Migration Crisis

As President Trump puts children into cages and Italy refuses to allow refugee boats into its ports, how should western democracies respond to the growing migration crisis?

VIDEO SCRIPT:

America puts traumatised children into cages.
Italy: happy to leave refugees stranded at sea.
The migration crisis exposing our worst instincts.

Hi, I’m Leon Hawthorne. European Union leaders hold a summit on migration this week, but don’t hold your breath for any solutions.

Migration is a big problem for Europe and North America. Presently, there are huge movements of people – mostly black and brown – fleeing their homes, risking their lives to travel thousands of miles to get into rich, western democracies.

They’re coming from the Middle East and North Africa into Europe; and from Central America into the United States.

The reaction has been a rise in racism, cruelty and – from our politicians – a complete lack of policy solutions.

Building a wall and separating children from their parents is not the answer for the U.S. Nor is allowing millions of Muslims to come into Europe.

So, why are there so many displaced people?… War, especially civil war. And we in the west are directly to blame for wars, from which many of the migrants are fleeing… in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen.

We have aided and abetted in so many conflicts; and we are shocked when casualties turn up on our doorsteps.

In Central America, the problem is the War on Drugs, which has converted so many countries into narco states, with daily bloodbaths on the streets… corrupt police, judges, politicians and soldiers.

Drug consumption in the United States has created this mess. And the U.S. catalyses the problem by selling the guns used by the cartels to terrorise the public.

If Central America legalised drugs, the violence and corruption would end overnight. When was the last time someone from Coca Cola murdered a rival from Pepsi? It’s prohibition that is the cause of all this carnage.

So, foreign policy, drug policy and the final problem is our trade policy.

The EU’s Customs Union is tantamount to a wall around Europe’s borders. It imposes barriers on goods coming from Africa and the Americas. While recent Economic Partnership Agreements have reduced some tariffs, overall policy stifles economic growth in developing countries; and the resulting poverty fuels migration.

The solution to the migration crisis is simple.

Change foreign policy that creates war and prolongs civil wars.

Assist in creating peace, even if that installs regimes we don’t like, or it leads to the natural break-up of some countries.

End the futile War on Drugs that is laying waste to so many countries.

And change trade policies that keep poor countries poor.

I’m Leon Hawthorne. Thanks for watching.