Destroy Their Economic Livelihoods, and They Will Come

As we all heard Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric during the American election drama that "illegal" & "undocumented" immigrants are destroying US. Whether they are indeed "destroying" American economy & the country itself, that's up for debate, but what nobody ever talks about is why there are so many people pouring across the border from Latin & Central America.

I have explored this topic earlier, in my blogs, that one of the many reasons so-called "developing" countries of the world are stuck in "developing" mode for decades, & even centuries, is that the wealthy & developed Global North (i.e. US, Canada, Western Europe, Australia etc.) are actively destroying & deliberately keeping the "developing" countries in the "developing" mode. There are several ways of doing this through economic (subsidies on industries etc.), financial (aid with exorbitant interest rates & conditions), & military (sell weapons) means. Several times, all these are intertwined. For instance, financial aid is provided to a country, which then turns around & buy military equipment from the same countries that gave the aid in the first place. So, the aid is never got used to service the public or improve the country.

In this Real News analysis, Mr. Faux is essentially saying the same thing that the average person from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, or El Salvador is running away from its country & trying to enter US because US made those countries a hell for that average person. The average American is hating that "illegal" Honduran or Guatemalan or El Salvadoran taking away his/her job or whatnot but the fact of the matter is that that average American racist person is the cause for that "illegal" to run away from his/her home in the first place.

If that average American would not have elected or at least protested against its own government's illegal intervention in the internal governmental matters of those Central American countries, then there would be far less, if not none, "illegals" in the US.

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                                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvjSam5yyE

JEFF FAUX, AUTHOR, THE SERVANT ECONOMY: For the last few months, the last 6, 8 months, ... tens of thousands of children have been pushing across the U.S. border between Mexico and Texas in a desperate effort to flee poverty and violence and hopelessness in their countries.

They're overwhelming facilities down there. The detention centers are overcrowded. The immigration service doesn't know what to do with these kids. Some of them get put on buses to be sent to families someplace. It's a mess.

And it's quickly deteriorated into politics, of course. The Democrats and Republicans blame the president. The president says it's a humanitarian crisis, so we have to act, and so we do. But lost in this debate is the question of U.S. responsibility for the basic causes of this tragic immigration to the United States. Immigration politics in the U.S. focuses on the U.S. But ... the question of what to do with people who are arriving here misses the point of how they arrived and why they arrived.
People come from somewhere, and in this case 95% of these children are coming from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Now, this just happens to be three countries, along with much of the rest of Central America, that the U.S. has dominated and controlled for the last hundred years.

ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER: Well, exactly what role has U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and Central America played in driving this immigration?

FAUX: ... to answer that question, start with another question. If the United States is skilled in nation building, which it says it is, why are these economies such social and economic disasters? The answer is we have not run these economies for the people there. We have run them for U.S. investors who want cheap labor and their oligarch cronies who provide the cheap labor.

The enforcer of this system--and this is a system that goes back decades--... is the U.S. military. Whenever people there have challenged the rule of these oligarchs and these repressive governments, the United States has run to the rescue of the oligarchs.

In 1954, famously, Guatemala elected, finally, a left-leaning reformer. The first thing that happened was that the United States organized the Guatemalan military for a coup and an attack, and they drove the president out. It was followed by 40 years of savage repression, 150,000 people murdered in that little country over that period of time. Today, the same rich families and the same military control Guatemala.

I was in Guatemala recently, and people told me they were afraid to take a bus, because what happened is that every once in a while, ... armed thugs, would come aboard the bus, shoot the driver, and rob the passengers. A few days later, I was talking to a young man who said no one can get a real job in this country unless they're connected to one of the five or six ruling families, so everyone wants to immigrate to the United States. But it costs $10,000 to hire a coyote take him here. Where are you going to get the $10,000? They borrow it from the criminal gangs. Most of the time, people never make it and they find themselves back in Guatemala owing $10,000 to some pretty bad people. And those criminals, gangs, say, give us the money (this is in his words) or we'll kill your mother, or come work for us. And your first job is to put a mask on, take a gun, go board a bus, shoot the driver, and rob the passengers.

Guatemala is a basket case under the regimes that we have supported.

Same thing in Honduras. 1963, a reformer got elected. We supported a coup to get rid of him. 2009, another reformer gets elected. We support another coup. Now, 2009, the Obama administration publicly said, oh, that's terrible and ... they denounced it, but privately, they paved the way for the military-run government to stay, and the oligarchs once again triumphed.

In 2011--this is only the latest budget numbers that we've been able to uncover--we exported $1.3 billion in military electronic equipment to Honduras. Now ask yourself: what is Honduras--who is Honduras defending itself against? Who is invading Honduras? The answer, of course, is nobody. Now, their rationale is this great war on drugs. In the last 30, 40 years, billions of U.S. dollars have gone to the military in Central America, ostensibly because of the war on drugs. Now, after 30 or 40 years, it's quite clear that the war on drugs is a failure. And the reason it's a failure is because the military that gets all this aid is knee-deep in narcotrafficking. And what's happened now is the combination of drugs, weapons, and poverty is destroying this country to the point where the children are fleeing. The war on drugs in Central America is a failure, but the war of the elite oligarchs on their own people has been a success. And the result are these poor children being driven across the border.

Now, whatever comes of the immigration battle between the Democrats and Republicans, whatever happens to the president's bill, the waves of desperate immigrants from Central America, from other parts of the Caribbean that we have essentially dominated over the last hundred years will not diminish and is never going to diminish unless the United States government and the United States people face the reality that the basic cause of this immigration is rooted in the corrupt regimes that we have supported all these years.

Thousands of children in Britain being forced to live on £1 a day

Since, this is happening to 1000s of children, "many of whom are British children," what do you expect will happen to the children of refugees. In many cases, refugees are treated much better than the country's own citizens. Why?

Reason being that, depending on how visible the issue is of refugee crisis (for example, the current refugee crisis stemming from the wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya etc.), governments tend to throw inordinate amount of money at the crisis to appease the voting public. But, since, the government has a set amount of money in its coffers, it takes that money from somewhere else in the social security system. So, for instance, in this case, other vulnerable families & children.

This news story also dispels the myth that Western countries are awash in money. This myth is especially true in Asia, Africa, & Middle Eastern countries ... all the developing nations. At least, 80% of the public of Western countries is struggling financially. These people are the residents & citizens of the country; be it UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy etc.

Problem is that these people & stories are not visible. What is visible in the media is the high-falutin' people with luxurious lifestyles of the rich. In many cases, those people themselves are also struggling financially, & only able to afford luxurious items by borrowing heavily on their credit cards.

So, anyway, if & when, refugees & their families are treated much better in a Western country than their own citizens & their families, resentments & hate start fomenting among the public. Citizens turn against refugees, whom they see as robbing them off jobs & money, of which those citizens think they were entitled of, in the first place. Were those citizens entitled of that extra financial help is a separate discussion. But what should be of common sense to any government is that the welfare of its own public comes first.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/thousands-of-children-in-britain-being-forced-to-live-on-1-a-day-10292792.html

Thousands of children – many of whom are British citizens – are subsisting on as little as £1 a day because their parents are migrants with no recourse to public funds.

There are 5,900 children in England & Wales living on the brink of total destitution because their parents cannot work or receive government benefits, according to research from The University of Oxford’s migration unit. Charities say the situation is pushing vulnerable children into “severe poverty & hunger.”

In almost a quarter of the families affected at least one child is a British citizen, researchers from Oxford’s Centre on Migration, Policy & Society (COMPAS) found. Some go for months without receiving any help at all, forced to sleep in cars, disused buildings or even on the street.

Most of the families affected are here legally but awaiting a Home Office decision on their immigration case. ... 71% of the families helped by local authorities in 2012/13 had a decision on their immigration status pending.

Forbidden from working or receiving welfare, the only money many migrant parents can find to feed their children is a child poverty payout from social services, which can be as low as £5 a week for a family. If the local authority decides the child is destitute its family will also be given accommodation.

The Home Office does not help families while they wait for a decision on their immigration case unless they are seeking asylum - & it forbids them from working.

Local Authorities have an obligation to help all destitute children under the Children’s Act. The financial support, known as Section 17, is set by individual councils, often on a case by case basis.

Since councils’ budgets have been significantly cut back by central Government, these payments are frequently far below the necessary amount to live on. Payments typically range from £23 to £35 per child per week but this money has to feed parents too. If a family receives help from a food bank the value of this is often deducted from the meagre council help, leaving them with just a few pounds a week for nappies & other essentials.

Matthew Reed, chief executive of The Children’s Society said: “The desire to be seen to be tough on immigration can often mean the government overlooks its legal obligation to recognise children as children. As a result, too often they & their families are being pushed into severe poverty & hunger. They are being made homeless, forced into over-crowded, inappropriate accommodation & even on to the streets.

“Some families aren’t even being assessed to determine what help they need or are entitled to. And if they do get support, it is too low & often at the discretion of local authorities. Recent cuts to legal aid & the Home Office’s slow decision making means children are being forced to live on this support for long periods of time. This must change.”

Experts believe the Government needs to step in & provide funding to protect children’s welfare in this situation. Mr. Reed said: “It is critical that these families get the help they need & that the Government provides the funds necessary so local authorities can protect these children’s welfare. Children must be treated first & foremost as children — not as immigration statistics.”

Councils have to assess whether a family is eligible by working out if they are truly destitute. Researchers found social services often rejected cases with very little evidence.

Rita Chadha, chief executive of the Refugee & Migrant Forum of Essex & London (RAMFEL), said: “We see at least one client a day in this situation. They come in extremely distressed. We’ve seen children sleeping in church graveyards & disused shops. In many cases councils won’t give families money until prompted to by other agencies.”

More than a third of families surveyed survived on rudimentary council support for more than a year, largely due to lengthy waits for a decision from the Home Office. In 7% of cases, families needed help for more than 3 years.

Jonathan Price, co-author of the report, said: “Even after they have started receiving Section 17 support, some children face long periods living on subsistence rates that are well below those deemed minimal for any other category of people in the UK. This raises real concerns about the long-term impact of poverty on these children.”

Price added: “These are vulnerable people. We found that, prior to receiving local authority support, children & families were living highly precarious lives & were sometimes subject to exploitation. Domestic violence was an element in many referrals.”

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We welcome those who wish to make a life in the UK with their family, work hard & make a contribution. But family life must not be established here at the taxpayer's expense.

“We work closely with local authorities to ensure that immigration decisions in cases receiving local authority support are made as quickly as possible.

“In exceptional circumstances, or where people granted leave on family grounds show that they would otherwise be destitute, they are granted recourse to public funds.”

The study was based on a survey of 137 Children’s Services departments in England & Wales, as well as 105 voluntary sector organisations & 92 interviews.

My rant on Refugee crisis (second one)

Few points were mulling around in my head after continuously reading comments & social media posts that Muslims & Arab countries are not doing enough to ease the refugee crisis from Iraq & Syria:

1. Muslim countries have taken millions of refugees:
Although, Muslim countries can certainly do more, they are/have done a lot already. Syrians are taking refuge in Turkey (1.9 million refugees), Jordan (650K), & Lebanon (1.3 million) for the past 3 years. That totals up to 4 Million refugees in 3 Muslim countries alone. Source: UNHCR

From a Sept 4th article on Bloomberg, "Nabil Othman, acting regional representative to the Gulf region at the United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, told Bloomberg there were 500,000 Syrians in that country [Saudi Arabia]. Saudi Arabia, like all of the Gulf states, is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, so these displaced people are not officially designated as refugees." Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait & UAE have not taken refugees themselves, but UAE, Kuwait & Qatar, for example, are providing financial help to refugees through UNHCR. These countries have donated millions of $$$. These countries are smaller in size & cannot cope with a large influx of refugees. Those refugees will overwhelm their local economies & labour markets.

2. Quite a few of the refugees entering in Europe are actually just getting there to search for a better economic life. They are taking this issue as a perfect opportunity to enter Western developed countries without all the hassles of immigration process. They are not running away from Syria to save their lives. For example, the instigator of this issue, Abdullah Kurdi's family (Aylan Kurdi's family), was already safe in Turkey since 2012.

After all, why are Afghanis & even Pakistanis & Bangladeshis are in these refugee crowds who are trying to enter into Europe. Afghanis have claimed asylum in Pakistan & in Iran for decades, now. It's easier for Afghanis to enter into Pakistan & Iran as refugees than go all the way to Europe. Same question can be asked for Pakistani & Bangladeshi "refugees". These are not refugees. They are "economic opportunists." That's why, European government leaders are now trying to distinguish between the words, "migrants" & "refugees". Angela Merkel even said that all those "refugees" from Balkans will be sent back (which emphasizes my point that people into Germany & Austria are not all "refugees"). David Cameron emphasized that UK will only take "refugees," & not migrants looking for a better life.

3. Pope's call is similar to all those Christian missionary teams which used to go to Africa, South America, South East Asia. It was famous that these missionaries were brutal in their faith conversion tactics; accept Christianity & we will give you food & shelter or don't accept Christianity & you won't get anything. Of course, Pope's call is not that radical, but there are already stories coming out that some Iranians & Afghanis are converting to Christianity. (Source: Daily Mail) Their thinking is that as Christians, they can easily claim asylum in Europe by claiming that they fear persecution in Middle East.

4. Germany is taking almost 800K refugees because it has a hidden agenda: Germany is running a huge shortfall of labourers & it needs low-tech workers for its workforce. Every refugee wants to eventually work, & unlike, Arab countries, where the majority of population is young & educated, European countries are aging & need younger workforce. Although, Jordan, Lebanon, & Turkey are housing these refugees, these refugees are not allowed to work there. Most of the Western countries, depending on their own labour markets & economies, will either permanently resettle some refugees or send these refugees back to their countries of origins after a certain amount of time has passed.

Don’t blame migrants – the West helped to create their plight

A great opinion piece by Yasmin Alibhai Brown.

A lot of it what she said I have been saying all along in my blog posts (June & July 2015), especially the ones about how the West is busy selling arms & weapons to the developing countries in Asia, Middle East, & Africa.

First, the Western countries looted current-developing countries through invasions, occupations, & wars. Then, they concede those territories to the locals but they still keep meddling in the internal politics of the regions of Asia, Africa, & South America. For them, it's a game of political chess to keep their superiority intact.

In the piece, the author, although, does concede that all the blame cannot be put on the shoulders of first world leaders, since a lot of the developing countries are ruled dictatorially by corrupt leaders. But whoever has read my previous blog posts may recall that I put the blame of those corrupt leadership on the first world leaders, too.

Those corrupt leaders of the developing world are propped up by the staunch support of the same first world leaders, who, so proudly, extoll the virtues of democracy, human rights, & free speech.

Saddam Hussein was a good friend of the American leadership. So was Bashar Al-Assad. So is current Saudi ruling family. And they are such good friends that American governments still censors the documents & reasons why Saudi royals were quickly shipped out of US, right after the 9/11 incident. UK government flies their flags at half mast at the death of Saudi King. Canada obliges to keep the sale of billions of $$$ of armoured vehicles secret, at the request of Saudi ruling family.

The main reasons the developed countries keep such despots in power in developing countries are:
1. developing countries keep transferring their financial wealth to these developed countries through arms purchases.
2. conditions in developing countries keep & stays horrible, so the intellectual brain drain starts to happen.
3. That intellectual brain becomes a "legal" slave in the West, working in jobs for which he/she is way overqualified but he/she works there because he/she needs money.
4. developing countries also lose their mineral & agricultural wealth (as mentioned in the piece, too)

All in all, this truth has to be spoken. Problem is that the majority of the population of the West either doesn't know or doesn't want to know how their governments have destroyed, & are still destroying, the developing countries. But ignorance is not the answer when comeuppance comes along.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/dont-blame-migrants--the-west-helped-to-create-their-plight-10273545.html

... . After years of ferocious migrant-bashing, the national psyche has been successfully reprogrammed: millions of our citizens truly believe that humans from the old Soviet Union, Africa, Asia & the Middle East are flocking to get at those gorgeous council flats & big, fat, state handouts.

So easy isn’t it? Just blame those who can’t answer back. Don’t think too deeply about why there is this movement of peoples & how they feel before, during & after they leave their homelands.

...

Most migrants carry that sense of loss, even those who went off voluntarily to seek better fortune. Those who have never felt the need or pressure to emigrate can’t empathise with them, for that would be a chink in their fortress mentality. Fear is a terrible thing. It depletes compassion.

To many Britons, the current crisis is disconnected from history, & from global geopolitics. Again, it is so much easier to think of “them” & “us”, & disregard Western culpabilities, past & present.

In 2011, David Cameron, on a visit to Pakistan, accepted that Britain was responsible for many of the world’s intractable problems. It was the first & only time I recall a British leader accepting that colonialism left fractures & stains which have led to discord & failed states. (Margaret Thatcher, as well as Tony Blair & Gordon Brown, extolled the Empire & the subjugation of millions.) Mr. Cameron was savaged by the right-wing press & Labour’s Tristram Hunt. Maybe that is why he never again spoke candidly about that history. Silence is the path of least resistance.

No, you can’t just blame white people for post-colonial chaos & failures. Since independence, leaders have almost all been incompetent, corrupt & callous. Dictatorships & one-party rule, profligacy & greed, have despoiled potentially productive nations, turning them into hopeless, dependent, unsustainable entities. But the case against old European imperialists is strong & indubitable.

Last week, one Drusilla Long had a letter in a newspaper about desperate & desperately unwanted migrants. She was raised in Ghana during British rule. “I believe [we should] return some of the immense wealth we all stole from these countries, such as gold, diamonds, etc, which we have long used to build up our own wealthy ‘fortress’ Europe,” she wrote.

Brave woman, saying the unsayable.

Then there is the continuing support this country gives to oppressive regimes, the arms we sell, & the wars we have launched in the past 20 years. Iraqis never chose to become resented refugees, nor did Afghans.

Libya is now the export depot for hungry, frightened, distressed people. The allies who bombed the place have gone & feel no obligation for the mess they left. Many ISIS insurgents are from Saddam Hussein’s old Baathist army. True, we did not intervene in Syria, but for decades Bashar al-Assad was propped up by us, as was his equally heinous father. Many of the migrants trying to get into Europe come from these places. They are hated perhaps because they remind us of our bad policies & actions. Are these then our noble British values?

When bigots tell me to go back to where I came from, I remind them I am here because the British government supported Idi Amin’s bid for power. A million or more black Ugandans fled or were killed. Some fled to the UK. Has Britain ever admitted this was a big mistake? ...

Among the flotsam & jetsam of wandering humans are “economic migrants” who are seen as the biggest threat of all. They, too, are victims of Western games & unending austerity measures. We know how that affects the vulnerable & should understand why people die trying to escape poverty.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) & World Bank have driven down spending on health & education across Africa & elsewhere. Developing world debt is used by the West to cut the cost of raw materials & steal resources. Privatisation is the condition for borrowing money. It stinks.

Anup Shah is the editor of the excellent www.globalissues.org. He writes about the unjust trading system. The West protects its interests & pushes poorer countries to supply materials, labour & goods at the lowest costs. To be a dumping ground, too.

The EU, IMF & World Bank must transform the system; our leaders need to tell more truths about the dispossessed. Xenophobia, withdrawal of welfare & gunboats won’t stop the tide of humanity coming to our shores. They come because they have no choice. But the West does.

Schools shutting out US-educated Mexicans back home

The life of a migrant, legal or illegal, is always uncertain & up in the air. A migrant loses his/her network when he/she moves, & hence, can never settle down completely in his/her new surroundings. Making a new network is like starting life from scratch, which is not possible for many.
 
They are considered "foreigners" in their own countries (& by their fellow compatriots) because they are not culturally, socially, & in many cases, linguistically (at least those migrants' kids) similar to their compatriots. Their hardships in life can only be understood by other migrants.
 
At the same time, those migrants are considered "foreigners" / "aliens" in their adopted country, especially if they cannot completely adopt the culture of their adopted country, due to religious or cultural reasons. Heck, even if they do adopt, they can still be considered as "foreigners," during a national crisis, like Japanese were interned in US & Germans were viewed as suspicious during world wars. Come 21st Century & Muslims are considered "2nd-class" citizens.
 
For instance, Canadian government just passed Bill C-24 that will effectively take away Canadian citizenship of a Canadian citizen, if that person is dual national & his/her home country judges him/her to be a "terrorist" (without any court oversight, the minister / government will cancel his/her citizenship based on the judgement of another government, which in many cases, is / will be considered as corrupt court & government).
 
People always think life is going to be greener on the other side (the other side being a "developed" country) but it's not a certainty. Developed countries have their own rules & customs (some quite absurd) & native residents of developed countries will always get the preferential treatment in all spheres of life, in addition of them having a solid lifelong social network.
 
Migrants, legal or illegal, are like people without a home. Life of a migrant is always harsh, hard & disappointing (at least for most migrants).
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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/04/schools-shutting-educated-mexicans-home-150420214336236.html

Efigenia Martínez said it was one of the biggest mistakes of her life to bring her grandson Javier back with her to Mexico.
 
"They treat him like a foreigner but he’s Mexican, he's from here. They've made it so difficult for him to study. I feel like they are discriminating against us."
 
Efigenia has cared for her grandson since birth & when he was 9 she took him illegally to Los Angeles. He crossed the border in a car with a smuggler & then when she knew he was safe, she followed in the back of a trailer.
 
It was her third illegal crossing. For 5 years they lived with some of her other children & grandchildren in San Fernando. Despite his illegal status, Javier had no problems enrolling in a US school.
 
He was a good student & was about to start high school when Efigenia's husband got sick & they came back to Mexico.
 
It was then that Javier's education problems began. Despite a visit to the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles to get Javier's documents in order, the director of her local school in Cuautepec north of Mexico City said they wouldn't admit him without proof of what grade he had completed.
 
"I thought because he's from here it would be easy to get him into a school, but it was easier in the US. Here they asked for many things," Efigenia told Al Jazeera. "They said his classes in the US weren't valid. I was sent all over the city dozens of times to different authorities."
 
In the end, after almost 6 months, they had no choice but to enrol Javier as an "oyente" - or unofficial student. He was allowed to go to classes to listen but he wasn't the school's responsibility & wouldn't receive any qualifications.
 
It's a familiar tale for thousands of children - originally from Mexico or born in the US to Mexican parents who return to Mexico after having studied in the US.
 
Outside the system
 
According to migrant rights' groups, the full number of children stuck in this bureaucractic limbo is not known.
 
Gretchen Kuhner of Instituo para las Mujeres en la Migración (IMUMI) says the issue is ongoing.
 
"There are more and more kids facing this situation because of the number of deportations & many are coming back to Mexico for economic reasons," she said.
 
The 2010 Mexican census identified 597,000 US-born children living in Mexico. The next census, out later this year, is expected to see a significant rise in those numbers.
 
Children need birth certificates & documents that prove their level of education, & they have to be translated & stamped in such a way that the Mexican authorities accept them.
 
But parents are left to their own devices to navigate a complex situation, said Kuhner.
 
"They don't know what to do, & many are afraid of turning to the authorities. And it can be as simple as not having a credit card because they're undocumented or poor. If you have the right network & access to the internet, it's easier, but it can take a year just to get a birth certificate."
 
The Mexican constitution states that every child has an unconditional right to a free education. But because Mexico signed the Hague convention, certain documents must be legally certified for international use & school directors do not want to break the rules.
 
Some countries have exempted themselves from this provision but not Mexico, said Kuhner.
 
"It's a lack of political will - there's no other explanation."
Despite repeated calls, the Mexican Ministry of Education did not comment.
 
Access to education is not the only obstacle facing those trying to integrate back into life in Mexico.
 
At Efigenia's house, recent returnees, many with family still living in the US, meet every week to discuss their problems.
 
Most yearn to go back north & hope to be granted a visa. Many of the mothers at the meeting describe how without the required papers or identification their children couldn't use Mexican health services.
 
Patrica Lujano returned because her mother was sick & her family's immigration status was in jeopardy after her husband committed a crime.
 
Unable to get her two children, aged two & three, into a kindergarten in Mexico City or seen by doctors because their paperwork was not in order, the family moved to another Mexican state with more relaxed rules & paid to fix the problem.
 
"We could do it because we had the economic means but many can't, leaving them outside the system," Lujano said.
 
More dangerous life
 
Ma Elena Ayala's son Hector is one of the most extreme examples. Deported months before he was due to graduate from high school, he had nothing to show for his 15 years in California.
 
Not only was he unable to complete school in Mexico but as a result his work options were very limited Ma Elena says.
 
"At nearly 19, with poor written Spanish & no certificates, he was told he would need to start his education all over again in Mexico."
 
In the end he went to work selling candles.
 
Conscious of this growing problem, the US embassy in Mexico is trying to ensure those born in the US get their US passports.
 
Karin Lang, Chief of American Services in Mexico, told Al Jazeera it is doing what it can to help "this large & very vulnerable population".
 
"These children face significant challenges in economic, educational, & social integration in Mexico. While the Mexican Constitution guarantees access to education for all children regardless of documentation or immigration status, as a practical matter many children are either not admitted to school or are admitted on a conditional status that precludes them from obtaining certificates of completion.
 
"Without access to education, children anywhere are at high risk. With these children, this is an issue for both countries. These children are US citizens & they are Mexican citizens."
 
As for Javier, 16, he dreams of going back to California & studying music. Living back among his cousins, uncles & aunts, adjusting to life in Mexico has been tough.
 
At school he was made fun of because he sounded American. And on the streets where he lives he still does not feel safe.
 
"Life here is more dangerous," he says, "people get robbed or killed. The schools here have fewer resources too. There we had playing fields & computers."
 
When his grandmother, who has since obtained a US visa, last returned to California, he got sick & pleaded that she take him.
 
Efigenia finally got Javier's documents in order before he completed secondary school, but he still has not received his certificate.
 
"They've told me they don't recognise his classes in the US, but they've also asked me to pay double," she said.
 
He left school over a year ago & cannot go back to finish his education without the certificate.
 
Efigenia, too, dreams of taking him back to the US legally or illegally, but she said smuggling him over the border again is virtually impossible.
 
"I want to take him but my children say these days it costs $9,000. It's so expensive. Where can I find that money?"

Have police departments across the US declared war on black people?

A great opinion piece. Simply fantastic. Left me speechless. Some points in it were similar to what I've been saying all along in my blog posts (for example, I've always said that slavery has not ended but immigration in the developed world is a form of slavery when migrants are considered second-class citizens, & regardless of how much US & the developed world lectures the developing world on human rights abuses, the developed world itself has a far worse continuing record in human rights abuses). A must-read piece.

Only thing I will add here is that although, this opinion piece is focused on African-Americans, I will add all minorities in it; be it South Asians or Latinos. Any & all minority, which is "coloured", is very adversely affected by North American racism on a daily basis. If you see there that I mentioned "North American," because racism is as much in US as in Canada. We, Canadians, may think there's no or far less racism in Canada than US, but ask any minority in Canada how they are faring in Canadian society, & they will tell you how racism has affected them.

A great line from the piece: "Rather than the land of the free, the United States of America is the land of cruelty & barbarity, a corporate dictatorship under which the poor & dispossessed are locked out of society, denied healthcare, housing, education, & life chances compatible with a humane system of government & economy."
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http://www.rt.com/op-edge/255829-police-brutality-black-us-rights/

Organizers from the group, Ferguson Action, declared recently that, “The war on Black people in Baltimore is the same war on Black people across America. Decades of poverty, unemployment, under-funded schools & police terrorism have reached a boiling point in Baltimore & cities around the country."
 
The scenes of civil unrest in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray – the latest in an alarming number of young black man to end up dead at the hands of the police or while in police custody – broke with a recent pattern of non-violent protest & attempts to gain justice & redress through the system. Despite 6 of the cops involved in the Freddie Gray case being charged with Gray’s homicide, it remains to be seen whether the unrest in Baltimore is a one-off event or a deepening of a developing crisis that appears to have no end in sight.
 
According to figures compiled by the Free Thought Project – a US justice advocacy group – 136 people had been killed by the police across the country. It’s a figure that makes sober reading when we break it down into 1 victim every 8 hours, or 3 per day. No other industrialized nation compares in this regard, highlighting the extent to which social cohesion in a country that extends itself in lecturing other nations around the world on human rights is near non-existent.
 
That said, those included in the aforementioned number of victims of police violence are not only black people, & it is a fact that more white people have been killed by the police than black, until of course we break that statistic down to factor in the proportion of black victims from the population as a whole.
 
It would be a mistake to put this crisis down to a few rogue & racist cops. It runs much deeper than that, exposing the ugly truth of a society that operates according to the maxim of all against all. In other words, the culture of racism & brutality that pervades increasingly militarized police departments is a symptom of the foundation of injustice upon which the nation & its institutions rest. Rather than the land of the free, the United States of America is the land of cruelty & barbarity, a corporate dictatorship under which the poor & dispossessed are locked out of society, denied healthcare, housing, education, & life chances compatible with a humane system of government & economy.
 
The corollary to this is a male prison population of over 2 million that is disproportionately black, making the US, a country that makes up just 5% of the entire world's population, home to a quarter of the entire world’s prison population. This in itself is a withering indictment of a nation that extends itself in claiming exceptionalism based on its self-appointed status as the land of the free. This view is based on a belief that the majority of crimes are a product of poverty, alienation, & social exclusion. The black American novelist, Ralph Ellison, in his most famous novel – ‘Invisible Man’ – opines that, “Crime is an act of unconscious rebellion.”

In the US in 2015 there is much to rebel about.
 
I saw it for myself during a recent visit to Los Angeles, a city where the sheer number of homeless human beings is simply staggering. Everywhere I went I came across them shuffling up & down the street mumbling to themselves, carrying their earthly belongings in plastic bags or, if they’re lucky, pushing them in a shopping kart.
 
This huge colony of homeless people exists in the entertainment capital of the world, home to Hollywood, where the mythology of the American dream projects the lie that poverty & social exclusion are products of individual failure rather than systemic failure, while material wealth & success is a measure of human worth & moral rectitude. It is of course a lie, one that has succeeded in acting as a smokescreen to conceal the widening & deepening cracks in the nation's foundations.
 
Those suffering under the weight of this system should not expect to receive any succor from Washington anytime soon.
 
On the contrary, here resides a political culture & political class slavishly devoted to the rights, interests, & advancement of corporations & their very rich executives, shareholders, & investors – i.e. the rich. The by-product of this culture has been the normalization of social & economic injustice, which as mentioned is the foundation of a foreign policy of war, military intervention, & the blithe disregard for international law & national sovereignty as & when those aforementioned corporate interests dictate.
 
Some may question the validity of linking US foreign policy to the state of its society at home, but they'd be wrong. Both are inextricably linked, forging a circular relationship of injustice, violence, leading inexorably to atomization & crises. Malcolm X put it best when he said, “You can’t understand what’s going on in Mississippi if you don’t understand what’s going on in the Congo.”

In the US class & race constitute two sides of the same coin. Black people make up around 13% of the population, which translates to just over 30 million people, the majority of whom can trace their roots in the country to slavery, with the argument gaining traction that the plantation still exists for young black males today in the shape of a vast network of Federal & State correctional facilities.
 
No justice, no peace & black lives matter are the clarion calls of a movement that has emerged in response to a wave of violence committed by police departments viewed increasingly as forces of occupation rather than law & order.
 
Who will guard the guardians?

Bishop of Manchester says Britain has a moral duty to accept refugees from its wars

A great opinion by the bishop of Manchester, UK. Developed countries are feverishly trying to destabilize developing countries through arms & weapons smuggling / selling, & of course, actively encouraging wars among developing countries.

As I have blogged previously that one of the primary reasons of creating wars overseas for developed countries is to create such dire conditions in the developing countries that their bright minds (& hopefully, with money) are forced to emigrate to developed countries, where they become compliant, law-abiding, tax-paying second-class citizens.

Problem with these "illegal" migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, & Northern African countries is that these are poor &, in most cases, are uneducated, too. Not exactly the kinds of immigrants developed countries of North America & Europe are looking for. So they just want to push them back to their own countries.

But, the justice would be "if you break it, you buy it." (meaning: if you are going to actively intervene in another country's political, economic, social, & cultural facets, then you may as well be prepared for picking up the pieces if your strategy backfires).
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/25/uk-moral-duty-accept-refugees-from-wars-david-walker-bishop-manchester

One of the country’s most senior bishops has said that Britain has a moral imperative to accept refugees from conflicts in which it has participated.
 
After a week in which the death toll of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe grew to 1,700 so far this year, the bishop of Manchester, David Walker, said there was a duty to treat the survivors with compassion.
 
In a piece for the Observer published online, he writes: “They are pushed, not pulled, towards the EU, forced out of their homelands by war, terrorism & the persecution of minorities. A political rhetoric that characterises them as wilful criminals rather than helpless victims is as unworthy as it is untrue.”

The UK’s pivotal role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq prompted a sectarian war that the UN said had forced two million Iraqis to flee the country, an involvement that ran alongside the 13-year Afghanistan war & was followed by the 2011 attacks on Libya, both of which precipitated significant regional instability & migration.
 
According to the UN Refugee Agency in 2013, one in four refugees was Afghan, although most were in neighbouring countries, while the ongoing instability in Libya was credited with making the north African state a haven for people smugglers.
 
Walker writes: “The moral cost of our continual overseas interventions has to include accepting a fair share of the victims of the wars to which we have contributed as legitimate refugees in our own land.

“I want my country to be governed by those who are prepared to look at the faces of the desperate, be it the desperation of the asylum seeker or of the food bank client, & to look at them with compassion.”

Despite the huge numbers of migrants heading north, only 5,000 resettlement places across Europe have been offered to refugees under an emergency summit crisis package agreed by EU leaders, with the rest sent back as irregular migrants under a new rapid-return programme coordinated by the EU’s border agency, Frontex.

“Welcome though it was that European leaders sat down to talk about the situation this week, their conclusions seem more directed at making the symptoms less visible than at tackling the disease,” said Walker.
 
A 2014 report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime estimated that there might be 600,000 migrants on the north Africa coast who could try to get to Europe by sea.

UK supermarkets sourcing salad & vegetables from 'modern day slaves'

With the unrelenting drive for the modern day business for profitability, these findings should not be surprising. Be it the garment industry (Canadian companies sourcing from South Asia, esp. Bangladesh & the Rana Plaza incident) or fishing industry (slave labour being used in South East Asia for the cheap fish we get on our food tables in North American & European markets) or agribusiness in North America & Europe, companies involved in these industries are always looking to reduce their wages / costs, & hence, they turn to abusing human rights to achieve that.

There will always be people who will exploit their fellow beings for their own good. Ethics & morals are out the window. After all, "it's nothing personal, it's just business." Poor have, are, & always will be exploited; be it sex slavery or product manufacturing slavery. On top of that, poor also don't get any protection from the justice system (as I blogged from a story on discrimination against the poor in US in the justice system) & other social systems to support them (education, healthcare, welfare etc.) are slowly getting out of their reach.

But, rich keep getting richer ... by killing the rights of millions of poor ... in foreign & in their own lands.

Now, as you may have read already, Europe has a migrant crisis. Thousands of migrants are flowing in everyday. Where those migrants are going to go for jobs? To make some money so they can buy some food for themselves? They are illegal aliens, after all. Ironically, they will be employed by these kinds of unscrupulous employment contractors / agencies to provide, effectively, slave labour, for these kinds of work. What happened to that modern world where there's not supposed to be any slavery?

Some critics of this will offer solutions like the public should eat local & organic food. Yes, that will avoid the problem of slave labour. BUT, we should not forget that locally grown organic food is also relatively much more expensive than imported food. Since, the majority of the general public is losing jobs (or have low-paying jobs) & with the recession in the world not going away for the past 8 years now, & governments' austerity drives everywhere becoming the new norm, how can general public buy healthy, locally grown, organic food, then?

Billions are given as state subsidies to industries in arms manufacturing & oil & gas, but then why can't a few millions be given to municipal governments to invest in local farms?

Others will say why can't these farm workers go back to their own countries. Well, as I blogged with another article about how developed countries (US, Russia, UK, China, Canada etc.) have increased their weapons sales to developing countries, so chaos, killings, & murderous rampages take place in those developing countries. Their public will then emigrate to these developed countries, where the majority of these migrants will be put to work in these conditions. There will be complaints & inquiries but "out of sight, out of mind." Soon, the general public in the developed countries will forget these poor souls & will keep enjoying their cheap shirts, fish, vegetables, & fruits.
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http://rt.com/uk/249805-slave-labour-salad-supermarkets/

Salads & vegetables in UK supermarkets are grown by migrant farmworkers who are underpaid, treated like slaves, forced to subsist in filthy conditions & regularly develop health problems associated with pesticides, an investigation suggests.
 
The deplorable working conditions were uncovered by a Channel 4 News investigation ... .
 
An army of migrant workers who produce vegetables exported to the UK said they are forced to work in unsanitary conditions & must use bushes close to where vegetables grow as a toilet. In the event nature calls, they said they are forced to do without water or soap to wash their hands.
 
Many live in dirty, makeshift shacks constructed from plastic sheeting & wood close to the fields they tend in southern Spain. They are hired by agencies to produce & prepare the vegetables & salads consumers see on supermarket shelves across Britain.
 
Some laborers say they are forced to work in the vicinity of noxious pesticides, which cause respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis & sinus problems. Others say they are regularly underpaid.
 
Prices wars & poor ethics
 
The revelations uncovered by Channel 4 News will likely shock British consumers, who are regularly assured by UK supermarkets that their food is produced & sourced ethically. However, critics say competition sparked by Lidl & Aldi’s low prices have prompted supermarkets in Britain to engage in exploitative practices in a bid to slash the cost of their produce.
 
All major UK supermarkets claim to source food responsibly. They are compelled to promote workers’ rights under a worldwide initiative known as the Ethical Trading Initiative.
 
Nevertheless, agricultural firms, which supply vegetables & salad to Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco & Asda are implicated in the allegations uncovered by Channel 4.
 
Reflecting on the ... findings, a group of British MPs called for an urgent investigation. They described the evidence uncovered by Channel 4 as “appalling” & that it reveals “slave labor.”

Out of sight, out of mind?
 
Channel 4’s allegations focus specifically on workers based in Murcia & Almeria in southern Spain. Each year, millions of pounds worth of salad & vegetables are exported to Britain from these regions.
 
The worker said other laborers for the company, located in Almeria, were also sprayed with pesticides, but didn’t complain because their names would be added to a blacklist known as “the list of rotten sardines.”

Channel 4 News’ investigation highlighted similar concerns about laborers for Agroherni – a large firm, which sells £22 million worth of herbs, salads & vegetables annually to leading supermarkets in Britain such as Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.
 
One ex-employee said she was left in horrific pain & required multiple operations on her sinuses, which were aggravated by working in fields where pesticides were routinely sprayed. The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, added: “All that matters to them is fulfilling their clients’ orders.”

Agroherni sources its workers from an employment agency called Integra Empleo, but the laborers claim the agency regularly fails to pay them. One worker said if staff work 26 days, the agency notes this period as 16 or 18 days – deducting up to 8 days salary in the process.

‘Supermarkets must explain themselves’

Reflecting on the allegations, Conservative MP Richard Drax, a former member of the Environment & Rural Affairs Select Committee, said: “If true, these allegations are appalling. It sounds like effectively slave labor producing food in 2015 which is utterly unacceptable.

“Supermarkets must explain themselves. It is up to them to know who is producing their food & in what conditions.”

Fellow Conservative Neil Parish, who currently serves on the committee, was unsurprised by Channel 4 News’ findings.

“There is always a price to pay for cheap imported food; whether it is poor quality, low animal welfare standards or, in this case, the appalling treatment of workers,” he said.
 
Both Agroherni & Integra Empleo reject all allegations leveled at them. However, both firms have launched investigations into the claims uncovered by Channel 4.
 
Agroherni told Channel 4 News it adopts strict practices when using pesticides, & is unaware of the incidents cited by current & ex-laborers. The firm denied that it maltreats or exploits agency staff, & stressed the just treatment & wellbeing of workers is a priority. It has severed links with Integra Empleo, & is now expected to employ staff directly.
 
A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium said workers’ rights are a leading concern for British supermarkets.

“Ensuring workers are treated fairly in our supply chains is a key concern for retailers. We know all supermarkets will examine these allegations closely,” he said.
 
A spokeswoman for Tesco told RT it has requested its suppliers “suspend all imports from Agroherni.”
 
“Our suppliers will only resume working with [related firms] when we are confident the issues have been properly addressed,” she said.

“Our standards make it crystal clear that we expect suppliers to treat their employees fairly. Suppliers who work with Tesco know that compliance with our standards are a non-negotiable part of our long term partnership,” she added.
 
A spokesman for Sainsbury’s confirmed the supermarket will conduct an in-house probe into the allegations.

“We expect our suppliers to adhere to the highest quality & welfare standards, regardless of where they operate in the world. We are taking these allegations very seriously & will be conducting our own investigation,” he said.
 
A spokesman for Waitrose also confirmed the supermarket plans to carry out an internal investigation into the claims.

“Worker welfare is very important to us – our supplier is investigating these allegations & will ensure that our high standards are being met,” he said.

A journey with migrants willing to risk everything

As you may have come across several stories like these of migrants from Africa & Middle East trying to enter illegally in Europe nowadays, & I read stories like these & then reflect upon my life. Regardless of what & how many problems I might be having right now, those seem miniscule by comparison to the problems thousands of people around the world are enduring on a daily basis.

Stories like these give a human face to the harsh problems people are facing; be it the local Yemeni population being mercilessly bombarded by a Saudi coalition, or Rohingya Muslims being stranded on boats in the sea, or migrants trying to run from chaos & destruction in their own countries (which, btw, caused by European & American coalition in the first place) to find refuge in the developed countries.

As the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that always compare your life with the person below you, so you will see that your life is still better than his/hers, & you will feel contentment. Otherwise, if you compare your life with the person above you, then you will never feel happy & always want more.
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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/apr/06/fear-fatigue-separation-migrants-western-balkans-west-africans-eu-back-door

After a 10-day trek over 150km, Sandrine Koffi’s dream of a new life in Europe ended & her nightmare of losing her infant daughter in the Macedonian night began.
 
As police wielding clubs closed in, the 31-year-old woman from Ivory Coast couldn’t keep up with her fellow migrants. Not after more than a week of treacherous hikes through mud & bone-chilling rain; of leaky tents, stolen food & fitful sleep; of loads too heavy to bear.
 
Koffi had given her 10-month-old daughter, Kendra, to a stronger person to carry as the 40-member group of west Africans walked with trepidation into Veles, Macedonia. They hoped, because it was pitch dark & miserably cold, that no one would see them & raise the alarm. But their luck ran out.
 
Officers captured Koffi & deported her with most of the group back to Greece. Others who escaped carried Kendra all the way to the Serbian border. That was more than 2 weeks ago. Now, Koffi cannot stop crying for her distant daughter – or wondering why they can’t travel like “normal” people.

“I feel like I’m not a human being,” says Koffi from the migrants’ safe house in Greece, where she & her daughter had arrived last month with the hope of being escorted through the Balkans to Hungary &, eventually, to relatives in Paris. “Why is it necessary to separate a mother from her child? Why is all of this necessary?”

Each month, a tide of humanity pours through the hills of Greece, Macedonia & Serbia in hope of entering the heart of the EU through its vulnerable back door in the Balkans. This is the newest of a half-dozen land & sea routes that Arab, Asian & African smugglers use to funnel migrants illegally from war zones & economic woes to opportunities in the west.
 
Most don’t make it on their first attempt. Nor their third or fifth. Many, it seems, just keep trying – & failing – again & again.
 
Journalists followed a group of migrants to document the challenges of the western Balkans route, witnessing key events on the journey: the confrontations between police & locals, disagreements with the smuggler leading them, dissent among themselves, & other difficulties.
 
The flow of migrants along this route has grown from a trickle in 2012 to become the second-most popular path for illegal immigration into Europe. Only the more dangerous option of sailing from north Africa to Italy is more widely used.
 
Frontex, the EU agency that helps governments police the bloc’s leaky borders, says it seems nothing will deter migrants from embarking on the long walk that starts in northern Greece. Their monitors have detected more than 43,000 illegal crossings on the western Balkans route in 2014, more than double the year before. And 2015 already looks set for a record number, with 22,000 arrivals in Hungary in the first 2 months.
 
A pivotal point for the route is Turkey, which is a magnet for refugees of wars in Syria, Iraq & Afghanistan because the Turks provide easy travel visas to residents of most of Asia & Africa.
 
Another is Greece, where migrants can claim asylum & usually, after a short detention, are permitted to travel freely within the country. But few intend to stay in Greece because of its economic crisis – & locals’ antipathy to the migrants.

“Europe has not faced a situation like this since the second world war, with so many conflicts happening so near to home, with [failed] states from Libya to Syria & unrelenting conflict in Iraq & Afghanistan,” says Frontex spokeswoman Ewa Moncure. “And it’s a lot easier to take a boat from Turkey to Greece than to cross the open Mediterranean. Thousands drown taking the other route.”
 
“Never in my life was I even on a boat,” says Jean Paul Apetey, a 34-year-old Ivorian who has a reputation as a sharp-witted opportunist. And so, when smugglers ask him if he wants to pilot the vessel to Greece in exchange for a free ticket, he goes straight to the stern engine of the rigid inflatable boat, overloaded with 47 migrants, & acts as if he knows what he is doing.
 
Smugglers rarely ride on one-way journeys, since they face prison if they are caught. Instead, they charge €1,000 ($1,100) or more per passenger, rich compensation for the sacrifice of a boat. The smugglers point Apetey to a Greek island in the distance – he doesn’t know if it’s Kos, Samos or Lesbos because he has no map – but he boasts of reaching the target in 17 minutes flat.
 
The walls are sweating in the safe house in Thessaloniki, Greece, a windowless basement apartment with no furniture, 2 bedrooms & a camp-style cooker on the floor. It’s the end of February, & an African smuggler has brought 45 clients to this base camp to escort them on off-road paths through Macedonia to Serbia. Among the group are 11 women, including 2 with 10-month-old children.
 
The smuggler, a former soldier, agreed to allow a journalist to accompany them on condition he was not identified, because what he was doing is illegal.
 
He goes from migrant to migrant, checking their readiness for the journey to Serbia. By car, it would take less than 5 hours. On foot, the same journey takes about 10 days. When some giggle at his questions, he sets a stern tone: “Shut up. This isn’t a joke once you’re out there. If you think it’s funny, I’ll send you back to Athens.”

He’s taken 3 other groups on the route, & charges those on this trip a wide range of prices, averaging about $500 (£337), depending on their ability to pay. Discounts apply if they help him to keep others supplied & disciplined. Kids go free.
 
Most are French speakers from Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon & Burkina Faso. Only a few speak English. One – a Congolese man whose communist parents named him Fidel Castro – speaks both. All are hungry, so a Malian woman named Aicha “Baby” Teinturiere boils macaroni on the camp stove. The smuggler sends others to stock up on sleeping bags, socks & gloves for those who haven’t brought the necessities.
 
Some are confident of reaching Germany or France. Sekou Yara is not. The 28-year-old Malian has failed 3 times to breach EU immigration checks at airports, costing him at least €3,000 (£2,200). This is his first attempt on foot, & he has mixed feelings.

“I left many people whom I love so much. I left my wife & our four-year-old child,” says Yara, frustrated at sacrificing so much only to be stuck in Greece, where he says migrants can’t find jobs & sometimes must look for food in the rubbish. “It is shameful to live like this. I just want a normal life.”

Yara’s trip doesn’t last long. The next morning, he & another Malian are arrested after the 45 arrive at the Thessaloniki bus station. Unlike the others, the pair have no ID papers.
 
The smuggler keeps his distance at the station, communicating by phone to reduce chances of being spotted as a trafficker. Tell police you’re going to Athens, not the border, he instructs them. Don’t all sit together; spread out.
 
In every direction there are migrants from Syria, Afghanistan & Eritrea, all looking suspicious. Some hide in toilet cubicles as the police check documents. At least 20 people from other groups are taken to a police station.
 
Fear of arrest keeps the west Africans from boarding their intended bus north to the border town of Polikastro. It’s not illegal for documented asylum seekers to board a domestic bus in Greece, so nerves settle, and all 43 get on four later buses: Greeks in front, Arabs in the middle, & Africans in the back.
 
They’re a half-day behind schedule as the last members arrive in Polikastro. The hatred of some locals toward the Africans is clear near the town square as women prepare to boil water for the babies’ formula milk. A motorist drives over their bags, smashing the milk powder & cooking gear as he curses them. The easy part of the trip has ended.
 
The first day’s hike from Polikastro takes the group along a railway line, & they must navigate a rickety wooden bridge, hoping no train comes. Within the first hour, both women carrying infants become weary.

“This is my souvenir!” jokes Apetey as he agrees to carry Sandrine Koffi’s daughter, Kendra. Another man takes Christian, the 10-month-old son of a Cameroonian woman, Mireille Djeukam. Kendra was born in Turkey, Christian in Greece. Both have relatives in Paris.
 
After 10 hours, the 43 migrants reach the border with Macedonia before midnight. They don’t bother with tents, preferring sleeping bags in the open air.
 
The smuggler doesn’t want the full group to cross the border in daylight, but they’re already short of supplies – & the cheapest local shop is on the Macedonian side. So he leads 3 men on a reconnaissance trip through the trees. A border patrol vehicle sits on a hilltop but doesn’t move.
 
The 3 others crouch down in the woods as he heads alone into the supermarket. Inside, a cashier warns the smuggler to hide because police are shopping in another aisle. After a tense wait, he emerges with six bags of bread, canned sardines, juice & water.
 
That night, the group crosses the border & a highway. Each approaching set of headlights is feared to be police. The chill means it’s time to sleep in the 10 tents they’ve brought. At the campsite, Hilarion Charlemagne illustrates his journey with a collection of cellphone sim cards.

“This one is from Togo, where I was a refugee for one year & eight months,” the 45-year-old Ivorian teacher says, identifying others from Mali, Mauritania & Algeria. He tells of being turned back at the Moroccan border because he lacked €500; of working as a tutor for an Algerian family for a month; of trying to reach Europe by boat 5 times & managing to reach Greece on the sixth attempt.
 
Charlemagne & others have another way to remember the countries they’ve visited: recounting the racial epithets hurled at them in several languages.
 
The group is startled by a Macedonian shepherd & his snarling dog. Tents are hurriedly packed. But in the rush, one of the smuggler’s helpers has lost his cellphone. Angry accusations are levied, & everyone is searched, without success.
 
The trek resumes at night. They scramble over an exposed ridge & sprint across a road junction, hiding in long reeds. They catch their breath under a full moon.
 
A Malian woman, 34-year-old Miriam Toure, falls with a cramp. Two young soccer players in the group offer her a sports massage as she howls in pain. A man with a chronic leg injury, Mohamed “Mo-Mo” Konate, applies some ointment he uses for himself.
 
Nothing works, so men take turns carrying Toure, joking she’s only faking to get a piggy-back ride. After a half-hour, they’re worn out & she’s told to walk or stay behind. She limps barefoot, weeping silently while trying to keep up.
 
As they pass through cabbage fields, some stuff the greens in their backpacks. They jostle to refill bottles when passing a tap bearing an Orthodox sign and the inscription “holy well”. At about 4am, in the rain, they pitch tents – difficult in the dark – under a highway overpass marked by graffiti from Afghan migrants.
 
After sunrise, several members accuse one another of stealing food, drink & bags as they slept. The smuggler threatens to return them to Greece, where Syrian smugglers will charge them triple for the journey. Apologies are demanded & given.
 
That night, the rain turns to snow, & the tents start to collapse. Sheltered campsites on the trail are occupied by other migrant groups, & the crying of the two infants is incessant. Some question whether the children, so cold & hungry, could be at risk of death if they continue.
 
They keep following the Vardar river north, but abandon the 41-year-old “Mo-Mo” near a village; he cannot continue, even with his cane.
 
Food is so scarce that sardines are rationed to one can daily for 3 people. On the sixth day of walking, they reach the town of Nogotino, 2 days behind schedule & lashed by a freezing wind. At 1am, Sandrine Koffi passes out & slides down a muddy embankment. She is revived, & they walk another hour.
 
Mireille Djeukam, the other woman travelling with a child, has tried & failed to pass through EU airports about 10 times already. She finds this trip much harder. “It’s very hard, too hard,” she says. “If I knew it was [going to be ] this difficult, I wouldn’t have done it. I’m not used to this type of walking.”

The youngest & fittest men grumble under their breath that they could have been in Serbia already were it not for the women & children. Laughter amid such suffering seems impossible, but a limping Miriam Toure brings down the house with an exasperated question: “Where is Macedonia?”

As the group reaches Veles, the first major Macedonian town on the route & 145km (87 miles) into their hike, Djeukam cannot go on because of her aching legs. The group leaves her & 10-month-old Christian at an Orthodox church.
 
The 40 remaining migrants try to stick to Veles’s riverside railway, but at about 10pm they are confronted by youths. They run on to a road, startling motorists. Two police arrive, brandishing clubs & beating stragglers. 5 are caught, including Koffi. In the melee, members of the group drop their gear & scatter. A woman breaks an ankle & is hospitalised in the capital, Skopje. By 3am, the smuggler has found only 8 of his clients.
 
The next day, Teinturiere returns to Veles to search for her bags & stumbles into the police. She claims, falsely, to be looking for her baby. The police believe her & agree to help search – in the process discovering & arresting many of her comrades.
 
By the end of the 10th day, all but 13 of the group have been in custody & are put on trucks back to Greece with scores of other people from Syria, Afghanistan & Bangladesh. But Teinturiere is not among them. The police set her free so that she can keep searching for her imaginary child.
 
Two days later, the west Africans reach a smuggler’s safe house in the border town of Lojane, Macedonia. Teinturiere is given responsibility for caring for Kendra until Koffi can complete the trip.
 
Others, mostly the strongest men in their 20s, cross into Serbia, where they meet the next lot of smugglers, who charge €100 each to drive them hidden in trucks to the Hungarian border. 3 weeks into the journey, the first few make it to Hungary & send triumphant messages to friends.
 
The Greek smuggler returns to Thessaloniki with his deported clients. He organises a second trek, combining new migrants with many from the original group – including Koffi & the first person arrested on the previous trip, Sekou Yara. They leave a week later but run into a police ambush south of Veles. All are returned to Greece.
 
Another attempt to complete the 250km journey on foot has begun this week. Joining the smuggler are at least 20 veterans of the previous two failed attempts, including Koffi.
 
Her earlier plan was to reach her husband, mother & other relatives in Paris. Now, she hopes simply to be reunited with her child.