cause trouble...UK/Germany/France..etc...they think they are above the law."

This is exactly what these countries did in the refugees country!!!

Som nam naa

[connda]

Frankly, I am horrified (if not surprised) by the racist, xenophobic votes and posts here. We were all privileged to be born in well-off countries with world access, male, and English speakers. We've never had the threat of bombs dropping, levelling our houses, schools, and hospitals and drone attacks of our weddings and funerals.

Sure there may be a few fanatics among the refugees who perhaps could be revved up to become terrorists. But 99.999999999% are just people like you trying to make the best life for their families in a safe place.

Honestly, your lack of compassion for a problem our well-off countries, particularly the US, have created is appalling. If it were your family & community which was so threatened, you, too, would trek thousands of miles to safety. Show some respect for your fellow humans!

The average 'refugee' is a single male Mulsim between the age of 18 to 35 traveling without families. This isn't a refugee crisis, it's an invasion.

Again, why aren't the oil rich counties of Saudia Arabia, The UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman taking a million+ refugees each is a show of Muslim charity?

"A Kuwaiti official has cleared up the mystery floating why none of the oil-rich Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, have yet allowed the Syrian refugees fleeding the savage civil war in their land to set foot on their shores.

Kuwaiti official Fahad Al Shalami told France24 television in a broadcast interview on Sept. 2 that in fact, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should never accept Syrian refugees."

That's why. Google it. You can source the quote.

[Asheron]

<snip>

Plus, if the "refugees" don't have all their documents, how will the host country know who is family and who isn't?

If refugees are unable to establish their identity they are not permitted asylum status, nor family reunion permitted

Don't know about the rest of the world but i know for a fact that you incorrect when it comes to Sweden regarding this thing.

Foolish to permit entry without establishing ID. Hasn't the Swedish gov't now passed legislation or about to do so to refuse entry for those without verifiable ID., plus cut back asylum seeker intake

Yes, there are ID controls now when you travel by train from/to Sweden from Denmark. But there are no ID controls if you take lets say a taxi over the bridge to Sweden. So it's just a bad theatrical comedy. Sure, the amount of "refuges" coming to Sweden has dropped a lot but that's because the information about how to get to Sweden hasn't spread yet and lets not forget that it's winter now so the amount has dropped by "natural" reasons.

I'm only wishing that the entire EUSSR will collapse and we finally get back our independence. Because that's what EU is: a dictatorial oligarchic system where very few non-elected bureaucrats make the laws.

[7by7]

The question is too simplistic; as already said by others; what is meant by 'assets?'

If refugees/asylum seekers/migrants, call them what you will, have access to sufficient cash then obviously they should use that to support themselves and not receive any state aid.

But seizing wedding rings, family heirlooms and similar, as has been suggested? Definitely not.

An earlier poster said that asylum seekers should be treated the same as nationals of the host country; no European country would force a national to sell these items before they could claim any benefits.

As the results from Switzerland show, whilst causing great anguish to people who have lost their homes and fled for their lives, the money raised would be insignificant.

Migrant crisis: Switzerland defends asset seizure law

Assets were reportedly seized in just over 100 cases in Switzerland last year out of almost 30,000 asylum applications........

The authorities collected a total of 210,000 Swiss francs ($210,000; €200,000) from 112 people in 2015 under the regulation

I have to wonder how much it cost the Swiss government to administer the system; more that 210,000 Swiss francs, I bet!

[Asheron]

The question is too simplistic; as already said by others; what is meant by 'assets?'

If refugees/asylum seekers/migrants, call them what you will, have access to sufficient cash then obviously they should use that to support themselves and not receive any state aid.

But seizing wedding rings, family heirlooms and similar, as has been suggested? Definitely not.

An earlier poster said that asylum seekers should be treated the same as nationals of the host country; no European country would force a national to sell these items before they could claim any benefits.

As the results from Switzerland show, whilst causing great anguish to people who have lost their homes and fled for their lives, the money raised would be insignificant.

Migrant crisis: Switzerland defends asset seizure law

Assets were reportedly seized in just over 100 cases in Switzerland last year out of almost 30,000 asylum applications........

The authorities collected a total of 210,000 Swiss francs ($210,000; €200,000) from 112 people in 2015 under the regulation

I have to wonder how much it cost the Swiss government to administer the system; more that 210,000 Swiss francs, I bet!

Yes they do, in Sweden you do not get a single öre from the social security office if you have any kind of material things to sell so you can have food on the table. They even make you sell your car worth like 500 USD and you have to use that money before you get anything. Doesn't matter if it is "heirloom" or not, if it's worth something you have to sell it. But then again, if you are quiet about that heirloom you don't have to sell it.

[7by7]

OK, I stand corrected; only one European country would.........

Unless anyone knows any different.

Does that include wedding rings, as has been suggested for asylum seekers, btw?

[billd766]

Frankly, I am horrified (if not surprised) by the racist, xenophobic votes and posts here. We were all privileged to be born in well-off countries with world access, male, and English speakers. We've never had the threat of bombs dropping, levelling our houses, schools, and hospitals and drone attacks of our weddings and funerals.

Sure there may be a few fanatics among the refugees who perhaps could be revved up to become terrorists. But 99.999999999% are just people like you trying to make the best life for their families in a safe place.

Honestly, your lack of compassion for a problem our well-off countries, particularly the US, have created is appalling. If it were your family & community which was so threatened, you, too, would trek thousands of miles to safety. Show some respect for your fellow humans!

quote "

Frankly, I am horrified (if not surprised) by the racist, xenophobic votes and posts here. We were all privileged to be born in well-off countries with world access, male, and English speakers. We've never had the threat of bombs dropping, levelling our houses, schools, and hospitals and drone attacks of our weddings and funerals."

YOU may not have had this happen to your country but in my country (the UK) it did happen during WW2 and not more than 300 metres from where I used to live.

Not that many UK citizens left the UK for a safer country, Canada for example, but stayed in the UK as my family did.

Now why should I as a taxpayer in the UK support thousands of people who have little in common with the UK, who come to my country, don't assimilate with the people there, cannot speak the language, have no or few assets, to be fed and housed by my taxes when my country does not have enough money to feed and house its own people?

What is wrong with the refugees that they want to come to the west yet their own religious brothers in the Gulf countries refuse to help them.