FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] With Nothing left to lose, Man "walks under the Sea" to London [Wonder]

International migration is not new. People have always moved around, sometimes across national borders. What seems to be new, is the intensity of the desperate determination of many migrants to leave their home countries, at a time the size of global economy is the largest it has ever been, because their countries do not share this growth. Globalization has created and continues to create great wealth. Sadly this wealth is not only not widely shared or spread out,  but is concentrated in a few countries and a few hands. In a manner of speaking the flow of this wealth is mostly one directional when it should be multi-dimensional. There is no intention to trivialize a serious issue and one acknowledges that international migration is complicated. The nagging question is why millions of people are so desperate to leave the home countries they know, for the new country they do not know, but are prepared to risk life, limb, and in some cases treasure to get there? Hope must indeed spring eternal in the breasts of those who make that choice.

Hard times at home caused by incompetent and oppressive governments drive some who can to leave their home countries to do so. Imperialism- the domination-driven interference/intervention in a country's affairs by one or more foreign countries is another. Imperialism destabilizes countries because the interferers/interventionists want that country to be like this and not like that.  Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen are examples. Many Central American countries are examples too. It is ironic that some interventionist countries now bear more of the brunt of the international migration that their interference/intervention precipitated. If only the world's wealth will be shared more fairly, and more countries learn to be more respecting of other countries, and know when, the extent, and how not to interfere outside their countries. Fewer people will leave the certainty and security wholesomeness of their homes for the uncertainty, insecurity, gamble, and in some cases unwholesomeness, of living abroad, if they did not have to. For some migrants, it is a matter of a better life or a premature death.

 

oa

 

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2015 4:09 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] With Nothing left to lose, Man "walks under the Sea" to London [Wonder]

 

i think there are discussions in the e..u. now to address the questions you are raising, toyin. that's been in the french and british press all week. who know what they will actually do. it is also driven by complaints by hongarians who are building a wall to stop immigrants, who are coming from turkey or albania through to eastern europe, en route to western europe
ken

On 8/7/15 10:41 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

Should a case like this not be seen less in terms of breaking the law than as a fantastic,  heroic quest for the basics of a civilized, humane, human life?

 

Is this man's feat  not a great example of positive human possibility?

 

Do the sheer guts and creativity this example demonstrates, a story that belongs in the global records of all time in projecting  the farther reaches of human possibility, not indicate a call to reexamine this migrant challenge in a spirit of accommodating and integrating this wave of people seeking the basics of decent human life?

 

What do these migrants really want?

 

The opportunity to work and live basic, decent lives in secure societies.

 

Should Europe and the world's rich countries not draw up a plan to accommodate these people?

 

Does the fact that the West grew  with the aid of  centuries of colonisation and slavery  of the ancestors of many of these people seeking refuge in the West  and the fact that the West may be described as creating and controlling  the global economy within which many nations may be described as having not much more than a marginal  place  not make it a moral duty  for the West to accommodate these people from societies which are yet to find a full place in the modern world or where the struggle for survival is a great challenge?

 

We should practice a unifying humanity not the culture of seeing non-citizens of a nation  as 'aliens',a latter term which I even seem to have seen in use in a  country's official document.

 

thanks

 

toyin

 

 

On 7 August 2015 at 21:25, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <toyinkaidara@gmail.com> wrote:

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: 'Gregg Ukaegbu' gukaegbu@comcast.net [NIgerianWorldForum] <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>
Date: 7 August 2015 at 19:57
Subject: [NIgerianWorldForum] With Nothing left to lose, Man "walks under the Sea" to London
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com

 

Sudanese Migrant Tries to Reach England by Walking Length of Channel Tunnel

By DAN BILEFSKYAUG. 7, 2015

Inside

Supported by

Photo

A migrant jumped a fence in an attempt to access the Channel Tunnel in Calais, France, this week. Credit Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

LONDON — For one African migrant, there was nothing left to lose.

The migrant, Abdul Rahman Haroun, 40, risked his life this week by climbing four fences, evading around 400 security cameras and international search teams, and walking about 30 miles underground in the darkness of the Channel Tunnel in an effort to reach England from near Calais, France. He dodged trains traveling to London from Paris as they hurtled by at up to 100 miles per hour.

He became on Tuesday what the authorities said was the first migrant to walk nearly the entire length of the Channel Tunnel. Officials at Eurotunnel, which operates the crossing, said that Mr. Haroun had been close to the other side of the tunnel, in Folkestone, England, when he was arrested.

Mr. Haroun, who news reports said is Sudanese and has no fixed address, was charged this week with obstructing engines or carriages on a railway under the Malicious Damage Act of 1861. He is expected to appear at Canterbury Crown Court on Aug. 24.

Britain and France are grappling with a spiraling migration crisis in which thousands of desperate migrants have tried to cross the channel in recent weeks by cutting through fences and stowing away in trucks or other vehicles. On Friday, the United Nations called on France to draw up a "civil emergency" plan to accommodate the thousands of people living in makeshift camps in Calais.

Romain Dufour, a spokesman for Eurotunnel, said by telephone on Friday that the company was investigating how Mr. Haroun had entered the tunnel undetected, despite heightened security.

"It is illegal and very dangerous to attempt to enter the tunnel, and a person can be seriously injured or killed," Mr. Dufour said. "Mr. Haroun could now face prison, and he will likely not be able to get asylum. He has lost everything."

Mr. Dufour said that Mr. Haroun had left Calais around 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

An alert had been put in place overnight after hundreds of migrants tried to enter the Eurotunnel terminal, Mr. Dufour said, but Mr. Haroun was nevertheless able to make his way toward England.

Three tunnels cross the channel: two that are used by trains, and a smaller service tunnel. Mr. Haroun used the southern rail crossing, Eurotunnel said.

With security personnel on alert, Mr. Dufour said that traffic was halted in a roughly 10-mile stretch of the tunnel, and that inspectors searched the tunnel and sealed the entrance on the French side.

Police officers scoured the area for intruders, leading to two-hour delays for some passengers. A "test" train was also sent at a slow speed to inspect the tunnel, he said.

Photo

The French police on patrol Thursday outside the Channel Tunnel. Britain and France are grappling with a spiraling migration crisis in which thousands of desperate migrants have tried to cross the Channel in recent weeks. Credit Juan Medina/Reuters

After hours of searching, British authorities said Mr. Haroun was finally caught in the southern Channel Tunnel and arrested near Folkestone, around 6:15 p.m., nearly 10 hours after beginning his journey.

The journey made headlines on both sides of the channel, illustrating how a determined migrant could evade the authorities in what the daily newspaper Nord Littoral described as a dangerous "game of cat and mouse."

The newspaper noted that Mr. Haroun had risked his life in a "mad race." Mr. Dufour said Eurotunnel had been dealing recently with nearly 1,000 attempts a day by migrants trying to get to England by various means, although he said the number appeared to be decreasing in recent days.

An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 migrants are housed in a camp near Calais. Britain last year received an estimated 25,000 asylum applications, compared with about 175,000 in Germany, according to the United Nations.

The logjam caused by migrants trying to cross the Channel is costing the British economy as much as $390 million a day, according to some estimates.

Many of the migrants in Calais come from conflict-ridden countries in the Middle East and Africa and have endured perilous journeys across the Mediterranean, often abetted by human traffickers.

The migrants say Britain is an attractive destination because they speak English, and because they believe the country offers better employment prospects than elsewhere in Europe.

Tuesday was not the first time a migrant had managed to get inside the tunnel. In June 2012, a migrant succeeded in entering the same southern tunnel that Mr. Haroun entered, but he was arrested after getting stuck in a storeroom.

According to Eurotunnel, the Channel Tunnel has the longest undersea section of any tunnel in the world.

 

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-- 

kenneth w. harrow 

faculty excellence advocate

professor of english

michigan state university

department of english

619 red cedar road

room C-614 wells hall

east lansing, mi 48824

ph. 517 803 8839

harrow@msu.edu

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