GERMANY’S NEW REFUGEE POLICY IS TARGETTING
IN PARTICULAR TEACHERS, CHEMISTS, ENGINEERS AND DOCTORS
GERMAN LEFT-WING DAILY, JUNGE WELT, REPORTS
FROM SYRIA
Everyday, buses with emigrants are leaving the
Syrian capital Damascus. A ticket can be got from any travel agency. Depending
on the destination the cost will be between $300 and $400. The cheaper option
is to travel across the border to the Lebanese port city of Tripoli, from there
one can connect with a ferry to the western Turkish Izmir. Pay a little more
and one can also take a flight from Beirut Airport to Istanbul.
From Turkey, the route continues across the
sea to Greece, some refugees make two, three or four attempts to reach a Greek
island by boat. The refugees perform this task themselves. The boat is
skippered by one of their number, who in return does not have to pay for the
dangerous voyage.
For such a journey it can cost up to €10,000.
The money for this voyage the refugees get either from their families or by
selling property. It is mainly the middle class who can afford it. The new
refugee policy of Germany attracts mainly teachers, pharmacists, engineers and
physicians from Syria. Magically nationwide
courses in German are all the rage. In the past few years many have tried
unsuccessfully to get a visa from the German embassy in Beirut. Now they are
embarking on the dangerous and expensive escape route.
There is a rumour circulating in Instabul
and even in Baghdad that the German government is planning to send ships to the
coast of Turkey to accommodate the refugees and bring them to Germany, in order
to avoid any more tragic images of dead children on the Mediterranean coast.
The misery being endured by the Syrian poor
and Palestinian refugees from Syria remains very much in the background of the
media coverage. More than 150,000 Syrian Palestinians now share their cramped
living quarters with relatives and friends in the Palestinian refugee camps in
Lebanon. Living conditions are catastrophic in the mafia controlled Zaatari camp
in northern Jordan and even more so in the Jordanian cities. The situation is so disastrous that more than
120,000 people have returned from there to Syria. In July alone, the United
Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) registered more than 1,300 Syrian returnees. The
people return to Syria due to the lack of security and the complete hopelessness
of finding work in Jordan. In addition, back in Syria the children are able to
return to school.
Meanwhile, the fighting continues on many
fronts in Syria. Neither side has made any breakthroughs. The Lebanese channel
Al-Mayadeen reported this week that two villages in the northern Syrian
province of Idlib have literally been colonised by Turkish Uyghur units, who are
defending them. Back in 2013 it was reported that Chinese Uyghur came to Syria via
Turkey and joined the Jihadi Al-Nusra Front and later the "Islamic
State" (IS). Through this colonisation policy, Turkey is obviously trying to
bring parts of northern Syria under its influence. Earlier this year the Idlib
province was attacked by the "Army of Conquest" militia, which is
financed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
On Thursday allegations were made that
IS-combat forces had repeatedly used poison gas again in northern Syria. A
spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said reports from various sources had
been received and the UN Security Council would have to take “appropriate
action” to deal with this danger.
Meanwhile in Damascus, the Iranian Deputy
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian met with Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and reaffirmed his country’s political, economic and military support
for its war-torn neighbour. In particular, they would cooperate in the fight
against terrorism. Syria is a sovereign state and has the right to decide
"its own future". At a joint press conference with his Syrian
counterpart Faisal Mekdad Abdollahian stressed that both Iran and Russia were
united in their view the Syrian president must play a central role in any
political resolution of the conflict. An Iranian peace plan was being discussed
with Damascus. Tehran is seeking the United Nations involvement in making the
following proposals a reality: ceasefire, national unity government,
constitutional changes, parliamentary elections
In Beirut Abdollahian had already spoken with the UN special envoy for
Syria, Staffan de Mistura, and the Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
